Thanksgiving

The slumping economy is keeping Americans closer to home for Thanksgiving as travel by planes and automobiles is expected to drop for the first time in six years. Penny-pinching travelers are expected to find cheaper alternatives such as trains and buses to visit their families. "The overall state of the economy continues to present real challenges for some Americans looking to travel this Thanksgiving," said AAA Chief Executive Robert L. Darbelnet.

For decades, Claremont kindergartners have celebrated Thanksgiving by dressing up as pilgrims and Native Americans and sharing a feast. But on Tuesday, when the youngsters meet for their turkey and songs, they won't be wearing their hand-made bonnets, headdresses and fringed vests.

Samantha Roper sometimes dreams about the mashed potatoes her mother makes on Thanksgiving, from potatoes grown at an uncle's farm 10 minutes from her Southern Idaho home. But today, with airfare costs and distance making a trip home impractical, the Chapman University freshman will go without the creamy spuds on the holiday for the first time. Instead, Roper, 18, is staying at her Fullerton dorm as classes shut down for the long weekend.

At Karen Dawn's Thanksgiving feast, there will be yams and stuffing with cranberries and a dessert of pumpkin-pecan pie, all set out on a table for eight. And there will be turkeys, two of them actually -- Emily and Bruce (or possibly Brucilla -- it's a little unclear). The two 20-pounders will have most of the privileges of Dawn's other sentient guests -- a Pacific Palisades patio, a view of the ocean and vegetarian nibbles.

The smoked turkey resembles sliced deli meat but stiffer, the candied yams are bland inside, the green beans taste like they've been microwaved to death, and the cornbread stuffing has a broth-heavy, institutional flavor. Grandma's home cooking, it's not. Then again, Grandma's Thanksgiving dinners were never irradiated, freeze-dried, vacuum-packed into plastic pouches and then launched into space to be served 220 miles above Earth.

Thanksgiving weekend is so not about eating turkey and sitting around with loved ones. It's about getting the heck away from the table and being first to grab the remote control. Really, from dawn until dusk Thursday, Friday, Saturday and today, you could be watching football games that will be crucial to portioning out decimal points in the blurry BCS college football title chase or deciding NFL playoff spots.

The mother whose questioning of a Thanksgiving kindergarten tradition in Claremont resulted in the elimination of the children's handmade pilgrim and Native American costumes last month has received more than 250 hate e-mails, filled with misogynistic epithets, racist jeers and other abuse. One hoped that her daughter, a kindergartner, would get beaten up at school. Another celebrated genocide of Native Americans. Police are providing extra patrols at her home. And Michelle Raheja is at a loss.

It's not even Thanksgiving, but the nation's retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Toys R Us Inc., are jump-starting holiday sales with big discounts and door-buster specials starting Friday in what is expected to be a lukewarm Christmas season. The sales blitz -- which comes three weeks earlier than the usual debut the day after Thanksgiving -- is great news for consumers. But the strategy shows the nervousness of merchants.

Maybe it's the mood, or the angle of the sun, but Thanksgiving always seems like a time of year when the day never quite arrives; it just skitters off the surface of the hours between bouts of night. Even so, the sky does colorful somersaults, passing through shades from the pale butter yellows of afternoon to the softening pastels of dusk, and on to night. Oddly enough, these colors correspond to those you might find in a Thanksgiving wine glass.

If you're flying for Thanksgiving, brace yourself. Beginning today, the busiest period for holiday air travel will be busier than ever, with a record 27 million passengers, up 4% from last year, jamming airports and stuffing planes over a 12-day period. And once aboard, there won't be much elbow room: In another record, most planes will be more than 90% full, meaning most flights will take off with all seats occupied. For the year, passenger loads on flights have averaged 80% of capacity.