The morning started with Kevin's, my friend and downstairs neighbor, breakfast of home-baked zucchini bread and pumpkin-flavored coffee. We sat at the living room coffee table and watched some of the Macy Thanksgiving Day parade on tv.
I was very impressed by NBC's fluid, kinetic camera work with all the swooping and the zooming and the dollying. And many of the floats were fabulous. As far as performances we saw, Cher Lloyd and Debbie Ryan were not so fabulous. They sound like the same person, that person being just about any current girl singer with the cookie-cutter voice.
Kevin said the vocalist of The Sound Set sang like "a low-rent Justin Bieber." Auto-tuning doesn't go well with lip-synching on a float and a close-up on tv.
Real talent was on hand with The Goo-Goo Dolls, Kristen Chenowith (a boffo "New York, New York" -- eat your hearts out, bimbos; loved Cheno's hair), and Joan Jett, singing "Any Weather" (impressive song). She was looking great; not every person Joan's age can pull off jet-black hair but it went well with her nip/tuck. And we adored her fitted red leather coat!
A four-course meal for $21.95 + tax and we each tipped our gracious waitress $10. (I mean, she even took our picture together and she's at work on a major holiday. ) Such a feast, I took home a ton of turkey, yams and a slice of pumpkin pie in a doggy bag. (And then had a two-hour "nap." Blame it on the tryptophan, the bossa nova or a sluggish metabolism? Can't decide. I'll have to sleep on it.)
The main course was a bounteous pile of turkey, yams, mashed potatoes, and peas and carrots with a pile of stuffing under the meat (dark and white both). Previous to this: a cup of cream of turkey soup (my choice), bowl of green salad (my choice of dressing: o&v), a free glass of red wine, bread basket.
The aforementioned piece of pie was for dessert. With an already full belly, I may not have been gluten-free but opted to be glutton-free. It came home, possibly for tomorrow's breakfast. The meal, all in all, was a foodie's comfort-food wet dream.
I am thankful to the Lighthouse (7506 Third Ave., Brooklyn, NY). There was no lighthouse when the pilrgrims landed at Plymouth Rock I understand, nor was there Lighthouse Cafe when the Greeks landed in Bay Ridge. The Lighthouse will also be open on Christmas Day.
I am also thankful to Bay Ridge itself, a neighborhood I enjoy for so many reasons. In fact, tomorrow is the second anniversary of my move here.
I hope all my readers across the USA had a happy, a very special Thanksgiving. We have so much to be grateful for and it feels really good to take a time out to celebrate that fact. The feasting is merely symbolic. (Pretty good symbolism, though, in my book!) Because it's not what's on the table, it's who's around it.
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| Old friends, old friends sat on the park bench like bookends ~ Paul Simon |
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