This has been a great year for dancing! We were spared a lot of weather emergencies this year as the prophets of doom just slightly missed their prediction of 15 major hurricanes. We can now go back to watching the Weather Channel for the good looking scenery rather than as actual news.

 

(l. to r.) Nicole Mitchell, Alexandra Steele

(l. to r.) Dao Vu, Stephanie Abrams, Kelly Cass

I'm not really sure which one I'm more thankful for...

Oil Prices: Last week I looked at the Oil futures market and it looked like our friends at OPEC had stabilized the price of oil at $60/bbl. For those of you who don't know you get 19.6 gallons of gasoline out of a barrel of oil, so the wholesale price is going to be approaching $3.00 sooner than later. Those of you who believe that today's $2 prices are better than last year's $3 prices are in for a shock. All of this makes ME particularly thankful that I live in the city and have a very small car. Those of you with monstrous SUVs and McMansions may feel less thankful, however that's what you get for fooling around with Mother Nature and the Iron Law of Resource Depletion... I hope that our friends and neighbors who are serving in Iraq will be home soon. We still have a lot to be thankful for.

You can STILL go swing dancing in DC 7 nights a week, with a live band on four and sometimes five evenings. We just had two straight weeks with 10 live band events. There is so much swing dancing in DC that you can actually afford to "specialize". If you like to travel, there seems to be a big event almost every weekend.

I was doing some last minute shopping, and the shelves are full of goods. It looks like all kinds of people are filling the stores and giving their credit cards a good workout. As I was standing in line, I was surprised to hear a large variety of accents as people spoke to each other or the clerks. Many of these folks have clearly been here just a short while, but it was clear that they had learned "DVD", "Cingular," and "Armani." I get the idea that they find things MUCH better here than where they came from. Some times, I think the only people who DON'T think that the USA is a great place are rich people who have had the privilege of lots of Ivy League Education.

I, for one, am thankful to be in good health, to have a few dollars in my pocket and to be an American. Here at jitterbuzz.com, we are unabashedly proud of American Culture, possibly even including Jerry Lewis (who we share with the French..)

Once again, we have a few things to share with our readers

Many of you are part of our"Roaster Roster" --- that is, you are Devotees of cooking with the Westinghouse Roaster Oven. At last count, the Roster had 2,500 names. Thus, for all you roaster fans, here are the directions for roasting Thanksgiving Turkey taken right out of the Manual

Roasting the Turkey
From the Westinghouse Roaster Manual

In Case, you can't read this, here is the text:

Clean and stuff turkey using favorite dressing recipe. Place turkey on rack in large inset pan. If an especially large turkey is to be roasted, it may be placed in the well of the roaster-oven on a flat shallow pan and the inset pan inverted over the well to form the cover. The small pin on either side of the well will hold the inset pan in place. To clean well after roasting, wipe with a damp cloth. Do not immerse oven-roaster in Water.

Next, most people know that I am from Pittsburgh because I "talk funny". The physical isolation caused by the region's very unique geography contributed to the persistence of a unique speech style called Pittsburghese, which is a mixture of Old English tempered with contributions from the zillions of ethnic groups. This is serious stuff --- even the local television and radio announcers broadcast in the dialect. This, combined with regional specialties in cusine, have contributed to the following "Ideal Pittsburgh Thanksgiving" It works for me!!

A Pittsburgh Thanksgiving
Not suggested for Health Food Nuts

By the way, the Pittsburghese Website even provides a Translation Algorithm should you desire to maximize you communication opportunities.

OKAY! That's it! Have a VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!