Traditions Like No Other

The Friday newsletter looks ahead to Thanksgiving, but not as we know it

Thanksgiving is a marvelous holiday, one of my absolute favorite days of the year. It’s also a holiday that lends itself quite naturally to stories of how it went awry. Someone tasked with making their first-ever turkey forgets to remove it from the bag before cooking or brings it to the table still frozen inside. The family dog gets on the countertop and eats Nana’s pumpkin pie. A terrible argument erupts between relatives over politics or money or the designated hitter, and a decades-long feud is launched.

These things are baked into one’s expectations of Thanksgiving, and they become part of the lore. Years later, you can look back and laugh on that time you burned the stuffing and also told your loudmouth Uncle Dale to stuff it.

It’s much harder to look back and laugh on that time you thought you were “taking every precaution” and ended up killing three family members.

I’m not trying to be a scold here. I know that most, if not all, of the people reading this are responsible, wise,…