THANKSGIVING COMES FIRST

Please GO HERE for 2008.





Yes, I know I'm shouting. It's just that I’ve had such a very enjoyable time reading all of your blogs. I thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for showing me that I’m far from alone in my feelings.

We’ve hit on something that a lot of people have strong feelings about. To be honest, I think we needed to start a bit earlier to have a larger impact. As it is, I think we’ve started something that can bear fruit in the future.

In almost no particular order, here are your friends in the Thanksgiving Comes First movement.

(Can we call this a movement? Sure. Why not? We can call it whatever we damn well please. It’s OURS.)

The lovely Melinda - who deserves lots of readers, because she always writes interesting stuff - gets first mention because she was the first to post. Some sort of other honor should be bestowed, since she is Canadian and her Thanksgiving happens in October. Her blog is From One London To Another. Did I mention that she writes interesting stuff and deserves more readers? I did? Good.

Fenix, over at Bostonscapes Daily Photo, not only wrote a post, but also cobbled together the wonderful graphic up above. GREAT job, Fenix. If this thing takes off, that should definitely be our logo.

Visual St. Paul, from (I assume) St. Paul.

The lovely Kuanyin, from Maui, Hawaii, in her blog, Who's Yo Mama?

wRitErsbLock, from Pereiraville

(Well, actually, she's from Central Florida. But her BLOG is called Pereiraville, you see? Ah, skip it.)

Miss Kelly, from, um... Miss Kelly!

Lisa, at Diaryland (whose motto, by the way, is: Luring Disco Dollies To A Life Of Vice Since 1999.)

Of course, my cousin, David Sullivan, at Sullsblog, wrote something. It brought back many interesting memories for me.

(An aside: Are they called "Bazaars" elsewhere in the country, or in other countries?)

Technicalities

Pamibe

Paul Day (a.k.a. Billy Bob Neck) from Hbee Inc.

Mari-Nanci at Smilnsigh

Sam from Sam's Musings

Chris, at Nashville Daily Photo

The always tasty Anali, from Anali's First Amendment.

Julie, the Celtic Woman from North Dakota.

And now, a trio who wrote about this even before I did!

Melissa, from My Life actually wrote something about this back on November 3rd.

And, also, mB, from Nkauj Ntses, who wrote about it on November 1st.

However, special long-suffering kudos go to Dusty Lens, from the twin cities of Minneapolis & St. Paul, who started writing about this pain in October. And had the heart to write about it again today.

Cleary Squared, which means something to those from Boston, but probably not so much to those not, wrote about how NOTHING should happen before December 1st.

Some general kudos to David McMahon in Australia. He's always been kind to me, and earlier this week he chose one of these Thanksgiving postings of mine to be his "Blog Of The Day" over at his Authorblog. He always drives a goodly amount of traffic here when he does that, and I appreciate it.

Also, Adam Gaffin, from Universal Hub, has always given me far more help than I deserve.

For those with a facebook account, we have a Wall. I was told about this by B. K. DeLong.

If I’ve left anyone out, my apologies to you. Let me know. I'll edit. If you Google “Thanksgiving Comes First,” you might find more stuff.

UPDATES SINCE POSTING: Manda Renee at Toccando Il Cielo and Isadora at Budapest Daily Photo have joined the fray.

(There are quite a few "(fill-in-the-city) Daily Photo" blogs listed here. This thing seems to have particularly struck a nerve amongst photographers. Odd, but nice.)

Another UPDATE: Business Of Life has a post.

(I think it's reaching a point where I won't be able to add many more, as I must complete work at my actual job today. Again, THANK YOU, ALL.)

I asked you to write letters to newspapers, or to radio stations that are playing Christmas music way too early, or to companies that have made Christmas a mockery. I wrote some. Here are a couple of replies I received:

From WROR radio, in Boston:

Thanks for listening to 105.7 WROR and thanks for your comments about our programming.

Here at WROR, we find Christmas fun and worthy of celebrating. With Thanksgiving next week, we thought we’d get into the spirit now. Led by Loren and Wally, we are all excited to celebrate the season by having some fun and playing Boston’s Favorite Christmas Songs. I’m sorry you don’t agree.

Hopefully, when the spirit touches you, you will join in the fun. Santa will be available to talk to your kids weeknights from 6 to 8.

I appreciate you taking the time to write. We will return to playing Boston’s Greatest Hits on December 26.

Ken West
Program Director
105.7 WROR
55 Morrissey Blvd.
Boston, Ma 02125
617-822-6424
Fax-617-822-6459


From TARGET:

Dear James Sullivan,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings about our 2007 seasonal advertising. I'm sorry to hear of your disappointment. I do understand your concern for celebrating one holiday at a time.

I will forward your comments on to the appropriate department for further review.

We're always glad to hear from you, so whenever you have any questions or comments, give us a call at (800) 440-0680 or visit us on Target.com. Either way, we're here to help!

Thanks for shopping with us. I hope we'll see you again soon at Target.

Sincerely,

Pamela
Target Guest Relations
www.target.com

I feel less animosity towards someone who actually pays attention. I give them credit for that.

On the other hand, Macy’s didn’t care enough to even acknowledge me. I promise you that they’ll be right on top of the list next year.

Next year?

Yes, next year. This isn’t the end of it, by any means. We let some steam off this year. Next year, if you’re game, we can do some really cool things to try to make a difference. I have some ideas. I’ll share them as they get fleshed out a bit more, OK? Think up some fun stuff of your own. We’ll compare notes later, and then get an earlier start.

In the meantime, Thanksgiving Comes Now. Well, at least for me it does. I always take Thanksgiving week off from work. This is because MY WIFE and I host Thanksgiving at our house for much of our family. I prefer to leisurely clean the house, take my time with shopping and prep of the foodstuffs, decorate, and all of the other stuff that needs to be done to make it a special day. And, since I have no Internet connection at home, this is my last posting until AFTER Thanksgiving.

This year, I’m especially thankful for YOU. You’ve made something that royally pisses me off quite a bit more bearable.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I’ll see you on the 26th.