The Manda Finds Reasons to Give Thanks This Holiday Season

Lots of reasons to be thankful this week. Thursday's dinner featured deep fried turkey courtesy of Uncle Jimmy, who took a break from riding around to marinate the bird in beer before immersing it in boiling oil out in the backyard.

And this is the song that's been stuck in my head for a week:


One other thing to make me thankful. Four days. Two airports. Didn't even come close to getting felt up, but they did make me take off my cardigan. I thought this part was weird, because they wouldn't have made me take off a pullover, and pullovers tend to be bulky and easier to hide stuff in than a cardigan.

I digress.

So it seems that the brouhaha over airport security is just another instance of the media spinning out of control and creating a problem that probably doesn't really exist in a meaningful way. No, I'm not crazy about naked x-rays of myself being out there someplace, and I think they're silly and pointless.

More importantly, though, there's some poor schmuck in a room somewhere who has to look at the naked x-rays of all these travelers. I've seen the people who are flying. The average American doesn't look like Halle Berry. The average American doesn't even look like Chuck Berry. It's bad enough to see most people with their clothes on-- and I include myself in this assessment. This can't be a fun job.

And this poor schmuck presumably has a social life. What does he tell his friends about his job? What happens when he goes on a date and gets asked what he does for a living?

More than the ickiness and social embarrassment, the boredom must be soul-crushing. Like even more boring than teaching high school.

So, let us all be thankful that we are not that poor schmuck.