No cranberry sauce!?!?!

Thanksgiving Staple Impacted by Climate Change

By SARAH SCHUMANN/ecoRI.org News contributor

TIVERTON and FREETOWN, Mass. — Crimson in color and tart on the tongue, cranberries add both sustenance and symbolism to the Thanksgiving table. As with turkey, pumpkin and other hallmarks of America’s feast day, their historical significance stems from their role in fortifying early New Englanders against the harsh winters once common in this region. But although cranberries remain a Thanksgiving staple, the cold winters that gave rise to this custom are fast becoming a thing of yesteryear.

Shop locally this Christmas

Republishing a Classic Progressive Charlestown article

Every year as the holidays approach, foreign factories kick into high gear to provide Americans with mass quantities of cheaply produced goods—merchandise that has been produced at the expense of American labor. Why not make this year different? Give gifts that will make a difference to people in our own community. It's simply not true that you can't buy anything that's made in America anymore. You just have to think outside the box. 

By Linda Felaco

Homeless Like Me

48 Hours on the Streets of Providence

By Bob Plain, RIFuture.org

Wednesday, Nov. 21 12:38pm – As you sit down to your second helping of Thanksgiving dinner to watch the Patriots game on your big screen TV, please take a moment to think about the almost 5,000 of your neighbors here in the Ocean State who are homeless.

As you settle in for the second half, and maybe a third helping of turkey with all the fixings, they will either be vying for one of the too few beds at the local shelters. Or, worse, looking for a place to sleep outside for the night.

And I’m going to be there with them. I’m celebrating Thanksgiving this year by spending 48 hours on the streets of Providence.

This Thanksgiving

By David Heckman on November 21, 2012

From RIFuture.org

I wonder what would happen if this Thanksgiving holiday was more traditional. I am not thinking of the harvest festival celebration of abundance common to all cultures, but of the practice of public days characteristic of the Pilgrims and Puritans themselves.

Happy Thanksgiving

From Fake Science

This holiday season, help local businesses recover from Hurricane Sandy

DON’T SHOOT or eat this!

500-Pound Animal Resembles a Deer but Must Not Be Consumed Due to Potential Harmful Effects on Humans

DEM News release

PROVIDENCE - The Department of Environmental Management is notifying the public of an escaped exotic animal in the Hope Valley area.

A Nilgai, or exotic antelope, has escaped from a private collection in the Woodville-Alton Road section of Hopkinton, near the Black Farm State Management Area. The animal was in the process of being captured for relocation to Texas when it escaped. The animal resembles a large deer. It weighs approximately 500 pounds, is predominately brown in color, does not have any antlers, and has a small metal ear tag in one of its ears.

Is Coastal Development Washed Up?

R.I. Coast at Center of Marine Climate Crisis

Hurricane Sandy ripped up a good portion
of Rhode Island’s southern coastline.

By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff

For coastal planners and managers, the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy is about responding to an immediate crisis while keeping a commitment to long-term planning — a challenge complicated by the politically charged issue of climate change.

This predicament was at center stage this week at the Marine Science Symposium hosted by Roger Williams University, where scientists, lawyers and municipal planners discussed the recent storm and its role in a changing coastal habitat.

Thanksgiving Story Starters

Republishing a Classic Progressive Charlestown article
Share something new with your family at your next gathering.

The November AARP Bulletin lists suggested conversation starters for those times when holiday dinner conversation needs a jump start.

"Eat food you grow," part 7

Butternut squash risotto
with cream cheese and fresh parsley

A locavore recipe collection, inspired by the CCA Steering Committee

Part 7: The Winter Squash Variations

By Linda Felaco

Please Don't Shoot the Messengers

Official secrecy doesn't just shield high-ranking officials from the personal embarrassment that comes with taking the term "embedded" too literally.
By William A. Collins

Whistleblowers
Suffer woe
To tell us what
We need to know.

When you picture classified documents, don't visions of spy lists, nuclear ignition formulas, cross-sections of bomber wings, or diagrams of missile trajectories come to mind?

Well, those documents seldom reach the public eye and are only relevant for so long. Besides, pollshave consistently revealed that Americans continue to rank foreign policy among the least important issues facing our nation. Experts say that at most it drove the choices of 5 percent of American voters on Election Day.

Given that low level of interest, it's probably safe to say that few Americans harbor any interest in the finer details of national security. But here's something that may truly interest you about our classified secrets: Too often, instead of protecting us from destruction, they protect our leaders from embarrassment.

Don't believe me? Go ask former CIA chief David Petraeus.

Vegan Misgivings

Moving to the big table wouldn't have been such a big deal if what you found when you got there was broccoli.

By Donald Kaul

Thanksgiving is upon us. I once loved this holiday above all others — but no more.

The day was an excuse for a gathering of the clan, without religious significance or pressure to buy everybody a useless present.

An alternative Thanksgiving

Republishing a Classic Progressive Charlestown article

Some things are better seen than eaten

By Will Collette

As a registered curmudgeon, it is hard for me to admit that, yes, Thanksgiving is a nice holiday. A gathering of family and friends. A reflection on the year, and hopefully for most, there are things to be thankful for.

Turkey Trot

Republishing a Classic Progressive Charlestown article

Before …

When my husband and I were house-hunting, the real estate ad for our property promised wild turkeys and deer on site. The realtor told us the previous owner (her father) was fond of saying that he could have shot deer through the dining room window if he'd wanted to. After we bought the place, a friend of ours wanted to put a salt lick in the driveway and sit in the top floor of the barn with a shotgun and wait for deer to show up. 

Well, I guess the deer must have heard him say that, because we have yet to see any deer on our property (though we have spotted them in the neighborhood). But every day at 4 p.m., a flock of turkeys passes through on their way home from their feeding grounds in the undeveloped lot in back of us. 

By Linda Felaco

The Biggest Loser in Politics

Billionaires expect better returns than Karl Rove pulled off on Election Day.

chicagopublicmedia/Flickr

By Jim Hightower

You know it's a good election night when Karl Rove throws a hissy fit on national television.

It came just after 11pm, when the man known as George W. Bush's "architect" heard a TV network declare Obama the winner in Ohio. This wasn't just any network, but Fox, the Republican Party's official propaganda machine. The rabidly partisan GOP hit man doubles as a Fox commentator.

Rove was just off-camera on the Fox set as the on-air anchor team called Ohio, the state that sealed Barack Obama's re-election. In fact, he was on the phone at the time with a top Romney staffer who was wailing that Fox was wrong, that Romney was winning Ohio.

Rove immediately demanded to be put on the air to rebut the network's own professional vote counters. He got what he wanted, spewing a bunch of out-of-context numbers and publicly chiding his Fox colleagues for being "premature." This prompted a rare moment of dead air, after which anchor Megyn Kelly said, "Well, that's awkward."