It's the day after Thanksgiving, and I have a holiday message to everyone with a weblog. Before you click the "PUBLISH" button on your site, I need you to know that your tryptophan joke is not funny. Sorry. I hate to be such a killjoy but, really. Spend 15 more minutes thinking about what Thanksgiving meant to you, and you might discover an ounce of real introspection, or at least thoughtfully observant moment to record for public record. It's just that the whole tryptophan thing -- well, that's not really trying. Summing up your Thanksgiving experience with, "I'll write more when the Tryptophan wears off!!" is an exercise in borrowing from something already borrowed.

Similarly, comedians, as a means of comic shorthand, will often name little kids in their jokes, "Sally" or "Timmy" or "Billy" or "Stevie." Or the way they'll name dogs "Fluffy" or "Sparky." It's not real; it's just kind of off-the-shelf comedy. And it doesn't make me think that comic is bad, really. It just makes me think he or she is racist.

Happy Thanksgiving! Football, huh? And also MY CRAZY FAMILY!!!! Plus cranberry sauce shaped like a can shopping mall obese aunt gravy boat! ZZZZZ.

[semi-related: read Thanksgiving tidings from 2003 & 2002.]