Tomorrow is what some people call "Thanksgiving Eve".
Not most people, but some people, and today and tomorrow are days in which a large number of Americans are on the road, going home to be with family and friends.
So, some reasonable requests, in anticipation of those gatherings.
From now, through next Monday, please:
If you are a candidate for major office, don't say anything. . And I mean anything. Don't voice your opinion on anything for the next few days. The nation deserves it.
This is particularly the case if you have some snotty opinion you wish to voice about something, or somebody, which only panders to your base.
If you aren't a politician. but are one of those folks who insist on voicing your political opinions in a large group, as if everyone else, or at least everyone else in your family, holds the same opinion, just keep it to yourself.
After all, if you are really convinced that everyone believes the same thing as you do about Trump, January 6, infrastructure bills, and the like, you really don't need to say anything at all, now, do you? At best, you're only going to learn that somebody has an equally strong, opposite, opinion, and you're off and running on an argument.
Okay, I feel differently about non-political issues, just don't mix them with politics. I'm fine with people expressing their opinions on why people should get vaccinated, which means that you have to put up with people who are going to hold the opposite opinion. And other health and scientific opinions as well, as long as they don't get political or wacky conspiratorial. I.e, if you are tempted to say, "you know, influenza is simply a Portuguese plot introduce by Vasco Da Gama. . ." have a glass of port, or coffee, or something else instead.
If you live in Wyoming, or know a Wyomingite, please don't bring up the series Yellowstone. M'eh. It's really about the same as asking people in the physics department about The Big Bang Theory or people from New York if The French Connection depicts their daily lives.
Don't be a rube.
Also, don't drop in some surprising personal belief that is in tune with the times, to show everyone how in tune with the times you are. As in, "you know, new evidence suggest that Christopher Columbus was a shipjacking dog kicker fleeing for his life. . . "
If you have some objection to Thanksgiving in general, and I know some of you do, just keep it to yourself.
If there are of college age or just out of college people are there, don't ask. . . "so, when are you two going to tie the knot?" or "how's school/job/the Navy?".
For that matter, if there are the older beleaguered there, on their one-day off from work, don't ask "so, how's work?", or "I don't mean to bother you, but you're a bicameral legislative mechanic and I am working on a bicameral legislative operative device and I was wondering. . ."
Regarding the Navy, and every military service, if you are one of the people who do it, resist posting on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/TikTok some item of veteran hagiography. Not every holiday needs to be Veterans Day. You know what I mean, skip the "While you are safe and warm enjoying your @ER$@# turkey, I hope you remember that somewhere some kid is behind a M4 carbine eating MRE's keeping your lazy civilian butt safe" or "Only the few will remember what it was like to be stationed at the ammo dump in Guam for Thanksgiving in 1967 worrying that the Red Chinese were going to swim the Pacific Ocean and. . . "
If people drove out to visit you in some distant location, and that location is cool, has neat things to do, or is just scenic, don't insist people stay in and eschew it, as in "oh, thanks for coming to our private chalet in the Swiss Alps, and yes that's our private ski run. . . now, let's pull the blinds down and talk about Donald Trump/football/gall bladders".
And by the way, if you are an employer, don't dump on the employees as they leave the door, as in "have a good @#$@#$ holiday. . . I'll be here working to feed your lazy butts. . .and by the way, whatever you are doing, you are doing it wrong, you lazy @#$@#$".
Finally, if you are one of those people with dietary concerns, self-imposed or otherwise, just spare the rest of us.
I.e, don't go to a Thanksgiving dinner and ask if the turkey is a free-range, free trade, free Tibet turkey. Just save it. And nobody wants to hear about your vegan/Keto/Waffle House/ or whatever diet.
Let's have a Happy Thanksgiving long weekend.
Footnotes:
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