The skies here are overcast this morning.
There's a light sprinkling of rain out there.
The temperature is in the mid 50's
Feels like Thanksgiving weather for Arizona's Central Highlands.
The scent of football is in the air.
SWMBO is in the kitchen, prepping some dishes for The Big Feast.
Two days and counting.
Meanwhile, beware of astrologers!
I like pie.
Apple, lemon, blueberry, cherry, chocolate, coconut cream.
Any of 'em.
But perhaps my favorite is the one that is prominent on many Thanksgiving dinner tables.
And I'm not talkin' about pecan pie, though I know many people prefer it.
And I'm not talkin' about sweet potato pie, though that is a great substitution for people whose tooth may not be as sweet as mine.
I'm talkin' about the king of Thanksgiving pies.
Pumpkin pie!
But not everyone likes it and I personally know of one person to whom the following pictures illustrate, for them, the *only* way to enjoy pumpkin pie.
I got up a little after 11 o'clock last night to look for the vaunted Lunar Eclipse and couldn't see it out of any of our windows.
Then I was up again sometime after 4 o'clock this morning and saw what appeared, without my spectacles, to be a full moon shining brightly.
I guess my view of the astronomical event was . . . eclipsed.
Meantime in Washington, Kevin McCarthy was talking.
And talking.
And talking.
It seems like a good time for some laughter.
I hope you found some lightness in your attitudes from these feeble attempts at comedy.
Once more thanks to all of my contributors.
These weekly forays into frivolity would not be possible without you.
Now everyone listen up: enjoy yourselves greatly these next few days as we all brace for the big day of feasting, football and family feuds.
And always remember to keep laughing!
Here, kitty-kitty . . .
Well, I hope you're ready.
The big Feasting Day of the year is only a week away now.
When I was a wee lad, there was always a huge bronzed bird placed on the table in front of my carving-knife-armed father.
In later years, Judy and I scaled it back to a turkey breast, both favoring white meat over dark.
And in many years of late, having learned that she doesn't really like turkey, our Thanksgiving meal has become a roast pork tenderloin.
The sides remain generally intact though.
Well, whatever way you do it, it's time to be getting prepared.
Good luck.
No, it's not another blog post about football or some other sport.
I know when to quit.
This is about a matter of controversy in the field of ornithology.
Now in case you've forgotten your high school studies, ornithology is defined as a branch of zoology dealing with the study of birds.
And today we are going to solve a long-standing argument about those big black birds.
Specifically, crows and ravens, and which is which.
I have long railed at people who call them all "crows", when frequently the bird they've spotted is a "raven".
My way of identifying the two is pretty simple.
Crows stick to the countryside while ravens are more social and come into town to raid your dumpsters and hang around your parking lots.
But today a friend has sent me a new method of differentiating between the two species and I hereby offer it to all of you.
I have chosen to keep my friend's identity private to prevent him from being shunned in public places.
How was your weekend?
Better than mine, I hope.
Yeah, it's football season, when one's favorite team gets sandbagged.
My mighty Arizona Cardinals were beaten, routed even, by a team that was a huge underdog.
But "my" ASU Sun Devils pulled out another great fourth quarter on Saturday to mark another victory in their pretty good season.
So I guess you could call it a draw.
But you didn't come here to hear about football.
I know that many, if not most of you don't even follow sports.
And that's fine.
Lessee, what else is new.
Oh I tried a new recipe the other day and cooked a Mushroom Stroganoff which came out pretty good.
SWMBO and I were discussing it and I said I'd been watching a cooking show on television and the lady made a Ground Beef Stroganoff and she included mushrooms and said every stroganoff had to have mushrooms.
I said I hadn't previously known that and said that my Mushroom Stroganoff was kind of strange, then, wasn't it?
Judy said she thought that when I was talking about making it for days ahead of time but she wasn't going to say anything and she thought it was delicious after the fact so . . what the hey?
I do kind of get a bit tense when I'm trying a new recipe but I think I've found just the thing to ease that and I'm offering to share it with you in case you have "a case of the nerves".
It's just in time too.
If you're an extremely intelligent and discerning reading public, you may notice an anomaly.
The title of this blog is "The Friday Funnies".
Nothing odd about that.
It's the same title I use *every* Friday.
But there's something wrong here.
The dateline says "Thursday".
Now you may think your computer has gone completely nuts.
Or you may believe that *you* have gone the same direction.
Ah, fear not, Gentle Readers.
It's my problem, you see.
I'm putting this blog post together last night.
That is, Thursday night.
And I can't figure out how to change the date so you know what?
The hell with it!
You haven't gotten lost in time and space because I won't actually post this until today.
Er, that is, Friday.
Gadfrey!
(Surprise! Blogger DID change the dateline so you can now ignore all of the above. Sheesh!)
Oh, one other thing.
You will see no cartoons today because I've decided to clean out my Humor (Humour to some of you) File and make this an All Words Day.
I hope you'll find some humor/humour in them.
Are you eyes tired of all that reading?
Okay, you can relax now.
Well, not totally.
You still have one task ahead of you.
Work extremely hard to have an absolutely wonderful weekend, all right?
And always remember to keep laughing!
Here, kitty-kitty . . .
(Special guest appearance by Hemingway and Sunny, two of the three owners of my pal Tommy Terrific, sharing a box.)