Early evening on Thanksgiving Day seems to be a good time to assess the state and nature of the holiday and the nation as this time. The most poignant feeling at the moment, is lethargic and if I lose focus may turn to comatose. This is a valuable learning experience pertaining to the tradition of the early holiday dinner. While it allows for relatives time to make it home, where does it leave the rest of us? Sitting around at 6pm, stuffed to the gills with nothing to do. There has to be a good reason for this kind of planning, but what? Sure there's football on, but not good football, Lions football. If you want a decent game, you're better off holding dinner off for an hour or two and forcing the kids to play a game in the back yard.

If you do stick with the early meal though, you get an opportunity to see what the true purpose of Thanksgiving has become, and become suspicious of your 3pm meal. Since it is the holiday season, between Detroit's fumbles, interceptions and defensive breakdowns, you're going to see hundreds of commercials. Roughly half of these are attempting to get you into a store tomorrow (the curiously named "Black Friday"). As the trend has gone of late, these stores have attempted to attract shoppers with increased convenience by opening early, and not normal early, but 4am, some even at midnight. 28 days before Christmas, and Merica buys into the fact that shopping cannot wait until the sun rises, which makes you wonder just a bit what the purpose of the prior days meal was.

Sure, we all know the story of the "First Thanksgiving". Pilgrims and Natives (are we still teaching the kids to say "Indians" so we can tell them it's derogatory later?) got together to share a meal for peace and harmony and blah blah blah. But what now? All but three Natives are dead, I don't think there are ANY pilgrims left (not even on a reservation!), and let's be honest, when you get the whole family together there is no peace and harmony. There must be a reason though, a reason to do it all. The answer reveals itself when you piece everything together. The whole purpose for Thanksgiving on Thursday is indeed Friday. It all adds up.

An early meal so you can get to bed early for your 3:30am alarm. A huge meal to provide energy for a long day of shopping. Turkey to give lots of tryptophan so you can fall asleep at 6 in the evening and awkward relatives and in-laws around for an excuse to actually go to bed.

Of course, those of us too lazy to get up that early, too sensible to think that shopping is that important on one particular day or too unprepared to know what we're getting anyone yet, will eat our dinners whenever it's served to us, enjoy the company of our family and hope we can stay awake long enough find room for another slice of pie. And Friday? If shopping does happen it will start a little after noon, because there is no way any of us would dare leave the house the day after Thanksgiving without having a leftover turkey sandwich. If there is to be no shopping, then the whole day really revolves around the sandwich.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Long Time, No Post.

Here's what you need to know, in brief:
1. Barack Obama -> President
2. Economy -> Worse like every day
3. Gas -> Kinda cheap
4. High School Musical 3
5. AL MVP -> Dustin Pedroia
6. Pistons -> Traded Chauncey and McDyess for Alan Iverson
7. U of M -> Worst season in (129 year) history
8. Paula Abdul -> No longer an American Idol judge
9. O.J. Simpson -> Going to jail
10. Lil Wayne -> Real popular
11. Christmas -> Started 3 weeks ago
12. Titanic -> Sunk
13. California -> Banned gay marriage

More to come.

Forgive my infrequency in posting. As the culmination of the semester nears, so to does work, papers, test, etc. (which are inversely proportional to sleep, relaxation, etc...it's science).

In keeping with the recent (and thus far only) vain of this blog, I will now catch you up to date on the state of the baseball world. *Spoiler: this is the last one 'cause it's all over!* There won't be as much detail about this series as I didn't really see much at all. As I am still mourning the Sox, I couldn't bring myself to watch much baseball. Okay here goes:

Game 1: PHI 3 - TAM 2 People who had forgotten over the week or so that the Phils had off were reminded that Cole Hamels is a monster (or a machine, whichever metaphor you prefer, the point is the man can pitch)

Game 2: TAM 4 - PHI 2 Tampa takes one at the Trop, no surprise there. The Rays jumped out 4-0 and held on tight for the win.

Game 3: PHI 5 - TAM 4 Philly looked better all game, hitting 3 home runs, but Tampa found a way to have the game tied after 8 1/2 innings. The problem for the Rays though, is that there are 9 full innings in regulation. So, in the bottom of the 9th the Phillies came out cooler than a team of Fonzies, loaded the bases and won on a goofy little single to third.

Game 4: PHI 10 - TAM 2 Philadelphia hits 4 homers. This one doesn't really need any explanation.

Game 5 (Day 1) TAM 5 - PHI 2 (6) The rain started in the 5th when Philly led 0-2 and the game would have been over if called due to weather. Needless to say, when the umps waited until the Rays had tied it to call the game, there were whispers that MLB had insisted that play continue until it was tied in order to prolong the season and make more money and stuff like that.

Game 5 (Day 2) PHI 4 - TAM 3 The Rasheed Wallace rule applies in baseball. The Phils would have had in on the rain call Monday, so they get it playing the last 4 innings Wednesday. The Phillies get their first World Series title in 28 years and the City of Philadelphia gets the pro sports title* they've been deprived of for so long.

*I don't see why they couldn't be happy with the Philadelphia Soul Arena Bowl title.

In other news, the election is a week away and the nation has split into two camps, battling each other furiously for these last few days. One who is completely focused on the election, watching and promoting their candidate. And another who is completely sick of the election and just wants it to be over so they don't have to stop being harassed about it.

It is with a heavy heart that I bring you this news. There is little sense in saving the news until after the details, The Red Sox lost the ALCS in 7 games. Forgive me for the delay in posting, but I was a bit superstitious about posting during the series. Onto the breakdown.

The Sox took game 1 in Tampa playing good small ball behind Daisuke's lockdown pitching. The Rays looked stunned believing themselves to be nearly untouchable at home. Unfortunately the following evening, Boston came up short in an 11 inning shootout. It was back to Beantown where one would have expected to see the Nation carry their team to the Series, but it wasn't to be. Games 3 and 4 were total blowouts by the Rays and everyone was stunned. Things seemed increasingly hopeless in game 5, with the home team finding themselves down 7 runs to 0 halfway through the 7th inning. That's when the ALCS Red Sox showed up. Mounting the second biggest comeback in MLB post season history, they won on a JD Drew single in the bottom of the 9th to drive in Big Youk to win 7-8, and the comeback began. Back to Tampa for game 6, where neither Josh Beckett nor anyone else in Red looked for a second like they were worried about losing. A truly solid game 6 win tied the series and left one game to decide the series. Boston entered game 7 with Mike Lowell done for the season, Jacoby Ellsbury sidelined for an unknown reason, and Jason Veritek and Big Papi having been nearly silent at the plate all post season, and yet it looked like they might pull off another 3-0 or 3-1 ALCS come from behind victory. It was these very hangups that gave the Sox trouble in the deciding game. Despite what could not be described as less than a solid outing from John Lester, it was not meant to be. Posting only 3 hits, the Boston offense was lack luster to say the least. The few scoring opportunities that they had were ended my miscues or just good plays by the Tampa Bay defense. The last two innings were hardly bearable to watch. The last scoring chances fouled up by a feet first Coco Crisp slide in which his shoulders were even with second base before he touched. He was attempting to break up a double play which wouldn't have happened anyway and he would have broken it up by simply touching second base with his foot and being safe. A couple of extremely shady strike calls, as noted by everyone (except maybe Rays fans) and a ground out to second, the season was over.

Knowing that the odds were stacked heavily against them is little consolation now. Who knows, maybe trading Manny was a bigger mistake than we thought (not that it really looked like a mistake to begin with) and this is only season 1 of 86 which we will have to endure before his Curse is broken.

*Phillies win World Series game 1 in Tampa 3-2.

On the future presidential front: the second of three debates between Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama took place Tuesday night in Tennessee. A thorough synopsis being time consuming and super boring, here are some key points:

McCain:

• $5000 Tax credit to buy health care
• Obama is inexperienced
• We should win in Iraq and find Osama Bin Laden
  
• Offshore drilling and nuclear power immediately
  
• I said IMMEDIATELY!! Stop reading and start drilling!
  

Obama:

• McCain is just like Bush
• We need to prioritize pretty much everything
  
• McCain is just like Bush
• Troops in Iraq should be moved to Afghanistan
  
• McCain is just like Bush!!!

Pertaining to your biggest concern:
McCain: I completely agree.
Obama: That is one of the most important issues to me.

Best Question: What don't you know and how will you learn it?
McCain: Doesn't know what will happen in the future or what the unexpected will be.
Obama: Doesn't yet know what he doesn't know, but he will ask his wife to explain it once he figures out what it is.
Analysis: Sen. McCain's admitted lack of clairvoyance is disconcerting to say the least and Sen. Obama's answer points only to a Michelle Obama/Hillary Clinton ticket in 2012 (which McCain will never see coming).

Other Points:

• Did you know that John McCain served in the military!? Why didn't he mention that before?
• Barack Obama can seamlessly transition from your question to whatever it is he wants to talk about without your even realizing.
• John McCain is the least funny presidential candidate since Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876.

Truly more news of the same. Baseball and market trends.

The Dow continued Monday with a mood and outlook that can only be described as Emo. It finished -370 after recovering from being more than 600 down earlier in the day. This melodramatically brought the Dow below 10,000 since it first broke that mark on some date in the past. This is only part of an ongoing trend in which the market has been seen, plummeting, wearing black mascara and listening to Dashboard Confessional.

Even depressing stuff like that can't stop baseball from pressing on. Upon last report, the Angels and White Sox had their backs against the wall, both in 0-2 holes. Both used Sunday to prolong their seasons, if only for one more day. The ChiSox managed to prevent the Windy City from going 0-for-the playoffs before choking Monday evening sending the Rays to the ALCS. The Angels managed to find the plate in the 12th inning late Sunday night. This forced a game 4 in Boston which brought unfortunate news only minutes before the opening pitch. Mike Lowell had been placed on the DL, rendering him ineligible for the remainder of this series and all of the next. Fortunately, Jacoby Ellsbury has taken it upon himself to cover every inch of field behind the pitcher's mound, and Jason Bay, being a former Pirate, still has no idea how to react to post season pressure, so he keeps playing great ball like it's June. It was 2-2 in the bottom of the 9th when rookie Jed Lowrie slapped a ball into right field sending Bay home from second and the BoSox into the ALCS to face the Rays. The analysts are already talking up Tampa because apparently they don't keep a calendar handy at ESPN. It's October now and the Red Sox are in town.

It is a very exciting time in Merica. In the throes of a Presidential election and baseball's post season. Of course then the nation's focus is torn between football and the triumphant return of the New Kids On the Block.

Less important issues aside though, the boys of Summer have done little to make this young post season very interesting. The Phillies showed their strength early jumping to a 2-0 series lead over the Brewers. They took Saturday off, opting to allow a inner city Philadelphia little league team to plain in their stead. The kids played hard but the Brewers managed a 4-1 victory. When the Phils returned Sunday though, wanting to win but not run, they hit 4 home runs to put away the Brew Crew and promptly got the hell out of Wisconsin as quickly as possible. The Cubs, finally remembering who they are, came out playing Cubs baseball and promptly dropped 3 games to the LA Manny Ramirezes. This makes the city of Chicago a collective 0-5 in October with the Rays still convinced that they know what they're doing and owning every aspect of the series against the White Sox. This brings us to the really important series: Red Sox - Angels. As all of the analysts reminded us, the Angels were "the best team in baseball" for the regular season, and that Mike Lowell is "not 100%". What they failed to account for though is that it's October now (month of the Red Sox) and Mike Lowell doesn't have anything but 100%. So of course I was the only one not surprised when the BoSox took both games in Anaheim and are poised to sweep the series at home.

In other news. There was a proposed bill to spend $700 bill. to bail investment firms like AIG out of their financial fail boat. Congress though rejected the bill, some of them having accidentally actually thought about the possible consequences while distracted from the strippers. The stock market misinterpreted this to mean Congress had developed souls or perhaps even a collective conscience, displayed its disapproval by plunging a record 777 points in one day. Fortunately, the bill was "sweetened" (with Splenda and cash under the table) and Congress agreed to take $700 bill. (which we don't have) and give it to companies who used to have that kind of money, and would like to have it again.