Time for Thanks, Turkey, and Football

Tomorrow people in north and middle North America, also known as Canada and the United States, will celebrate Thanksgiving.

While there are of course other areas of the world that celebrate a day of thanks over the course of the year the American and Canadian version are the most similar to each other and just so happen to occur on the same day.

I am sure we all remember the stories from grade school when we made construction paper hats and played pilgrim while learning about the first Thanksgiving feast which may or may not have had fish as the main course instead of what we have today.

This year is also the first time since 1888 that Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah both occur on the same day.

For the first time since 1888 Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah occur on the same day which means there will be plenty of dreidels being spun alongside the turkey and dressing. Photo R. Anderson
For the first time since 1888 Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah occur on the same day which means there will be plenty of dreidels being spun alongside the turkey and dressing.
Photo R. Anderson

Thanksgiving and Hanukkah are both times to reflect on what we are thankful for and spend time together with friends and family.

Of course in recent years Thanksgiving seems to have become less about the time with family and more about the planning for Black Friday shopping.

While stores once waited until the predawn hours of Friday to start their sales, more and more stores are now opening on Thanksgiving day to allow shoppers to get an even earlier start on the holiday of commercialism.

When I was younger very few stores were open on Thanksgiving. There were of course the diners like Waffle House that never closed their doors and a smattering of gas stations and convenience stores to help travelers reach their destinations.

Aside from that you would be hard pressed to really find anything open on Thanksgiving that counted as a shopping experience.

During college I worked for Albertson

Astros Looking for Elusive Victory in Court

Few can argue that the Houston Astros on field performance last season was abysmal at best and criminally negligent at worst with a group of unproven young prospects being thrust into the roles of Major League Baseball players and proceeding to lose more games than any other Astros team before them had done.

To be fair it was not the fault of the players that they were put into the situation of being over matched throughout much of the 162 game Major League Baseball season and the past few seasons have each included over 100 losses.

The players fought hard and are certainly to be commended for how they handled the cards they were dealt and while there were certainly many cringe worthy moments there were also a few moments that helped give hope for things to come.

Empty seats and losing records are both common these days at Minute Maid Park. Photo by R. Anderson
Empty seats and losing records are both common these days at Minute Maid Park.
Photo by R. Anderson

In fact the hope for better things to come and be patient with us as we rebuild lines became the mantra that the Astros front office repeated time and time again.

Tired of watching the Astros lose? Be patient with us as we rebuild and hope for better things to come management would reply.

With abysmal performance on the field, and the lowest payroll in all of baseball, one would think that the sole focus of the team

A Day that Changed Both Space and Time

Today marks the 50th anniversary of two things that changed the world.

On this date a half century ago events on two continents made the world seem both larger and smaller at the same time.

I am referring to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the premiere of the British television show Doctor Who.

One this day 50 years ago America lost a president and perhaps some of its innocence as well. Photo R. Anderson
One this day 50 years ago America lost a president and perhaps some of its innocence as well.
Photo R. Anderson

Now, to be fair I was not alive 50 years ago on the day that changed everything; having arrived on the scene a little bit after that.

But, as a student of history and an avid Whovian I feel fairly confident in assessing the impact that both events had on the world in general.

And one does not need to have been alive on that fateful November day to feel the impacts of those two events.

So let us start with President Kennedy whose assassination on a Dallas street around four hours from where I am writing this changed the face of politics and gave breath to a whole industry of conspiracy theories as to what happened.

While I suppose one can argue for both the lone gunmen theory of a single shooter versus multiple shooters that does not really change the fact that a President of the United States was slain and with it a part of the innocence of the nation was slain with it.

President Kennedy was not the first president to be assassinated. In fact William McKinley, the 25th U.S. President, was killed in 1901. So it stands to reason that there were people alive in 1963 who were alive the last time a president was killed.

But for many younger Americans they had never witnessed the death of a president, let alone one as popular as JFK.

Individuals tried to assassinate both Presidents Ford and Reagan and I would like to believe that lessons learned from the Kennedy assassination helped protect both of those men from being killed.

The Warren Report sought to explain the Assassination of Presidnet John F. Keneedy although there are still many theories about what really happened. Photo R. Anderson
The Warren Report sought to explain the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy although there are still many theories about what really happened.
Photo R. Anderson

While I was not alive to have the

Dario Franchitti Retires from Racing, Leaves Void

Dario Franchitti, four-time Indy Racing League (IRL) champion and three time Indianapolis 500 Champion, announced yesterday that he was retiring from racing at the age of 40.

In the announcement that shocked much of the racing world, Franchitti stated that he was following the advice of doctors who cautioned him that returning to racing and risking further injury once he recovered from injuries sustained at the Grand Prix of Houston last month would be detrimental to his long-term quality of life.

Dario Franchitti, shown during the Grand Prix of Houston, announced his retirement from the Indy Racing League yesterday. Franchitti cited injuries sustained at the Grand Prix of Houston as a leading reason for the retirement. Photo R. Anderson
Dario Franchitti, shown during the Grand Prix of Houston, announced his retirement from the Indy Racing League yesterday. Franchitti cited injuries sustained at the Grand Prix of Houston as a leading reason for the retirement.
Photo R. Anderson

Franchitti sustained multiple injuries, including his third diagnosed concussion, during a last lap crash in the Grand Prix of Houston when his car made contact with another car and became airborne and rolled up into the catch fence before landing back on the track.

While the wreck was certainly bad most fans figured that Franchitti would heal and return to his big box retailer sponsored car next season.

After all, that is what drivers do they get back on that horse that threw them, or in this case the car with all that horsepower that they crashed in.

If someone had approached me that October afternoon when I was standing in Victory Circle and told me that I was witnessing the last race of Dario Franchitti

Chilly Weather Brings Chili Weather

Dropping temperatures around the Texas Coast this week have ushered in the return of several cold weather traditions.

The power lines are filled with hundreds of migrating birds each evening looking for a place to rest up for the night.

Locals are dressed like they are ready to catch a ski lift in their puffy jackets and fuzzy boots.

And I have a never ending craving for chili.

Now, in fairness around this part of Texas I am sure there are people for whom chili is an every week kind of meal.

After all, with so many chili cook offs to enter one would need to spend the entire year perfecting the recipe prior to the start of competition season.

When the craving for chili strikes there is a quick process for feeding the craving. Step one, purchase a can of chili. Photo R. Anderson
When the craving for chili strikes there is a quick process for feeding the craving. Step one, purchase a can of chili.
Photo R. Anderson

And with the start of various hunting seasons there are all sorts of exotic meat beyond cow that people can put in their Texas chili.

More power to those who have the year round urge for chili but for me the urge to eat chili coincides with falling leaves and falling temperatures.

Of course I can eat a chili dog or chili cheese fries year round but to sit down with an actual bowl of chili as the main course takes temperatures below 60 degrees.

Over the past few weeks I have sampled chili of all shapes and sizes but much like Goldilocks and her porridge I have not really found one that has been just right.

Growing up my mom made a certain chili which much like her special birthday meatloaf just always tasted good.

Add the fact that the chili was always served in bowls that had gold leaf accents, and it truly was a meal fit for a king.

A few weeks back I went over to my parents

If a Twitter Joins the Stock Market Does it Make a Sound?

The other day Twitter joined the ranks of companies that have gone before it in the tech sector and went public.

Yes, the company that introduced the world to #hashtags and retweeting has gone mainstream with an initial public offering (IPO) on the stock market.

Through the years tech companies have entered the stock market with a bang with some weathering the storm and becoming actual players in the market and others faltering and falling by the wayside.

It is of course too early to tell which one of those categories will best describe Twitter when all is said and done but history has definitely not always been kind to internet based companies.

With social media rather young in the grand scheme of things it is hard to put a price on how much owning a piece of the next great thing.

Thanks to Twitter I can now tell the world how I am feeling 140 characters at a time from my phone proving once again that technology fills voids that we did not even know we had. Photo R. Anderson
Thanks to Twitter I can now tell the world how I am feeling 140 characters at a time from my phone proving once again that technology fills voids that we did not even know we had.
Photo R. Anderson

For every tech sector home run like Amazon and PayPal there are the forgotten fads such as MySpace and pets.com.

But while the world waits to see what fate ultimately befalls Twitter investors scooped up all of the shares that they could and the founders of Twitter became billionaires on paper overnight based on the value of their stock.

This of course is not too shabby for a company that has never turned a profit and sees the world in 140 character installments.

A few months back we here at Triple B joined the world of Twitter (@TripleBBrand) because a) we often find ourselves talking in 140 character sentences during the day and we wanted to share them and b) #everyoneelsewasdoingit.

During our time on Twitter we have followed a few news sources and learned a few things but for the most part Twitter has not really grabbed and held our attention the way we thought it would. #muchtodoaboutnothing.

The world of Twitter has also brought the need for rampant in game updates by journalists. While this is meant to tease their stories I would much rather wait for a fully formed story than to be bombarded by in game updates such as “Sources tell us @Ferguson just ate a burger on the sideline, says he is ready to reenter game #Spartanfansrejoice.”

So the news of Twitter going public has us wondering if that means that Twitter will suddenly change in some way to make it more exciting or offer new features to rock our 140 character worlds.

Ironically, I can be far more verbose in the world of SMS messaging on my phone with 160 characters to play with in my messages as opposed to the 140 Twitter allows. #Twittergotschooledbyalexandergrahambell

The business model for Twitter appears to be making money through advertising on