More, please. I'm stuffed.

Well Thanksgiving is over and Black Friday is behind us, but we're all still feeling their effect. If your Thanksgiving was a great one like mine was, that means you had plenty to eat. It also means that there is lots of turkey left over, sitting in the refrigerator, waiting to be made into something "else" that doesn't resemble turkey at all. . . . There's turkey carver sandwiches, turkey soup, turkey ka-bobs, turkey gumbo, turkey salad, turkey enchiladas, and turkey in the trash can. Most people I talked to couldn't wait to eat something, anything besides turkey, which is why restaurants do so well the Friday after Thanksgiving, and Boston Market??? well, not so well.

It's okay to get tired of it, so don't feel bad about throwing it away. If you can't bear to throw away perfectly good food, do what I do: keep it in your fridge for several weeks, keeping it as an option each night for dinner, but only as a "fake" option. Once the turkey begins turning green and slimy, it's okay to toss it out. No one is going to fault you for that. Dressing, on the other hand, is another story. First of all, you're probably not likely to have any of that left over, unless your family is like mine, where the matriarchs with their secret, proven recipe make batches and batches of the stuff so that everyone gets to take some home with them. I can, and have, made entire meals out of just a plate full of left over stuffing and gravy. No need to cleverly disguise it as anything else. Besides, the density of the stuff means that it has a longer shelf life than turkey parts, especially if that shelf is in a refrigerator, and especially if that refrigerator is plugged in and is cooling properly . . . but I digest . . .

As for Black Friday, yes, that day is behind us too. It's kind of ironic that the biggest day of commercial exploitation and display of human greed and avarice, a day where we buy things we do not need at prices we cannot refuse, especially if it is "limit two per person," follows a national holiday in which we are supposed to give thanks for the things we have, for the things that matter most to us as we partake in a ceremonial dinner surrounded by friends and family. It's like, "be happy for the blessings you already have, then go out and hoard more material possessions."

Venturing out on Friday a.m. to watch the behavior of the masses of "bargain" hunters, you would never guess that our nation is in a financial recession. People were shopping for widescreen, high-def TVs as if they were going out for bread, milk, and eggs: every shopping cart at Wal-Mart, Sam's, Target, and Cost Co (a few of the places we went to) had one in it. Why even at Academy Sporting Goods, I heard a customer ask, "Where's you TVs? Are you already sold out?" It was very entertaining to watch people race to get a piece of the pie. I felt like I should have been eating popcorn, at least I know for next year. For example, at Wal Mart, there were 4 fiercly competetive people standing in front of the last 3 plasma TVs on the floor, each with a hand on a box making intimidating looks at one another while calling their spouses on the cell phone held in their other hand: "I got one . . . I think . . . how are things at your store?". One of them was going to lose, or take a chance on the stock persons bringing out some "fresh" ones from the back later on. It was like watching musical chairs, except the loser was left to watch TV on their old, standard, antiquated cable, color TV.

I began wondering if we were fighting over HDTVs in prehistoric times, back when the saber tooth tiger was king and civilization was slightly less than what it is today if the "hand on the box" technique would be sufficient to claim the prize. Imagine a smaller animal catching its prey and preparing to feast upon it when the saber tooth tiger comes onto the scene. "Pardon me," says the tiger, "as hungry as I am and as much as would love to eat what you have, I see you have your paw on the carcass, so off I hungrily go . . . " Oh how far we have come and yet so little progress we've made.

I guess the only two consolations for those who didn't get what they wanted on Black Friday is that they could have taken advantage of the latest, greatest deals today during "Cyber Monday," the most recent ploy of commercial retailers to create a false sense of consumer urgency and value. The final consolation is that at least they have turkey leftovers waiting for them at home in the fridge.