Happy Thanksgiving …

… everyone! So many traditions! For example, the NFL first played on Thanksgiving in 1922. And although we remember the Pilgrims and the Plymouth Colony maybe we sometimes forget the role of the Civil War, when Lincoln first made it a national holiday to be held on the 4th Thursday in November (changed to the 3rd by FDR to boost Christmas shopping in the depression). And now onto the deep fryer set up!

Rick Torres crouched under a strip of tape, came toward us, shook hands with Bernie. “Hey, Chet,” he said, and gave me a pat. “Lookin’ good. Is he still growing, Bernie?”

“Hardly seems possible,” Bernie said. “This is my son Charlie. Shake hands with Sergeant Torres, Charlie.”

Rick held out his hand. Charlie gazed down at the ground.
“I won’t bite,” Rick said. Of course he wouldn’t! Hardly any humans did, their little teeth not being much of a weapon. I did remember a perp named Clancy Green chomping on some other perp’s arm, but that was on a Halloween night, the only holiday I don’t like – Halloween brings out the worst in people, Bernie says. Thanksgiving is my favorite, except for that one time with the drumstick incident, maybe a story for another day.

8 Comments on “Happy Thanksgiving …”

  1. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone from all of us here in Chevy Chase.

    To clear up any residual confusion arising from last night’s quiz, Rio’s appearance in TFAT was entirely of Spence’s own doing, no silent auction outcome involved. As regards the silent auction, the winning bidder got naming rights for a character (presumably either two legged or four legged) in one of the short stories. My memory going that far back is a bit fuzzy, so I don’t recall which short story it was, but from an overall timing perspective, it would have been one of the earlier ones. I also don’t know what name was provided or what character it was attached to in the short story.

    Lastly, going back to a ML question, it is now clear in just TFAT alone, both Thanksgiving and Halloween were mentioned.

  2. Ha! I knew there was a turkey in there somewhere. And there is a mention of Halloween too!

    I’ve got about three hours before I start getting ready to go to the Kaiserhof for a lovely Thanksgiving meal. I’m tempted to bring some cranberry sauce with me.

    Actually, we can thank Sarah Hale, a lady editor, for writing letters to four presidents over 35 years asking for this holiday. It was only until she wrote to Lincoln that after the civil war he felt such a national holiday would help to heal the nation. So here’s to Sarah Hale’s foresight and perseverance and to President Lincoln for his courage. There is a lovely book by Laurie Hall Andersen called Thank You, Sarah about Hale’s fight to get Thanksgiving established as a national holiday.

    Today is also National Dog Show Broadcast day. I’m all for that.

  3. I am thinking of my friend Rio after reading that a pug named Vito (cool name) made history winning Best In Show at the National Dog Show. :^)

  4. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! I hope we get to revisit the drumstick incident someday.
    I love the dog show, but love the Terrier Group best. Are you surprised?
    WTAFP, I searched the list of C&B books, and, for the life of me, could not see that TFAT was the initials for To Fetch A Thief. I’m losing it faster than I realized. And, of course, Rio!
    Well, time for a nap!

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