Thanksgiving open thread

I am also staying home after a 5 years of NYC and the parade. My sisters are coming in from the west coast and the first order of business will be celebrating our new administration with many glasses of wine.  I am cooking everything local.....except the wine. My sisters are snobs. Hope everyone in OP world has a great celebration.

We never go away for the holidays. Any of them.Thanksgiving is orphan Thanksgiving. Friends come over. It's potluck so I can't vouch for all the dishes, but I know my houseguest ordered  lots of sides and a vegan pie from Weaver Street Market. And I bought baby carrots, turnips with greens, brussel sprouts, spinach, arugula, sweet potatoes, acorn and butternut squash at the Farmer's Market this afternoon.  There was a run on the brussel sprouts. I am thankful to get any.

We spend every Thanksgiving with Berkeley's family in Charleston.  It's one of those sacrosanct traditions, hectic but special.  Tgiving is my favorite holiday.  The Charlestonians do a low-country oyster roast on Friday.  As traditions go, this is the higlight of the year. 

Our daughter received her birthday book from Carrboro Elementary today. It's "A Weekend In the Paris of the Piedmont" and she read it with her Dad tonight. On the page about Cliff's Meat Market, he told her how when he was her age there was one grocery story, Fowlers and his mother took him to Cliff's for all their meat purchases. 

With the holiday season upon us and the transfer station saga continuing, I'd like to see us all make every effort to further reduce our personal contributions to the waste stream. A simple approach is to take your own bags when you go shopping. This doesn't just have to be grocery shoppingonly--take them to Market Street Books or the Internationalist as well.Here are some tips to help you remember to take your bags: http://www.igotmybag.org/tips.htm Want some other reusable items, including bags the are teeny tiny and fit in your purse/glove compartment/backpack? http://www.reusablebags.com/I think Townsend and Bertram has some small bags as well as. And I know they have Sigg reuseable bottles.

I am thankful I live in Carrboro . . .  From a Charlotte Observer article by Julia Oliver:In response to neighborhood complaints about noisy, late-night food trucks, City Council passed a new regulation Monday that will limit where vendors can operate. Council members also rejected a request by food vendors that a 9 p.m. closing time be extended two hours. The vendors have said they earn most of their money between 9 and 11 p.m., serving construction workers who come home late from out-of-town jobs.  Debate over the ordinance has raised questions about fairness in how the city treats different types of food vendors. Those subject to the new rules serve mainly tacos and other Mexican fare along Central Avenue, South Boulevard and other roads branching out from the city. In contrast, hot dog vendors and others who sell precooked food uptown may operate 24 hours a day. The unanimous council decision came after about an hour of discussion. About 45 people, including vendors and their families, stood in the audience holding paper signs that read: “Carne asada is not a crime!” “How can you hate on taco trucks?” and “Save the taco trucks.” About five people in support of the changes held signs that said, “Vote yes.” Councilman John Lassiter said that in making his decision he tried to balance the rights of neighborhoods with the rights of small businesses. “I kind of default to the neighbors. We've got to take their issues into account first,” he said. Neighborhood groups, especially those off Central Avenue, have pushed the city to crack down on taco trucks that sell food from parking lots along the corridor. Residents say the trucks attract noisy crowds late into the night, clog traffic and leave litter behind.   . . . After the vote, vendors said they were disappointed. Manuel Gaucin said he was most upset that the council did not approve the later operating time.  “It's my work,” he said. “I have my family, I have my house, I have family in Mexico” to support. He said he and two friends are trying to start a restaurant at Harris Boulevard and Sharon Amity Road, and they are covering their startup costs with the money they earn at the taco trucks. He is worried that if they have to shut down the trucks at 9 p.m., they will lose most of their business.   “It's not enough time to earn money to pay our bills,” he said.

Surely there has to be a limit on the number of vendors of this type.  It's easy for Carrboro to monitor one or two of them, but a city the size of Charlotte could easily lose control.  Even a single outbreak of salmonella, or e-coli, would obviously be problematic.  Health departments need to be at the ready.  You can't just let anyone start selling food on the streets, and people do have the right to quiet in their neighborhoods.

We might could start by referring to these particular vendors in a less racist-sounding way.  Taco Truck is not a rolling food vendor category unto itself.  The same healh codes apply to rolling hot dog and popcorn vendors.  Do we call them Gringo Trucks?  Food for thought.    

Even at Teeter's I see quite a few shoppers toting their own reusable bags -- as many as they think they'll need to accomodate their grocery lists.  This is a trend our aldermen and town council could cultivate by banning plastic bags not only in grocery stores but in department and specialty shops.  Alongside a ban, however, a promotional campaign is in order to encourage all consumers to consider whether or not they really need a bag for every purchase.  Hmmm.  The psychology is partly that most people don't want the whole world to see their bacon and Twinkies. 

At Trader Joe's, those who bring their own bags are given a ticket for a weekly raffle, and the winner gets $25 or so in groceries.  That sure does seem to be a good way to encougage people to remember their bags.Still, banning throw-away plastic bags would be a really great thing.

The thing about a "ban" is that the word itself raises hackles.  There's no substitute, except for maybe "outlaw" which is even more incendiary.  An outright ban would upset people who don't like the idea that something so normal and prevalent is all of a sudden "bad."  The best approach to the plastic bag problem might be a well organized plea to area merchants.  The plastic bags disappear and that's that.  Hard to imagine that sort of decision-making by your local Harris Teeter manager, considering the implications.  I favor a ban, and would encourage our elected officials to search their Thesauruses for some other language to craft their ordinances. 

Google "paper vs plastic" and you'll see that paper is not so superior to plastic.  There are many debates and analyses which point to either, or neither.  When recycled, plastic might make more sense.  Perhaps a ban on all new bags would be more effective.  Either people could bring their own, or the store could supply a recycled bag.

We should tax products that cause problems.

P R O C L A M A T I O N    WHEREAS, the Human Rights Coalition of North Carolina is pleased to announce Margaret (Peggy) Misch as the recipient of its 2008 International Human Rights Award; and  WHEREAS, Peggy is a founding member of the Coalition for Peace with Justice; and  WHEREAS, she has worked assiduously over the years in support of a just resolution of the Palestinian - Israeli conflict based on (a) equal human rights for Palestinians and Israelis and (b) adherence to international law; and  WHEREAS, she is a founding and very active member of North Carolina Stop Torture Now that focuses on educating the public about our state’s direct involvement in torture and extraordinary rendition; and  WHEREAS, through the Orange County Bill of Rights Defense Committee, of which she was the primary organizer, she works to protect the human rights of immigrants facing federal programs and the xenophobia of many North Carolinians; and  WHEREAS, Peggy has been an advocate for peace and justice in Orange County and around the world for many, many years,  NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that I, Mark H. Chilton, Mayor of the Town of Carrboro, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim December 9, 2008, as “PEGGY MISCH DAY” in the Town of Carrboro.  This, the 2nd day of December 2008 Mark H. Chilton, Mayor