The Dumbest Holiday

The worst day of the year is rapidly approaching again.  I speak, of course, of St. Valentine’s Day.  It is, without a doubt, the dumbest holiday with the possible exception of Sweetest Day but since they pretty have the same theme I really sort of count them as the same holiday.  Of course Sweetest Day is an even more ridiculous holiday but since it hasn’t really caught on the way Valentine’s Day has I have to sort of put it aside. 

The dumbest thing is that no one can really definitively state where the whole holiday came from.  It appears as if there were two Saint Valentines, for example.  There was the Valentine of Rome who was a priest there in about 269 AD.  He had a reputation of being a doctor in addition to being a priest and would often treat people even if they were unable to pay him.   

The second guy is a Valentine of Terni.  He was a bishop in what is now known as
Terni in 197 AD.  He was supposed killed by the Emperor Aurelian.  Exactly why he has anything to do with the supposed holiday I have no idea.  There are people who credit the holiday with the guy from Rome and there are other who credit the guy from
Terni and then there are those who same both of them were the same person. 

At one point the Catholic church had eleven recognized Valentine’s days.  So, if you want to add a little variety to your celebrations maybe you should pick January 7, May 2, July 16, August 31, September 2, October 25, November 1, November 3,  November 11, November 13 or December 16.  Of course if you happen to be dating one of those women who determines the fate of your relationship for the remainder of your lives together based upon what you do for Valentine’s Day you may not want to tell her about those other dates or she may expect flowers, dinner and gifts on those dates as well. 

There was also a guy named Valentinius of Alexandria.  He was once a candidate for Bishop of Rome.  He apparently taught a lot about love and marriage and the marriage bed was a big part of his view of Christian love.  Whether or not this is where Valentine’s Day comes from is still in debate. 

There were also a number of fertility rituals that took place in the month of February that had nothing to do with saints.  There was a god named Vali who was apparently some kind of god of light. 

The first time Valentine’s Day and love came together was in the writing of Geoffrey Chaucer in Parlement of Foules.  The day shows up in that poem that Chaucer wrote to honor the first anniversary of King Richard the II.   

Of course none of this history helps explain the rampant commercialism by which the holiday is known today.  Whatever significance this holiday may have had for pagans or Christians at one point is completely lost now.  Now the holiday is about buying cards, flowers, candy and gifts.  It is a completely random day that should, in essence, have no bearing on any healthy relationship but is, in fact, the basis of much strife in many relationships. 

I can understand wanting to celebrate and anniversary.  This is a date that should be significant and special to the couple.  It represents something special for them and only them.  That is romantic.  That makes sense. 

February 14 is a date seemingly chosen at random by society as a date where everyone in a relationship is supposed to celebrate the fact that they are in a relationship.  Of course all this manages to do is alienate and make miserable everyone else who is not in a relationship.  Of course it also makes miserable most people who are in a relationship because so many people put so much emphasis on this rather random and stupid date that really has no significance to anyone who is in relationship. 

Here would be my suggestion if you are in a relationship and you want to celebrate some random day that has nothing to do with your anniversary.  Now, of course, if you happen to have met or fallen in love while it was February 14 I can understand the celebration. For the majority of you, however, the entire date is probably meaningless.  So, if you want to celebrate some stupid date that is completely random I suggest you and your significant other get together one night.  Have dinner.  Light candles.  Then write out the months of the year on a piece of paper and cut that piece up into little pieces.  Then write out the numbers from one to thirty-one.  Both the slips of paper in a box. 

Then, as you and your love-muffin stare longingly into each other’s eyes reach into the box and pull out two slips of paper.  You should now have a random date.  If you pick a date that doesn’t exist, like February 31, then just pick another day.  Keep picking until you have a date that actually exists.  Now go to a computer and make up cards and go out and buy a lot of cards and candy.  At least this way you will have picked the entirely stupid and random date yourselves without doing something just because the rest of society tells you to. 

Of course the candy makers, card writers, and fancy restaurants around the world wouldn’t like this idea.  They all are counting on you coming to them in an attempt to put on the fanciest part you can for your significant stud-lasagna.  Of course the entire day generally comes down to some kind of competition among women who all compete at work to see who gets the biggest bouquet and when it arrives.  Any man who does not send a bunch of flowers to their mushy-wuggins at work had better be prepared to pay for it for the rest of their lives. 

I have been a witness to women conversing about what their significant others were planning for Valentine’s Day.  I have heard these women say that if they got home and their husbands had not prepared dinner and bought a gift that they will make sure to make this person pay and pay for a very long time.   

At the same time the entire holiday seems to make it seem like if you remember to celebrate one meaningless day then you don’t really have to show your love and affection to your special person the rest of the year.  If you just remember that one day then everything else is fine.  Of course, if this is the case with your relationship then you have bigger problems to worry about than Valentine’s Day. 

As for me Valentine’s Day will always be best summed up by an event here in
Chicago.  You know, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.  You know, where seven men were lined up against a wall and shot in the back. 

Bryan W. Alaspa’s novel Dust is now available in print and eBook format at his website www.bryanalaspa.com and www.amazon.com.

Holiday People and Those Who are Not

I am starting to believe there are two types of people in the world: those who enjoy and really get into holidays and those who do not.  I am also starting to believe I am second type.  I know plenty of people who are the first type, however, and they continue to be a bit of a puzzlement to me.  Yes, I enjoy Christmas and I enjoy parties and I kind of see where the fun in holidays can be but what I cannot see is why people get so involved in holidays. 

I was married to a woman who was very into holidays.  She was particularly fond of Christmas.  I have always had a soft-spot for Christmas.  How can you not like a holiday that involves presents?  I even used to enjoy decorating when I was a kid.  My ex-wife was very into decorating.  As I grew older the desire to spend hours and hours hanging up lights and dragging tree parts or entire trees into my living room and putting up ornaments just seemed like a lot of work for just one day.
I think the same thing can be said for weddings.  I am guessing there are two types of people here and they are people who love weddings and people who do not.  While I certainly went through one I wonder about going through a second one at times.  Again it seems like a huge amount of money and planning and setting up for things only for it all to be over so fast you are left with your head spinning and your stomach in knots.  All anyone really wants to do is get to the party and the couple is more worried about the wedding night then the wedding day and that’s the way things really are and if someone tells you different then you know that’s a couple that may have problems. 

I think the holiday that has the least fun attached to it would be New Years Eve.  I have never, even as a kid, been a fan of New Years Eve.  When you are younger you can’t really participate in parties.  If your parents were like mine you could maybe make it until midnight before being immediately shuffled off to bed or you were sent to bed around 10 and really the entire point was lost.  If you are like my parents then you can barely make it to ten o’clock now on a regular night even when there isn’t some kind of holiday attached to it. 

For the past several years my New Years Eve was spent working at a radio station.  I loved doing that.  You pretty much had to the place to yourself and you had an entire radio station at your fingertips.  I usually was asked to do some kind of countdown and request show.  One of the best times was when a caller called to tell me he felt the city of
Rockford should institute some kind of cheap public transportation for the night of New Years Even program.  You know, like some of the larger cities do.  I had to inform him that while I was on the radio I didn’t have the mayor in the studio with me and he might as well start some kind of letter-writing campaign. 

It just seems to me that New Years Eve is a holiday where the entire purpose is to get drunk and then wear funny hats.  If that’s the kind of thing that you are into I guess I have no right to stop you but it really doesn’t do much for me.  I am the one who sits there looking at the throngs in New York and wonders how anyone could really have a good time while smashed in so close to a billion other people.  I also don’t understand why watching a round object slowly descend down a pole is fun.   

For me New Years Eve was always about hanging out with a few friends.  When I look back at the parties and gatherings I have attended I always end up remembering the quiet dinners I had with friends in
St. Louis rather than the large parties where no one could hear anyone and it was so hot you thought you might burst into flames.  Of course if that happened most people would probably assume it was part of the celebration and just cheer and wonder why you weren’t descending a pole.  I also greatly enjoyed the two New Years Even concerts I attended so far where a group called The Flaming Lips played. 

This year I actually look forward to spending the night here at home, probably alone and probably one where I will be asleep by 11.  Really I could stay up and celebrate with
New York and then go to sleep.  What’s one hour?  Is it really that  big of a deal that it hasn’t technically become midnight here in
Chicago? 

Again, it all seems like a big deal for something that is over with so quickly that it makes little sense to me.  There is a lot of decorating for other holidays.  I have yet to see any New Years Eve lights or trees or bags that you fill with leaves.  I am guessing that the decorations makers and the card makers have not gotten around to the idea of commercial possibilities when it comes to New Years Eve.  I am guessing if you want to make a fortune you should find a way to start your own line of New Years Eve decorations and market them so soon everyone will have New Years Eve lights and lawn bags. 

I guess I am not a holiday guy.  I am willing to bet you there are a lot of people out there who are not holiday people.  I am particularly angry with the holidays that seem to be entirely invented by card people those people who make candy and such.  I am talking about holidays like Valentine’s Day which is a holiday I despise with such a passion that others have been frightened when I have talked about it.  Of course there is also Sweetest Day which is the most ridiculous and obviously fake holiday in the creation of holidays. 

I think there should be holidays that would make the world more fun.  There should be a holiday where you are allowed to tell your boss to go screw him or herself without there being a risk of being fired.  I wonder about a day where nudity is not only allowed but encouraged but afraid too many people who should not be naked, including myself, will end up walking around instead of gorgeous people which is what you would really want to see.  How about a day just for sitting at home watching movies or another one for sitting at home and reading?  I would suggest a day where people are required to attend their own private film festivals or watch movies created before 1964.  I would also like a day when comic book geeks are allowed to rule the world and not be mocked but that may be too much to ask for. 

Mostly I think New Years Eve should be a little bit about reflection.  It should be a look back at the world that was and a look ahead to ways to make the upcoming world better.  Instead too many people will drink themselves into oblivion and forget everything that went before and uncaring about what is coming up next.  Then again, what do I know?  I’m just a crank. 

Bryan W. Alaspa’s novel Dust is a great book to put in your new year reading list and can be found in print and eBook format at www.bryanalaspa.com and www.amazon.com.

Visiting Chicago

It’s amazing how things work when you live in a city.  You forget, upon walking past something amazing day after day after day, what it is that brings people from other places to visit the place where you live every day.  It’s only when people from out of town come to visit and then suddenly you can find yourself scrambling to show them what is so cool about your city. 

I had that happen to me recently.  I live in
Chicago.  Now,
Chicago has a lot of truly amazing and great places to visit and show people.  However, when you live here you don’t usually sit here and think about visiting most of them.  Heck, if you’re like me, you hardly set foot downtown unless it’s related to business and you forget where things are and how to get there.  

However, with my friends in town I had to take some time off from work and spend a couple of days being a tour guide.  In a way it was good because it helped me remember why I love this city so much.  Now, the places I am going to talk about and tell you about are the standard touristy things.  I know that.  However, there is a reason things become popular and touristy.  They become that way because they are cool and people talk about them and then the word spreads beyond the border of the city and state and, before too long, you have a guy in Saskatchewan saying that maybe he’d like to go to
Chicago and visit that thing he heard someone talking about.  Just because something is popular with tourists doesn’t mean it still isn’t cool. 

1. 
   Millennium
   Park – this park is all of two years old.  For a long time it seemed like it was just going to suck away money from tax payers and amount to nothing.  Our mayor seemed like he might get himself into trouble with this planned park that seemed to never get built.  Then it opened and everything changed.  This park is very cool.  It’s a great place to go and just hang out.  If I lived and worked downtown I would eat my lunch in this park.  The piece of art known as “The Bean” is cool enough by itself.  Then, just behind you there, you can find the Gehry designed theater where they hold free concerts during the summer.  Gehry also designed the walkway over the
   
   Lake Shore Drive

   .  Finally there are the fountains and monoliths with the faces on it.  During the summer these things shower water down on the tiles and create a kind of reflecting pool and during the winter the monoliths just show these giant faces of real people.  You have to see this to be believed.  You can also sit on a bench, talk, enjoy a meal and look at the most spectacular skyline anywhere.

 

1. The John Hancock Observatory –
   Chicago has two observatories.  One is in the
   Sears
   Tower which is still the tallest building in the
   United States and was once the tallest building in the world.  You are up pretty high and all but, for my money, the John Hancock building at the north end of the downtown area has the better view.  You should go at night and just see the lights.  They have now added an outdoor viewing deck that is open during the summer.  There is a restaurant one floor above the observatory called “The Signature Room” and there is a bar called “The Signature Lounge” right there as well.  The building is very cool and the entire exhibit and observation deck is just cool.  I am telling you, the situation of this building, right over
   
   Michigan Avenue

   , provides views much more spectacular than the

   Sears
   Tower.

 

1. The

   Field
   Museum – This is the museum of natural history.  This is the place to go when you want to see hundred of animals that have been stuffed and put on display.  Right now they are running a very nice exhibit about King Tut.  The King himself is not there but a lot of his family is.  The exhibit itself is very well-made and displayed.  They have another
   Egypt exhibit with mummies and all kinds of mummified animals.  They have Sue the largest and most-complete T. Rex skeleton in the world.  They have the Tsavo lions who were made into a movie called “The Ghost and the Darkness” and they are right on display there for you to see.  This was a museum I dreaded to see as a kid but have grown to appreciate more as an adult.

 

1. The John G. Shedd Aquarium – Right across from the Field is the Shedd Aquarium and a better one you are not likely to find.  There may be some that have some more spectacular exhibits but this one has a view of the lake that is second-to-none.  In fact, before you go in take a walk down the finger of land that extends out in the lake and, at the end of it, is the Adler Planetarium.  Just look back at the city.  This is the best view of the entire skyline bar-none.  You could only get one better by being on a boat in the lake itself.  If you go at night the lights will dazzle you.  Meanwhile the aquarium itself has a very cool Komodo Dragon exhibit running right now.  Even if you don’t get to see that just stick around to see the Beluga whales and the dolphin show.

 

1. The

   Museum of
   Science and Industry – this museum is located well south of downtown but it is worth the cab fare or the drive.  This is a museum that you should plan to spend an entire day at.  It is set far enough away from downtown that they have even put in some great food for you to eat while you are there.  These are exhibits that you interact with.  You can experience what it was like to god down a mineshaft and work in a coal mine.  You can use a flight simulator.  You can see a human head dissected and sliced for you to look at.  You can reach out and touch things.  During the Christmas season you can see Christmas trees from around the world.  At other times the biggest damn electric train set in the world is right in the middle of the thing.  You can also walk through a real World War Two German submarine here. 

 

1. The Art Institute of
   Chicago – One of the finest collections of art you are ever likely to see.  When you want to see where Sloan and Ferris kissed in front of that blue stained glass in “Ferris Bueller” this is the place.  You can see the painting Cameron looks at that is all dots when you look at it closely and then it becomes a solid thing when you pull back. 

 

1. The

   Museum of
   Contemporary Art – This is a brand new museum.  It is back by the John Hanncock building.  This is modern art whereas the Art Institute has more of the classical art.  I am a bit of an art lover so I love just about any art museum.  I am just glad that this city now has at least two great art museums and, since this one is new, I think everyone should support it.

 

We have some of the best restaurants in the world, too, but that is a topic for another time.  This is a great city and we don’t mind you coming to visit.  If you bump into me, maybe I’ll even tell you some of the better stories about this town. 

Bryan W. Alaspa’s novel Dust is available in print and eBook forms at www.bryanalaspa.com and www.amazon.com.

The Holiday Movie Thing

My original idea was to create another list.  Since the holidays are upon us I figured it would be a good time to write about some of the best holiday movies.  People like lists.  The other lists I wrote seemed to get a decent response.  It creates dialogue, it seems.  People like making suggestions.  As such, I figured holiday movies would be a great topic what with it being the Christmas season. 

However, as I sat down to write I immediately ran into a problem.  The problem is very simple and can be summed up in three words:  holiday movies suck.  Yes, that’s exactly what I am saying.  I tried to come up with a list.  I went for a walk.  I pounded my head against a wall.  What did I end up with?  I got sore feet and a headache. 

I couldn’t come up with a list.  Yes, there are classic films that everyone watches year after year but, really, they aren’t very good movies either, are they?  You only watch them during one time of year.  It’s the time of year when you probably have warm and fuzzy feelings going already.  A lot of people associate the holidays with good memories and some of those memories surround watching certain movies with family members.  All of that suddenly makes “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” suddenly seem like a good movie rather than a poorly-acted, cheesy
Chevy Chase comedy which is what it really is.   

So, here is my list of holiday movies that are heart-warming, funny, and classic: 

A Christmas Story – In my opinion there is nothing better than the story of Ralphie and his family and his attempts to get hold of a Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time.  It’s funny and, more importantly, it’s universal.  Yes, the movie is set in about 1940 but the themes mean as much today as it must have back then.  I know in my life that every year there was one toy or one present I looked forward to more than any other.  I would sit there in class and daydream about it.  I would doodle pictures of it on my notebooks.  I would dream of playing with the thing.  Then, when I finally got the chance to play with the gift, normally I was done and bored with it by the end of the day. 

This is a story that brings up nearly every single family holiday goof-up and tradition.  My house too had outlets that were crammed with plugs.  My father wasn’t exactly like the father in the movie but he did love to pick at the turkey my mother would be cooking all day long.  I even had one Christmas where I was longing for a BB gun.  I then proceeded to shoot up the basement of my parent’s house with it. 

The rest of the movies that come out during the holidays just don’t have the same feel to it.  Everyone watches and talks about “It’s a Wonderful Life” but I can’t sit through that movie anymore.  I honestly don’t care much about Zuzu and her petals any longer.  I also hate the idea that every time a bell rings and angel gets its wings and wish Clarence would freeze to death and drown.  Am I cynical?  Probably.  Cantankerous?  Most definitely. 

I watched “Miracle on

34^th Street

” and the remake just like everyone else.  Again, it was mildly amusing the first time I saw it.  Then it rapidly became annoying.  Once again I no longer cared if Santa ended up in the loony bin or not.  I’d rather just see the kid yank on the beard over and over again. 

I guess I still have a soft spot for the Rudolph movie.  Something about that harkens back to my childhood.  Does anyone remember the other Rudolph movie where he had to save the new year?  I remember that one because he had a friend who was a whale and I thought that was really cool. 

I have watched seemingly countless versions of “A Christmas Carol.”  I have to admit I was amused when I first saw the Bill Murray version “Scrooged.”  However, to me, the movie now seems dated.  It’s amazing that at one time having a movie with Bobcat Golthwait didn’t seem like a disaster in the making.  Even as I sat there in the theater I have to say I was thinking that this was not really a very funny movie. 

The problem in recent years is that the quality of these movies has managed to get worse.  Right now there is a movie about two guys who are competing or have problems with the decorations on the other person’s house.  Sounds like the same story that was “Christmas with the Kranks” which was just out last year and completely sucked.  Let’s not forget Ben Affleck’s movie where he tries to live with Tony Soprano or something. 

I blame Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad for this trend.  They did that stupid movie where the two of them run around looking for the hot toy of the season.  I knew it was going to be dumb for a couple of reasons, namely, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sinbad.  Has there ever been a good movie with Sinbad in it?  I don’t think so. 

Of all of the movies I would have to say that the story of Ralphie, his brother, Scut Farkus and the BB Gun is the one I can watch again and again and again.  The great thing is that I can do exactly that because there’s that one cable channel that shows it all day and night on Christmas day.  I still laugh.  Just show me his brother saying “Meat loaf, beat loaf, I hate meat loaf” and I am on the floor dying. 

Beyond that, I have to say that holiday movies, much like holiday songs, have a very short shelf life and that is as it should be.  You can have your “White Christmas” and enjoy them if you want but you can count me out.  I can do without Bing Crosby in my holiday life, thank you very much.  I have no desire to watch that one again.  I saw it once and watched it with this really cute girl back in college.  Unless she is going to show up again to watch it with me, I really don’t care to see it. 

So, I am sure the airwaves will be filled with holiday movies.  There will be women having their lives made wonderful and various adaptations of Scrooge and his ghosts.  They will show the Peanuts kids shopping for that tree.  I will be taking walks in my neighborhood and enjoying the lights.  However, during that marathon, you had better believe I will be watching Ralphie dress up like a giant pink bunny. 

Bryan W. Alaspa’s novel Dust is now available in both print and eBook versions at his website www.bryanalaspa.com and www.amazon.com.

The Best Holiday

When I was a kid the end-all and be-all of holidays had to be Christmas.  I am guessing this is not an entirely shocking statement.  Most people love Christmas, I would think, especially as a kid.  If you were like me then you would plan and dream about your presents for what seemed like months in advance.  Back when I was a kid I spent a lot of time looking through catalogs at toys.  I would peer at the damn pictures of various Star Wars toy sets and day-dream about playing with the stupid things.  Then it was just a matter of waiting and enduring the sleepless night before Christmas before tearing into the presents.  By the end of the day, of course, you were pretty much bored with all of the toys and already planning for next year. For a long time Christmas was still my favorite.  It’s hard not to like the holiday.  The city of
Chicago does a lot to make Christmas beautiful.  I am imagining that your city does a lot to make things beautiful for the season as well.  Perhaps you haven’t really noticed for some time what your city does.  I recommend you take some time to notice the things the city does.  Look at the things hanging from the streetlights.  Take a tour of a neighborhood with a lot of lights.  Maybe take a trip downtown to whatever giant tree the city has put up. 

There is a problem with Christmas, however, and as I have gotten older the holiday has lost its “best-of” status.  I am wondering if you feel the same way.  For me the best holiday is, without a doubt, Thanksgiving.  See, the problem with Christmas is that there are presents involved.  Of course receiving presents is fantastic, but having to go out and buy them for people really kind of sucks.  There is very little that is worse than trying to buy gifts for people during the Christmas season.  I buy almost everything online and once managed to buy everything I needed online and didn’t have to step out of my house for Christmas shopping.  This is a good thing. With Thanksgiving there is none of that pressure.  I guess if you are invited over to someone’s home for the dinner you might want to bring some kind of gift but that’s probably just a bottle of wine or something.  It isn’t nearly the same kind of pressure as parking sixty-three miles from a mall and having to take a tram and a bus and a camel to get to the mall and then fight against sixteen trillion other shoppers who are all walking the opposite direction from you. 

Thanksgiving is all about eating.  How wonderful is that?  I guess, if you want to be technical about it, it is also about taking time to reflect on things and being thankful, but really, it’s about eating.  It is also about football and really, any holiday that combines stuffing yourself like a tick and then watching football as you fall asleep on the couch has to take the number one holiday status. There was a time when waking up during Thanksgiving meant getting up early to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  I have no idea why this was so exciting for me.  Watching a gigantic balloon Bullwinkle just doesn’t carry quite the same weight with me since I turned thirty.  My brother and sister-in-law got to at least see the parade in person at one time and that must have been a little bit cool. 

I guess I don’t really understand parades.  I ended up in one accidentally when I was younger because my brother was in Cub Scouts and my mom was den mother and they were in a parade and I just tagged along.  It wasn’t a huge big-deal parade but it was kind of cool to walk down the street.  They seem very crowded and you have to look up to see the balloons and then climb over the people in front of you to see the floats and marching bands.  Mostly you stand there in the cold and look desperately for a bathroom. Every city has a parade.  It’s cute to see the smaller cities have their own parades.  When you compare the celebrities and Broadway stars participating in the New York parade against the St. Louis Thanksgiving Day Parade, well, you just can see that the costs are much lower in one.  There are very few buildings in downtown St. Louis.  They have a few balloons but the one parade I saw on television when I lived there involved local universities manning the balloons and when I saw the balloon manned by the people from my university and saw they were all the people I regularly found passed out around campus on the weekend I knew this was not a parade to be taken seriously.  Apparently they would let anyone in this parade.  If you happen to be passing through St. Louis on Thanksgiving feel free to start walking in their parade because evidently they will let you. 

Chicago has a parade too and it tried really hard to be like the New York one.  They have a few balloons and they have some floats many of which look like those inflatable snow globe things you see on people’s lawns.  Whatever they try to do it just isn’t as intense or exciting as the Macy’s parade.   Anyway, these days Thanksgiving is more about sleeping in.  It’s a chance to really not have to do anything.  I guess for my mother or whomever is doing the cooking the day probably isn’t as easy-going as it is for the rest of us.  However, I cannot see past my own nose and so, I can only attest to the fact that I enjoy the day as one of relaxation.   

The smells fill the house and my father always wants to take bites out of the bird.  My mother worries and frets.  In the end, most of what Thanksgiving is about is family.  Over the years this has come to mean more and more than anything else.  At one time I was in
St. Louis.  At another time my brother lived in New York.  Now my brother is making a move out to Wisconsin.  As we fling ourselves further away from Chicago it becomes more rare and more important to have those special days when we are all together. There is nothing quite like having all of the family members sitting around a table.  My dad talks about politics and the news.  My brother talks about his job which the rest of us still don’t quite understand.  We laugh and we talk and it’s great.  Meanwhile the food piles up and it tastes fantastic and we eat and eat and eat. 

That’s what’s so great about this holiday.  Thanksgiving is the best holiday because it’s about eating and family and then football.  Plus, the turkey comes with its own sleeping drug already built in.  Any holiday with foods that contain a natural narcotic has to at least rank high on your list, doesn’t it? 
Bryan W. Alaspa’s new novel Dust is now available for sale at his website www.bryanalaspa.com and www.amazon.com.