Three threes on Thanksgiving as follows.
Three football games today starting at 12:30 with the Bills back in Detroit against the Lions. (The Bills’ previous game vs. the Browns was moved from Buffalo to Detroit due to the big snow storm that engulfed Buffalo last week. The joke was that it marked the first time anyone ever really wanted to go to Detroit.) At 4:30 the Cowboys will host the Giants in a Divisional game that should be fun to watch. And later in the evening at 8:20 the Patriots will play the Vikings in Minnesota where folks were smart to have built a domed stadium many years ago. In fact, the Metrodome was built so many years ago (1982) that it became antiquated and replaced with a second domed stadium for the Vikings in 2016.
Note – here is some stadium trivia for you. To date, the Metrodome has been the only facility to have hosted a Super Bowl (92), a World Series (87 and 91), a MLB All Star Game (85), and a NCAA Division I Basketball Final Four (92 and 2001.) I know that this trivia does NOT fit in with my threesome theme of today. However, I just wanted to give you some dinner table conversation to run by that know-it-all-uncle you will have sitting next to you later on today.) For you football junkies who have your Maryland on line betting accounts all set up to do some wagering today (click here for betting tips and advice and then bet the opposite of what they suggest.)
The second Thanksgiving trio has to do with the other f word for today and that is food as in Thanksgiving pies. On no other holiday does the pie get so much love as it does on Thanksgiving. This is all the more remarkable because if ever there was a time to skip desert after stuffing yourself silly, then today would be that day.
My going in thought here was that the P pies would be the top three choices of the day – pumpkin, pecan and sweet potato. However, seems that the good old standby, the apple pie gets cited a lot too as folks’ number one favorite for today. (Also, seems that pie preferences might just depend on where you live (click here.)
Just as pie preferences may not be restricted to 3, my third 3 is also a little all over the place. It involves a question that I have posed to my Buzzy folks this week “What time do you eat Thanksgiving dinner?” The most popular response has been “Three o’clock.”
In general, most folks agree that when it comes to serving up Thanksgiving dinner, earlier really is better. Somewhere in the 3 to 5 o’clock timeframe is the best time to serve up your Thanksgiving dinner (click here.)
I recall one Thanksgiving driving a couple hours up the road to visit and dine with relatives who told us to be there around 2.
I am chaffeuring everyone up the road thinking “Ok, dinner will be at 3. We’ll spend a couple hours eating and chit chatting, be on the road by 5 or 6 and back in the Point around 7 or 8 at the latest. Not bad.”
Well, guess what? When we arrived a little after 2, our host remarked “Good timing, you all get to watch me put the turkey in the oven.” I’m going “Whaaaat?!!! You’re just putting that bad boy in the oven now?”
Talk about chit chatting, that is all we did waiting 4 hours for the bird to be done. On top of that, I had not eaten anything all day trying to leave room for the Thansgiving over indulging. I hit the hors d’oeuvers table hard and fast throughout the entire afternoon. I am pretty sure that I ate all the celery and carrots they had put on there.
We finally ate around 7 (turkey had to cool) and it was indeed an excellent meal. What is the old saying that hunger really is the best sauce? Well based on waiting several hours for Thanksgiving dinner I know that to be very true.
OK, apologize for that little detour down a not-so-good-Thanksgiving-memory-lane so let’s get back to the threes. I am reminded of something I came upon in a book on Taoism that my daughter Ryan gave me years ago:
I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. – Lao Tzu
While I am inclined to agree with the Lao man that all this sounds fairly simple to do, I just don’t think I have enough patience in me to be that kind and compassionate. How about a feel good song for a feel good day: