I've got family visiting, and am making my traditional stuffing with cornbread, turkey sausage (I used to be able to get cranberry sausage in California, but there are no Bristol Farms here), wild rice, pine nuts, wild mushrooms, and the secret ingredient, pomegranate. My niece helped me dissect it for the berries. Her mother is from Iraq, so she knows her pomegranates.

We'll be busy the rest of the day cooking, taking kids to the beach, watching football, ingesting fermented malt beverages, etc.

I'm thankful that we have pomegranates. And turkeys. I'm thankful that at my age, I've still got enough teeth to enjoy them (I recall my grandfather having to cut off his corn with a knife to eat it, when he wasn't a lot older than me). I'm thankful for medical technology in general, which seems to be continuing to get better, and giving me hope that I'll live to see escape velocity.

I'm thankful for family and loved ones, and the ability to share my thanks with them in good health on this day.

I'm thankful for the technology that allows me to express my thankfulness to those people who read this little web site, and I'm thankful for the readers who unaccountably and seemingly masochistically keep coming back to read it.

I'm very thankful that we'll have elections again in two years. And that's not a partisan comment (particularly since I'm not a member of any political party)--it would be true regardless of the results three weeks ago. Having a sister-in-law who is from Baghdad can make you appreciate small things like that.

Thanks, that's nice. Those are all good things to be grateful for. (I'll have to look for cranberry sausages.)

I think thankfulness is a frame of mind wherein we are close to our true selves...as opposed to our normal day-to-day self-centered peevishness! But it's hard to do most of the time.

I am thankful it has been over 20 years since
A-Ha had a major hit in the states.

Rand,
Thanks for this post, and all of the other unremarked upon ones you've given us over the years!
However, I'm not going to ask for the recipe of your "traditional" stuffing!
Mike

Thanks Rand, youre thoughts are well tendered. Myself, thankful for five healthy, happy children. I will be thankful in the future whenever I have the chance to sleep ;) I'm also thankful that turning forty, I have a lot to look forward to.

Happy Holidays...We would certainly be poorer without you and your blog. jjs

'Acturial Escape Velocity.' I've been familiar with the concept for some time, but didn't know there was a specific expression for it. Cool...

I'm thankful I don't have to justify the Ares in light of what's going on with the X-37. So much for it being too expensive to man rate the Atlas V.

Not to say the Atlas can't be man rated by no means but the X-37 is not a manned program.

The X-37 isn't yet a manned program.

The X-37 isn't yet a manned program.

Please tell us why you think "yet". I'm curious to understand how you go from a robotic demonstrator to a manned system, simply because the US Air Force is now funding the program. What requirements does the USAF have now or in the future for launching manned orbiters?

Lockheed Martin is considering human rating the Atlas V, but not for the X-37.