Top 6 Thanksgiving Foods (The Top 4)

Number 4-Pie!
It doesn't matter which flavor you choose, pie is one of the greatest things ever created. (I don't care what Jim Gaffigan has to say on the matter.) You may be stuffed as far as you think your stomach can manage, but as soon as you hear the word 'pie' you're ready for a little more. It's Thanksgiving, so feel free to indulge a little bit.

Number 3-The Bird! (however you like it.)
It may be a turkey or a goose, or even a tofurky, but whatever it is, that bird is going to be the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving meal. A Thanksgiving turkey is great because it last forever. Leftovers galore, and then some. It can last so long that you think you're never going to eat turkey again, but it's still on your mind the following November.

Number 2-Potatoes!
Potatoes are an amazing food. You can fry them or boil them. Mashed potatoes are pretty great too. The great thing about mashed potatoes is that you can eat them any and all of the time. Think about it. You probably had some form of potato recently, and you'll probably have potatoes right after your Thanksgiving dinner. How can you go wrong with a food like that?

Number 1-Stuffing!
I don't know about you, but this is what I really look forward to when it comes to Thanksgiving. Stuffing is one of my favorite foods ever. There's something about the taste and texture combination that I really enjoy. I'm not particular about the source either. It can come from the bird or from a can. It doesn't really matter that much to me as long as there is stuffing when I sit down for Thanksgiving.

Top 6 Thanksgiving Foods

Thanksgiving has a pretty long history. Go back to the Pilgrims and then to Honest Abe and all the way up to today, but what is the deal with Thanksgiving. So Abraham Lincoln made it an official holiday on the last Thursday of November, but it has become less about being thankful and more about being stuffed like the turkey you are about to carve in a couple of days.

So if Thanksgiving is going to be all about the food anyway, why not talk about the food for a bit? There are plenty of foods to talk about, but I'm going to limit this list to 6 rather than 12 because I'm almost out of time, and I don't see much point about writing how awesome cranberry sauce happens to be. (I'm not actually a fan of cranberry sauce, so that's even more pointless.)

I'm going to give a couple of honorable mentions and then move on to numbers 6 and 5. Tomorrow, I'll finish up the list with the top 4 Thanksgiving foods. So here are the honorable mentions!

Assorted varieties of bread!

Bread is awesome whatever form it may take. It really is one of the greatest things ever invented. If there aren't rolls or some kind of bread at your Thanksgiving it probably means you have a gluten allergy. (I'm so sorry for you if this is the case.)

Corn!
Corn is an integral part of Thanksgiving. It was one of the foods that was brought by the natives and it's a major part of pretty much everything you eat these days. I'm a big fan of corn and I love it during my Thanksgiving dinner.

Number 6-Gravy
I was at a Thanksgiving dinner for the AmeriCorps members in the Denver area recently and it was an awesome meal, except for one thing-no one made gravy. There were plenty of great foods to enjoy, and I'm not a huge fan of gravy anyway, but it definitely reduced the enjoyment of the meal for the people around me. This more than justifies gravy getting a place on this list.

Number 5-Green Bean Casserole
First a quick confession that I've never had green bean casserole for Thanksgiving, but I always see that commercial where everyone brings it to dinner. That is just about enough to make me put it on the list. Green bean casserole is a great dish and something I would appreciate on my Thanksgiving table.

There are four more dishes to go, and I'll get to them tomorrow.

TSA body-check boycott?

I know this a little bit old, but someone asked me about it and I figured I should follow up on it.

When I first heard about full-body scans at airports, all I could think about was the scene at the space port in that classic Arnold Schwarzenegger flick, "Total Recall." All of the passengers pass in front of this giant x-ray screen and you get to see the skeletons walking through the detector. I never thought anything about it at the time because it was a pretty awesome effect at the time, especially with Arnold busting out of the screen a few minutes later. Lots of action can make up for moments that should make you think.

I don't think anyone watching that movie had a moment to wonder about the amount of radiation involved in the procedure. I know I didn't. So here we are almost a decade later and we are concerned about what this new form of security will entail. I certainly can't blame anyone who has a concern about the radiation risks, but how does the radiation exposure from this machine compare to the hour on the tanning bed, or out in the sun?

Now there is an alternative available-the body check. All the news and personal reports about this option sound unappealing. No one wants their personal space invaded in this manner. There are stories of inappropriate touching and injury in some cases. Considering my options, I think I'd be inclined to take my chances with the radiation rather than give a complete stranger that kind of access to my body.

Nevertheless, there was a huge movement to boycott the scanner and force TSA workers to perform the body checks over the Thanksgiving holiday in order to mess up the system and show government officials why both the scanners and pat downs are a bad idea. What is wrong with you people? It's the holidays. No one wants to spend more time in the airport when all they really want is to get home and see their family. I'm sure your idea has merit, but why not just call for a complete ban on air travel? That would be a whole lot more effective because the airlines would feel the need to put pressure on the government to back off.

So yeah, my first thought is don't ask people to mess up their holidays for your message. Go through the scanner and get on the plane. Just promise yourself that you won't tan that week and you will probably break even on your dosage of radiation. I'm sure that the TSA is already hard at work on new methods of doing these checks so boycotts won't do anything more than inconvenience your fellow travellers.

As a bonus opinion, I heard that one of the main proponents of the boycott wasn't even travelling over Thanksgiving. Way to go, buddy! It's always impressive to see a guy asking other people to stand up for something they aren't willing to stand up for themselves.

There has to be something you're thankful for...

So here we are on the most misunderstood holiday of the year. I may be wrong about that last statement. I'm sure if you talked to St. Patrick or the men that signed the Declaration of Independence, there may be some debate about that title.  Let me try again.

So here we are on the holiday that really doesn't work as advertised. Thanksgiving has been around since the first winter after the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, but it wasn't until Abraham Lincoln that the holiday was made an official part of the American calendar. Now Lincoln's approach to the holiday was that is should be a day to thank God for all that had been provided, and that's all good and fine, but that's not what I want to talk about today. What I want to know is, where are all the thankful people?

Thanksgiving has turned into a giant food fest with football and sleep thrown in. Where is there any time devoted to expressing thanks for anything that we have? I remember when I was growing up that my Mom made each of us share something we were thankful from over the past year. It wasn't much, but it was something. Now we don't even do that.

So this Thanksgiving, take a moment or two to be thankful. It may not seem like there's much to be thankful for, but there has to be something positive going on in your life. I may be semi-employed as a substitute teacher with $50,000 of debt waiting at the door, and no real prospects at the moment, but I can be thankful. So what about you?