Monthly Archives: November 2025
Surprising Facts You Never Knew About Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is generally a celebration of family, friends, and food; a time to be thankful for the blessings in our lives. The real history of Thanksgiving is a bit more complicated than mashed potatoes and gravy and pumpkin pies. If you’ve ever wondered why we celebrate Thanksgiving, or where some of our Thanksgiving traditions come from, you’re about to find out.
A woman named Sarah Josepha Hale lobbied Congress for years to make Thanksgiving an official holiday. If it wasn’t for this very determined woman, Thanksgiving wouldn’t exist today. She lobbied Congress for many years to make this holiday official. She wanted to make this a permanent American custom based on national pride. It wasn’t until 1863 that President Lincoln finally declared Thanksgiving a national holiday. Thanksgiving is considered by many people to be an attempt to bring some peace back to the country after the Civil War. Lincoln made the holiday on the last Thursday in November.
Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to change it to one week earlier. Franklin thought the turkey should be the United States’ official bird rather than the bald eagle. By 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill making the fourth Thursday in November the official date for Thanksgiving nationwide to help alleviate the effects of the Great Depression.
The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was in 1924 and featured animals from the Central Park Zoo – live bears, elephants, camels and monkeys, unlike the huge balloons we have today. They did have floats, celebrities, bands, and Macy’s employees in costumes, as well as Santa Claus. About 3.5 million people attend the parade, and nearly 50 million watch it on their televisions at home.
Did you know that TV dinners came about because of Thanksgiving? In 1953, the Swanson Food Corporation got creative with leftover turkey as a result of overestimating how much turkey would be eaten on Thanksgiving Day. They used aluminum trays and created a complete Thanksgiving meal which sold for around ninety-eight cents. They sold ten million TV dinners and started the prepackaged frozen meal industry.
People have been cooking pumpkin pies since the 1600’s. The dessert has been an important part of Thanksgiving meals since the 1700s. One Connecticut town even postponed the holiday in 1705 due to a molasses shortage that prevented people from making pies.
The “pardoning” of the turkey has been an annual White House tradition. President John F. Kennedy was the first to pardon a turkey and President George H. W. Bush was the first to make pardoning a turkey an annual event in 1989, after he noticed the 50-pound bird at his official Thanksgiving proclamation looked nervous. Every president has upheld the tradition ever since.
In the 1870’s Thanksgiving Day football games began, although they were not on television yet. In 1876, Yale played Princeton in the very first Thanksgiving Day game. In 1920 when the National Football League was founded it began hosting games every year.
Here is an interesting fact: The day after Thanksgiving is amazingly busy for plumbers, according to a very well-known plumbing company. So, we need to be extra careful with turkey grease, potato peels, rice, and stuffing as they can clog your kitchen drain or garbage disposal.
The British have an unusual take on Thanksgiving Day, as they call it Britts-giving. Whatever they want to call it, it still represents the spirit of thankfulness and giving.
How many places in the United States have the name “Turkey?” Texas, Louisiana and North Carolina.
How many turkeys are prepared for Thanksgiving each year in the United States? 46 million
Have a blessed Thanksgiving Day everyone!
Solitaire
Must-Read Science Fiction Authors and Some of Their Best Works
I am a writer who is passionate about classic science fiction. There is a list of authors who are considered to be the best. So, if you are looking for incredible science fiction novels, then these five, who happen to be some of my favorites, are included in that list and I would highly recommend them. I’ve given you a short version of their content and what I thought about each one. Whatever you choose to read, I don’t believe you’ll be disappointed. Happy Reading!
Robert Heinlein – Glory Road
This novel was written in first person and talks to the fourth wall on several occasions. The leading character is a down and out, unemployed man in serious need of a job. He answers an ad in the paper for “Hero for Hire” and stumbles his way to success. It was very inciteful and hilariously realistic to today’s social climate.
– The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
A computer becomes sentient in a prison located on the moon and teaches the inmates how to fight back the oppressors on earth by launching large rocks. Heinlein made it sound plausible and added just enough sound technical data to seem real.
John Varley – Titan
One of my favorite characters in this book was the mighty Cirocco Jones and her sidekick, Gaby. On an expedition to Saturn, they discover an unknown satellite orbiting the planet, they crash into it, and attempt to find their missing crew members. The narration was so vivid I could see what they saw as if I was there with them.
– Millennium
Because of a thousand years of war, the Earth has been polluted beyond repair and humanity’s gene pool has become irreparably damaged. Scientists decide on a desperate plan; time travel into the past, collect healthy humans, and transport the populace to an uncontaminated planet to rebuild civilization. The only downside is each person selected can’t have changed the future by disappearing. I found the plot to be interesting, original, and deeply disturbing at the same time.
Piers Anthony – Macroscope
Macroscope is a love story that surrounds the theft of a new kind of telescope that employs an infinite resolution while observing the space time continuum. The machine can look into anywhere at anytime, making it the most dangerous tool in the universe. The two protagonists fall in love while they attempt to keep the macroscope away from those who would misuse it.
– A Spell For Chameleon
The lead character, Bink, must learn his magical talent before he comes of age or suffer the banishment of the country in which he lives. Bink learns he has a talent but there is no way to discover what it could be. He is banished to our world, one without magic, and eventually makes it back to Xanth, his world. Bink ultimately learns his talent is that no other talent will work against him. It is also determined to be the strongest talent in his world. I liked this book primarily because Bink was so naïve and nicer than those around him. It also proved that decency wins out.
Arthur C. Clarke – The Sands of Mars
This book was released in 1951 and shows a much more wholesome view of science and space travel. The leading characters find kangaroo – like creatures on mars and vegetation that will eventually produce air on mars. The protagonist is so taken with the planet that he volunteers to stay and help with the migration of people from earth.
– The City and the Stars
I found the concept of this book fascinating and different from most science fiction of the time. The setting is in the distant future when the earth’s oceans have dried up, and mankind lives in one remaining city on the edge of extinction. The leading character discovers a second group of people that have once again learned how to live off the land, and they teach him the procedures needed to thrive.
Edgar Rice Burroughs – A Princess of Mars
This is my favorite book and was the one that caused me to become a writer. John Carter is whisked off to the red planet, a place the natives call Barsoom. He meets a beautiful princess and has to defend her from a race of people that want her dead. The formula is constant with Burroughs books and involves finding the girl, losing her to kidnapping, and spending a herculean amount of effort finding and saving her.
– The Land that Time Forgot
The main character, Bowen Tyler, is on a ship that sinks during World War 1 and through a series of misadventures finds himself on what he thinks is a deserted island. Exploring the island for food shows Bowen that the island is inhabited by dinosaurs and prehuman people that know nothing of the 20th century. Lys La Rue, a companion from the sunken ship must find a way to survive and ultimately leave the island.
Solitaire
Solitaire Parke - Sci-Fi/Fantasy Books 