"So Thanksgiving Was Yesterday And I'm Still Recovering" Heard At The Gym

The woman who cuts my hair told me the other day how grateful she was that her kids were otherwise engaged for Thansksgiving, and she was let off the hook of any hostessing duties.  She and her husband were lying back in their loungers back home from work absorbing this fact when it came to them that the perfect Thanksgiving dinner was to wrap up two home made Turkey sandwiches, grab a bottle of wine, two glasses, a couple pieces of pumpkin pie,take up a blanket and go down to the beach, and lie back and gaze at the scudding clouds and feel the gentle breeze off the Coast.  Heaven!  I am in the process of reading through the text of the Odyssey this week and next and into the New Year until it is time to teach, and nothing is more engaging than rehearsing a text much beloved and congenial.  I almost always used to say "one of the foundations of western civilization," but after reading Kenneth Appiah''s demolishing of the notion of western civilization in this week's Guardian I shall have to think of it in less majestic terms, less pretentious, and concentrate on what a great story it is, and how often tongue in cheek.  Odysseus!  what a guy! I guess my new approach to the poem is going to be more like my barber and her plans for Thanksgiving day.  Ah, well, and so it goes.