Last year I was barfing up a storm Thanksgiving week thanks to my first encounter with norovirus. This week I definitely have an appetite. And it’s for comfort food. I made a batch of crockpot mac & cheese. More squash dishes are in the works. And I’m planning to crank out a couple of maple pecan pies (hold the lard please). Grocery shopping is done and tomorrow night I will whip up items to bring to several events we’ll be attending Thanksgiving Day. Once again there are four total. Cultivating our blended family has been beneficial in so many ways. But dang does it involve a lot of driving at the holidaze.
I am lucky. I am employed by a company that gets it. Employees are allowed a great deal of autonomy and flexibility. I am able to work from home and to go to the gym and grocery shopping at off-peak hours and to hang out with my son after school. And being able to manage the day-to-day stuff so easily reduces my stress levels and ensures I am a more productive employee. It’s all win-win for everyone!
Most workers are not so lucky. I don’t know how the higher ups at Wal-Mart sleep at night. It made headlines when Walmart was holding food drives for its own employees. Asking low-wage employees to donate to other low-wage employees? Appalling. Improving their compensation would be a better move. And it sounds like they could do it. As Wal-Mart Workers Plan Record Black Friday Protests, Study Says Retail Giant Can Afford Higher Pay. Likewise McDonald’s has gotten into hot water recently over its creepy McResource web site, instructing their underpaid employees to sign up for food stamps and turn off their heat at home to save money. The activist group Low Pay Is Not Ok has been all over that. I never thought I’d so wholeheartedly agree with a Pope. But Pope Francis knows what’s up. “The Pope Just Published One Of The Most Powerful Critiques Of Modern Capitalism That You Will Ever Read” Just one of the highlights:
On the dangerous mix of inequality and consumerism: “It is evident that unbridled consumerism combined with inequality proves doubly damaging to the social fabric.”
Ok, enough with the heavy stuff. How about five good things?
- Yay The Punk Singer! This documentary about Kathleen Hanna will be showing at the Trylon Microcinema in a couple of weeks. Buy tickets here. I did.
- A rare bookseller has found “personal, funny, heartbreaking, and weird things” left behind in books and made a site featuring them. I love these forgotten bookmarks.
- In the Midst of a Warzone there’s an Afghani Skateboarding School for Girls. Amazing.
- The internet mystery that has the world baffled: “For the past two years, a mysterious online organisation has been setting the world’s finest code-breakers a series of seemingly unsolveable problems. But to what end? Welcome to the world of Cicada 3301″
- Now here’s a holiday treat - the return of the BBC radio adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere. As voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, James McAvoy, Natalie Dormer and other favorites.
Just yesterday I packed up the bulk of our Halloween decorations (I leave the glitter skull and other shiny things out year-round). We don’t have anywhere to be on Friday so I’m planning to hunker down at home, eating Thanksgiving leftovers, and BUYING NOTHING. I would like to play some board games. And avoid any holiday advertising. Speaking of, a co-worker pointed out this Minimalist Parenting holiday resource site. “You’ll enjoy the holidays more when you do less.” I can get behind that.
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