Thanksgiving: A Day of Reading

The Thanksgiving feast is so easy to prepare that I spent five hours reading.  

9-10:  Drank coffee and read Edna Ferber's Giant.  This old-fashioned novel delineates the story of three generations of the Benedicts, wealthy ranchers who live simply but eventually fly around Texas, hobnobbing with oil millionaires.  The spunky heroine, Leslie, an intellectual Virginian (originally from Ohio), has beautiful manners, a strong will, and a civilizing influence on the family.  After Bick visits her father's farm in the Washington area to buy a racehorse, the young Leslie stays up all night reading about Texas (a woman after my own heart).  She quickly wins him with her knowledge, though at first he thinks she's too radical in her criticism of Texans' cheating Mexicans out of their land.  Ferber gives us a long history lesson in the course of this conversation.


 After their quick wedding and a brisk New York honeymoon, Leslie is shocked by the stark ranch and bookless house.  Her trousseau is a little too fancy.  She doesn't fit in. She tells him:

"Uh--look, dear, I must order a lot of books from Brentano's in Washington."

 "Oh, you won't do much reading here."

"But I always read.  I read a lot.  It's like saying you won't do much breathing out here."  Her tone was a trifle sharp for a bride.

She's going to need a LOT of books over the years.


I had been thinking about reading Peyton Place, but didn't have a copy, so I started reading Giant.  If you want to read Ferber at her best, read her 1924 Pulitzer-winning novel So Big or her Emma McChesney stories (Roast Beef, Rare, etc.).

10-3.  Prepared turkey and stuffing.   Yes, and some of those things in the picture below. Shed pajamas in cold house and donned jeans and a warm autumnal-looking sweater (it has a design of embroidered leaves, is very thick, and is a stand-by for cold weather).  Read more of Giant and occasionally get up to clear table surfaces, polish tables, and clean kitchen.

DIALOGUE AT THE TRADITIONAL FEAST.
 
Mmm, this turkey is delicious.   
The secret is...
[They've heard this before and chorus...]  Roasting it in a slow oven.
...And fresh ingredients.
Ha ha ha.
[There is much mimicry of restaurant talk around here, everybody having worked at a restaurant.]
I kind of like the green bean casserole.  
[General lack of enthusiasm, though. We've never had this traditional dish before, but I did use fresh green beans.  The recipe is at the Campbell's soup website.]
The pie is fantastic.
Best I ever had.
[Everybody had two pieces.]
[Lots of gossip about entertainment news.  We talked about the women on The View.]
Did you know that Whoopi Goldberg is a grandmother?
I really wish we had a copy of Ghost.
Yeah, Whoopi won the academy award for that.
My favorite is The Food Network. Did you see the sauerkraut and turkey?
[Everybody is properly grossed out.]
 
And so another Thanksgiving ends.