Fellow immigrant Christopher Hitchens weighs in on the most distinctively American holiday, and observes "immigrants like me tend to mention it as their favorite."

To which I say: "What he said."

Thanksgiving morning, a truly pure and great American holiday -- basically a harvest feast with a Pilgrim legend attached.

Snow this morning, which would seem to portend the passing of Autumn, but Autumn lingers, for which I'm grateful.

Heading to my mom's a little later. We no longer trust her to be able to put a Thanksgiving dinner for 14 together, so we all bring different components of the feast and it comes together beautifully. My contribution? A butternut squash and sweet potato puree that makes people swoon on contact. Also wine...

About the wine: I always try to get a few bottles of the new harvest Beaujolais, my one annual nod to our, ahem, "allies". Unfortunately, the Nouveau hasn't arrived yet, and I suspect this has at least something to do with the reason why. Now that the wine trade has been attacked, might the French awake from their lethargy and realize the rioters have gone too far?

Pajamas Media are hosting a Thanksgiving weekend blogfest, and there's so much good stuff to link to and read there should be no reason to be face down on the couch by 7 PM. Finally.

By the way, it looks like there'd be just enough time to make Michelle's pumpkin chocolate crunch pie...Oh my!

Thanksgiving weekend very nearly upon us: feasting and food with no strings attached, the perfect American holiday.

Ah, but always so many leftovers. Not to worry, a new study reveals very old food is perfectly OK, so just let it sit in the fridge for 7 or so years and it'll be fine...

Think language and word choices don't matter?

Failure, deferred success -- what's the difference?

Just when you thought it was safe to go back out for café sur les Champs-Elysées, the violence spreads.

Let's be sure to take a moment today to remember all our veteran's, on what might just be the most important as well as the most overlooked day on America's calendar.

And stop by the Veteran's History Project, which has a remarkable collection of interviews and documentary materials.

French news anchor Melissa Theuriau has made it through the French riots looking none the worse for wear, we can happily report...

The Speculist claims that the future looks bright, as they host the 13th edition of the Carnival of Tomorrow.

And Elisson is hosting the, God help me, Carnival of Cockroaches . It's the third installment, no less, with no sign of a let up.

I'm sure it'll all be better soon enough...

I've set aside mockery of the French for the time being, and I'm largely past schadenfreude...Events have simply been too sobering even for someone like me, and I've pretty much been waiting for the Euro explosion for the better part of a decade. There's only so long an unassimilated, under-educated, unemployed, unemployable, radicalized underclass will sit in ghettos before lashing out. Even if you give them money and services for nothing.

So here's the question I'd like to have the answer to. I think the answer is "yes", but for the sake of Europe I'll keep an open mind.

Here's a map showing just how wide-spread the riots are.

Here's a Paris based blog that's been providing indispensable updates from the scene. Just keep scrolling.

Finally, incredibly, absurdly, on the 12th night of riots it somehow occurs to French officials to "take steps...to impose curfews".

Best line I've heard about all this: "Who knew the angry, explosive 'Arab Street' we've been hearing about for more than 4 years was in Paris?"

From a toy toolkit to the Thursday Style section -- Learn to be a Journalist!

Just about a year ago, a member family of the youth soccer club in my town headed up a drive to collect unused soccer gear, especially balls, to be shipped to Iraq. I pretty much forgot about afterwards.

So today I stumble on this little article, written by a soldier stationed in Iraq, and now I can't help but wonder if the soccer ball in the story is one of ours!

Here's the money quote:

"That soccer ball found its way into the Blackhawk gunner’s hands because of the generosity of an American citizen back home. Someone who wanted to help out, who wanted to do what he could to improve things in Iraq, one person at a time. So he filled a few boxes with soccer balls, and spent the money to ship them over here for soldiers to hand out."

Europe-off-the-rails update**:

Reader Tom Sheridan emails with a reminder that I should post the top ten reasons to riot in France. A fine and timely suggestion...

[**Fish. Barrel. Gun.]

Another Europe-off-the-rails update (or as I like to call it, "Fish. Barrel. Gun.") But no, really, this time I mean Europe is really off the rails. I've no doubt the French would surrender, if they could only find a suitable taker.

Since main stream media has only picked up the story on the seventh night of rioting, virtually ignoring the first six nights of riots, it fell to bloggers and lesser known sources to get the story out.

Further, rioting has spread to other European cities, and at least one fairly major publication saw this coming three years ago.

So could this be the end of Chirac and Dominique de Villepin (who is a man)? Stay tuned...

Europe-off-the-rails update: Spell it with a lower case "c", proles...

Dutch blogger Pieter Dorsman, now living in Canada, remembers the one-year anniversary of the murder of Theo van Gogh, "A day on which more than three decades of failed immigration policies and multiculturalist experimentation would die."

And here's a Wall Street Journal editorial remembering van Gogh. Pretty much a must read.

Art or science? The chemistry of food...

Maybe science in everything leading up to the presentation (awful lot of math involved in those measurements and physics in getting those temperatures just so), then it transforms to art.

And while I'm on the subject of food as science, or art, or whatever, how about food as an important social bond? The family supper, after all, combines two deep needs -- for nourishment and for connection. The ritual of shared dining is something "from which all who participate benefit".

And while I'm food blogging, over the last year or so Indian food has replaced sushi as my favorite ethnic food, though as it happens "curry is a generic term that Indians themselves would never use..."

And Professor Bainbridge, the law blogger [blawger?], offers the recipe for a perfect Autumn soup. The best part? It's mostly done in a slow cooker, so you can load it up, go to a soccer game, rake some leaves, wash your car, then come in and eat.