There is no doubt that Thanksgiving is a very nice, family holiday and that it holds a special place in people’s calendars and hearts.

There’s nothing wrong with of at all… except that the pervading myth about the whole feast and its de rigueur menu, which supposedly originated with the Pilgrims in the first half of the 17^th century isn’t strictly true at all.

In addition, the Pilgrims were really a very unsavory bunch of Puritans, who had the leave England,  where they have overstayed their welcome by a long, long shot.

So, fortunately, the so-called Pilgrims had very little to do with the whole thing. As it happened, it was a creation of 19^th century Americans, particularly New Englanders, who wanted to have another national holiday. At the time, we had only two of those: Washington’s Birthday and the Fourth of July. There was also Christmas of course, which wasn’t really counted as a National Holiday.

Abraham Lincoln's presidential order establishing the Thanksgiving Holiday

From the beginning Thanksgiving was a holiday very directly related to food. Something along the lines of a harvest feast, which by that time was celebrated in practically every country of the world in some form.

What really and truly started the whole thing was Sarah Josepha Hale, probably the first female American novelist of note, who has written books, such as Northwood: A Tale of New England and Mary had a Little Lamb. Ms. Hale has written a whole chapter in which she described Thanksgiving in minute detail, with the turkey and the dressing and the gravy and all the other things and ingredients that we now think of as an integral part of the holiday.

Her novel turned out to be extremely popular and Sarah Josepha Hale became the editor a popular woman’s magazine, creating in the process a lot of the mid-19^th century fashion trends, one of which was, as you might have guessed, the Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving officially became a National Holiday in 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln after some important Union victories during the Civil War issued a presidential order, making it official.

We hope that these tidbits of historical information do not disappoint those who believe in the traditional Pilgrim/Indian-related lore. It still remains a very nice holiday. Probably even nicer, without the nasty Pilgrim/Puritan connotations.

If only the artificially-fattened turkeys tasted better…and if the NFL football games were not a part of it all…

We get the feeling that if Sarah Josepha Hale was faced with both of the above, she would have given up on Thanksgiving altogether.

In any case, a Very Happy Thanksgiving to all! Just don’t overeat, please.

Technorati Tags: football, Indians, nfl, Origins, Pilgrims, puritans, Real, Sarah Josepha Hale, Thanksgiving, Turkey

As we all know, former governor of New York State is just that, a former governor.

Eliot Spitzer, formerly known as “Mr. Clean” and “The Sheriff of Wall Street” was caught in flagrante delicto with a high-priced hooker. It might be interesting to note that Spitzer is (was) a Democratic super delegate pledged to support Hillary Clinton.

Whether Mr. Spitzer was unhappy with the sexual life he was having in his marriage with his wife Silda (and who isn’t after a few years?), or not should not really be discussed outside of his family. The point is, why is it that every sexual scandal leads to a political and professional downfall in this country of ours, which is still burdened by primitive and disgusting Puritan ideology?

For those still trying to defend the people, who first landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620, let me quickly explain that there was a very good reason indeed, why these religious fanatics wanted to leave England and why they weren’t wanted in Holland either. Puritans were some of the most loathsome people, to ever hold power in England. Their bloody, cruel and fanatical rule is one of the truly dark periods of history. When they established a colony in America, some of the same disgusting habits were carried across the ocean. Just look at the Salem witch trials, The Scarlet Letter, etc.

And a lot of that same kind of backward fanaticism seems to still pervade our society and culture now.

Eliot Spitzer’s downfall is also at least partly due to the fact that as New York’s Attorney General he has busted a couple of prostitution rings and put fighting corruption in the forefront of his agenda. And now, after years of using adjectives such as “unsavory”, “deceptive” and “tainted”, Mr. Spitzer can also consider himself seriously tainted.

The latest affair of course marks him as a hypocrite, for sure, but frankly, which politician isn’t one?

The sexual affairs and misconduct of FDR, JFK and LBJ were common knowledge, but nobody seemed to mind, as long as they were doing the job they were elected to do. After all, even politicians should have the right to be human and horny. The sexual problems surfaced in a media circus when the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair was uncovered.

It almost seems like the Puritan ideology has become more important lately, almost as important as at the time of the Pilgrims in Massachusetts. Are we sliding back into the dark ages again? Doesn’t the media have anything else to concentrate on in the age of genocide in Iraq?

The fact that Spitzer was stupid and desperate enough to shell out as “Client 9″ some $4,300 for three hours with a (probably) cute, “Kristen”, “a petite, very pretty brunette, 5 feet 5 inches, 105 pounds” is dumb. Maybe he should have resigned, but why the media feeding frenzy again? The fact that he was screwing hookers should largely be an issue between him and his wife and if he wasn’t attractive and sexy enough to get some pussy, even while being a governor and obviously wealthy, should be his problem, not mine. As Willie Nelson said in a recent interview: ” Money makes women horny”. Enough said!

Technorati Tags: clinton, dark ages, eliot spitzer, media, politics, puritans, scandal, sexual