Who celebrates this very special occasion.

Have a good one

From Kan Win

Hi... As all the restaurants here are preparing their thanksgiving dinner specials, and cashing in on the largely North American tourists here, we in Maktub`ar are doing nothing other than introducing Brazilian Pizza to Central America.

I was thinking of ihaving a Curseday special.

Very out of character for me, being a fairly amiable person 360 odd days a year, I figured we could hold a "happy CurseDay" and sit around cursing everyone who´s annoyed irritated, cheated, lied, or generally just behaved disrespectfully... Gets it out of the system.

Boss didn´t like the idea.

GOBBLE GOBBLE

˜TWAS THE NIGHT OF THANKSGIVING

But I just couldn't sleep.

I tried counting backwards, I tried counting sheep.

The leftovers beckoned, the dark meat and white.

But I fought the temptation with all of my might.

Tossing and turning with anticipation,

The thought of a snack became infatuation.

So, I raced to the kitchen, flung open the door,

And gazed at the fridge, full of goodies galore.

I gobbled up turkey and buttered potatoes,

Pickles and carrots, beans and tomatoes.

I felt myself swelling so plumb and so round,

'Til all of a sudden, I rose off the ground.

I crashed through the ceiling, floating into the sky

With a mouthful of pudding and a handful of pie.

But, I managed to yell as I soared past the trees

Happy eating to all! Pass the cranberries, please!

May your stuffing be tasty, may your turkey be plump;

May your potatoes 'n gravy have nary a lump.

May your yams be delicious, may your pies take the prize.

May your thanksgiving dinner stay off of your thighs.

--Author Unknown

The day the Pilgrims gave thanks to their god for helping them to survive in the wilderness that had become their home. I guess religious people were just as confused then as they are now. Those Pilgrims only survived because the indigenous peoples (the Indians) taught them how to be farmers in this new land and also fed them so that they didn't starve before their crops matured. The Pilgrilms should have been giving thanks to the Indians' gods....or maybe even the Indians themselves.

Happy Thanksgiving Thaivisa

The following is the real history behind this time of year and how the Pilgrims really managed to survive.

The reason for the early failure is because the governor attempted collectivist principles before he finally learned that private property, "selfish" self-interest", and communal rules simply do not work.

Free Markets do...

The Great Thanksgiving Hoax

by Richard J. Maybury

Each year at this time school children all over America are taught the official Thanksgiving story, and newspapers, radio, TV, and magazines devote vast amounts of time and space to it. It is all very colorful and fascinating.

It is also very deceiving. This official story is nothing like what really happened. It is a fairy tale, a whitewashed and sanitized collection of half-truths which divert attention away from Thanksgiving's real meaning.

The official story has the pilgrims boarding the Mayflower, coming to America and establishing the Plymouth colony in the winter of 1620-21. This first winter is hard, and half the colonists die. But the survivors are hard working and tenacious, and they learn new farming techniques from the Indians. The harvest of 1621 is bountiful. The Pilgrims hold a celebration, and give thanks to God. They are grateful for the wonderful new abundant land He has given them.

The official story then has the Pilgrims living more or less happily ever after, each year repeating the first Thanksgiving. Other early colonies also have hard times at first, but they soon prosper and adopt the annual tradition of giving thanks for this prosperous new land called America.

The problem with this official story is that the harvest of 1621 was not bountiful, nor were the colonists hardworking or tenacious. 1621 was a famine year and many of the colonists were lazy thieves.

In his 'History of Plymouth Plantation,' the governor of the colony, William Bradford, reported that the colonists went hungry for years, because they refused to work in the fields. They preferred instead to steal food. He says the colony was riddled with "corruption," and with "confusion and discontent." The crops were small because "much was stolen both by night and day, before it became scarce eatable."

In the harvest feasts of 1621 and 1622, "all had their hungry bellies filled," but only briefly. The prevailing condition during those years was not the abundance the official story claims, it was famine and death. The first "Thanksgiving" was not so much a celebration as it was the last meal of condemned men.

But in subsequent years something changes. The harvest of 1623 was different. Suddenly, "instead of famine now God gave them plenty," Bradford wrote, "and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many, for which they blessed God." Thereafter, he wrote, "any general want or famine hath not been amongst them since to this day." In fact, in 1624, so much food was produced that the colonists were able to begin exporting corn.

What happened?

After the poor harvest of 1622, writes Bradford, "they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop." They began to question their form of economic organization.

This had required that "all profits & benefits that are got by trade, working, fishing, or any other means" were to be placed in the common stock of the colony, and that, "all such persons as are of this colony, are to have their meat, drink, apparel, and all provisions out of the common stock." A person was to put into the common stock all he could, and take out only what he needed.

This "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" was an early form of socialism, and it is why the Pilgrims were starving. Bradford writes that "young men that are most able and fit for labor and service" complained about being forced to "spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children." Also, "the strong, or man of parts, had no more in division of victuals and clothes, than he that was weak." So the young and strong refused to work and the total amount of food produced was never adequate.

To rectify this situation, in 1623 Bradford abolished socialism. He gave each household a parcel of land and told them they could keep what they produced, or trade it away as they saw fit. In other words, he replaced socialism with a free market, and that was the end of famines.

Many early groups of colonists set up socialist states, all with the same terrible results. At Jamestown, established in 1607, out of every shipload of settlers that arrived, less than half would survive their first twelve months in America. Most of the work was being done by only one-fifth of the men, the other four-fifths choosing to be parasites. In the winter of 1609-10, called "The Starving Time," the population fell from five-hundred to sixty.

Then the Jamestown colony was converted to a free market, and the results were every bit as dramatic as those at Plymouth. In 1614, Colony Secretary Ralph Hamor wrote that after the switch there was "plenty of food, which every man by his own industry may easily and doth procure." He said that when the socialist system had prevailed, "we reaped not so much corn from the labors of thirty men as three men have done for themselves now."

Before these free markets were established, the colonists had nothing for which to be thankful. They were in the same situation as Ethiopians are today, and for the same reasons. But after free markets were established, the resulting abundance was so dramatic that the annual Thanksgiving celebrations became common throughout the colonies, and in 1863, Thanksgiving became a national holiday.

Thus the real reason for Thanksgiving, deleted from the official story, is: Socialism does not work; the one and only source of abundance is free markets.

   

Who celebrates this very special occasion. 

Have a good one       

From Kan  Win

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm a stranger in a strange land.

Do they celebrate that holiday here???

Just kidding ... for all my UK friends!

The day the Pilgrims gave thanks to their god for helping them to survive in the wilderness that had become their home.  I guess religious people were just as confused then as they are now.  Those Pilgrims only survived because the indigenous peoples (the Indians) taught them how to be farmers in this new land and also fed them so that they didn't starve before their crops matured.  The Pilgrilms should have been giving thanks to the Indians' gods....or maybe even the Indians themselves.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They thought God sent the Indians.

Are there any Turkeys in Thailand? ( yes, it is a serious question, even though I realize that it can be interpreted another way, especially here..... )

Why did the Pilgrims leave England in the first place? I know I , as I'm sure most other Americans were taught in school that it was for religious freedom, but what was the real reason? What exactly was going on in England around the time of 1620 to make them have to leave anyway? Something to do with Oliver Cromwell and the Hundred Years War, or something?

Anyway, to all who celebrate the holiday, have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

And for those who don't, well have a Happy Thanksgiving day anyway!

Happy Thanksgiving American folks. Even though Brits don't celebrate it, it's a great excuse for a stodge-up on quality fodder out here...

To add a footnote to the hoax information listed above, the Indians only got involved because after the pilgrims started eating their own dead, they also started eating the bodies of the dead Indians they found in the forest (I can just see the Indians shaking their heads and saying, "we've got to do something about this.").

I also think the captain of the ship which brought them over extorted money from them to keep their agreement; since they didn't pay, he landed them further north than they had wanted, much too late for planting anything.

"Steven"

Happy Thanksgiving American folks. Even though Brits don't celebrate it, it's a great excuse for a stodge-up on quality fodder out here...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Were not the Pilgrims "Brits"?

Happy Thanks Giving

Are there any Turkeys in Thailand? ( yes, it is a serious question, even though  I realize that it can be interpreted another way, especially here.....    )

Why did the Pilgrims leave England in the first place? I know I , as I'm sure most other  Americans were taught in school that it was for religious freedom, but what was the real reason? What exactly was going on in England around the time of 1620 to make them have to leave anyway? Something to do with Oliver Cromwell and the Hundred Years War, or something?

Anyway, to all who celebrate the holiday, have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

And for those who don't, well have a Happy Thanksgiving day anyway! 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've seen turkeys in Laos so I'm pretty sure there are some in Thailand too...but the ones I saw were much smaller than the agrobusiness ones you get in the US. Did you know that turkeys are so dumb that if they look up during a rain storm they will drown?

To add a footnote to the hoax information listed above,

"hoax information"?

To add a footnote to the hoax information listed above, the Indians only got involved because after the pilgrims started eating their own dead, they also started eating the bodies of the dead Indians they found in the forest (I can just see the Indians shaking their heads and saying, "we've got to do something about this.").

"Steven"

I can see this scene happening today somewhere in America...

"Billy, guess what I found out on the web last night? Did you know that the Indians only got involved because after the pilgrims started eating their own dead, they also started eating the bodies of the dead Indians they found in the forest ?"

Narachon,

Hilarious!

Now you see why I don't get invited to so many Thanksgiving parties....

"Steven"