Happy Thanksgiving.  If you’re a cop, work in an electric power plant, run a radio station, drive a snowplow, work in a hospital, or do any other of the many, many jobs that require you to ignore the ups and downs of the calendar, take heart.  Lots of folks will join you, working in WalMart, KMart, and lots of other stores this Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving used to be (and I’m talking only a few years ago here) the most sweeping holiday in America.  It was the one day when you had better have made all your grocery purchases beforehand, because you were not going to pick up a pound of butter anywhere on Thanksgiving.  Most gas stations, even, were closed.  No newspapers, no mail, no bustling crowds: it was the quietest day of the year.  Now that is no more.

I’m grateful to have the memory of a quieter Thanksgiving.