I love your essays, all of them especially the old one about New Orleans. We got sick and had chicken noodle soup out of a can. Our darling rescue dog made us laugh. It was an unusual day. But we are happy like the bluebirds.
I enjoyed Thanksgiving more this year than I have in years. My mom died last year, after living with ALS for two years. Last year was too raw and new and missing her to take much joy in anything. This year I stood shivering in my sister's cavernous barndo with 70 of my brother-in-law's relatives and loved having their company. We've been doing this thanksgiving gathering since I was 14, and now we are the grandparents (well, not me, my son is 14), but the original grandparents PawPaw and Mumsie are gone, along with a few of their children, the parents of my generation. I marched up to every one who would stand still and shared photos of my dad and me in Istanbul and Taormina and asked them about their lives. It's crazy how fortunate we have been, as a group. Sure good decisions help, but Lady Fortuna seems to have her favorites.
The older I get, the more it's the people and the travel. Of course I'm surrounded by things: Swarovski and Waterford handed down from my family, the ten acres that my house sits on that we work hard to earn and keep, older cars because we drive them until the wheels fall off or the engine falls out. And stuff doesn't matter: it's just the people. It's always the people, that's what makes the world go round.
Sorry to hear about your mom, Sheri. ALS is maybe the disease I'd least like anyone I know to go from. (Including myself.) I knew someone who had it, and it's the worst. But glad to hear you rescued Thanksgiving with your 70 relatives. May you have many more of those.......
As a loyal member of the Matt Labash Fan Club & Flyfishing Academy, I want to know - Are there hats, jackets, coffee mugs, or other paraohernalia for purchase? I would personally love a Labash coffee mug to start my day.
I consider myself to be the president (and only member) of the local chapter of your Fan Club. Since I am the only member, it makes the bourbon I serve last much longer. I also appreciate your humor more after a few shots.
As you previously said, you may feel like your head is in a bucket of slowly drying cement, but your writing still makes me laugh. Occassionally, I even get a thought - but that might be the bourbon talking.
On Thanksgiving I noted just what a whiny bunch of snot bubble blowing simpletons Homo americanus are. We have freedoms that much of the world can't even imagine. Most of us live in climate controlled comfort which does not include chopping cords of wood or spending hours on end flapping a fan, magazine, or random dinner plate to move a bit of air. We think nothing of exchanging trivialties with uncle Dweebus on the other side of the country with tiny hand-held boxes without even a wire much less a string. We live forever compared to our forebears and with fewer infirmities. We retire without penury even if we haven't accumulated a quadrillion dollars. When faced with a dangerous pandemic that shuttered businesses and assassinated jobs the government stepped in with checks to keep people's noses above water. And now with the plague in the rearview mirror, the blip in inflation that resulted is being brought to heal and the US economy is outperforming other industrialized nations. Life, by any reasonable standard is good. It could be better of course, the bounty could be distributed more evenly, there could be less waste in government, there could be better treatment for the substance addicted. But by and large we live better than the lords and ladies of yeasteryear.
And yet one talks with many Americans and hears only of the horrors of how fucking hard it is. Mortgage rates are at 6%. Not that it matters that 6% or so is where mortgage rates historically hover because a year or two ago they were 3%. I for one remember a period in the 70s when mortgage rates were in the low teens. They wail that the government wants to take their guns all because a few people leap in front of high-powered ammunition from time to time. They pule that masculinity is under attack never considering for a moment that their antediluvian conception of masculinity is as relevant as buggy whips in the 21st century. Want to be a man? Get an education and contribute to the majestic saga of progress.
I read. Stop. I started to read Maureen Dowd's idiot brother's column in the NYT yesterday. The sky is falling ... has fallen in around us ... Joe Biden is a threat to all we hold dear ... grit your teeth against the sounds of rending clothing and the wailing of the put upon millionaires and billionaires.
1. As an unabashed profanity user myself, I appreciate your judicious and targeted use of "fuck." It's like jalapeno. Good punch, but just a sprinkling is enough.
2. When I got my first home mortgage in 1991, I was thrilled to have a 10% rate, which was down from 12% a couple of years prior.
I could have " liked" all of the comments. Gratitude is an important aspect of Thanksgiving. Thusly, Matt must be grateful to purchase the support of his gracious commenters.
"And I’m also legitimately grateful for you, dear readers, who share enough of my enthusiasms, even if not all of them, to make it possible for me to not have to get a real job. Which I think we can all agree would be an ugly fiasco, as I am not HR-compliant or well-suited for managerial oversight."
Thank you Matt!!! For writing like this - makes me laugh when sometimes laughter can be elusive.
Your mom puts me to shame. I made such a fuss about our Thanksgiving turkey that my son is going to do the Christmas turkey. Where we live the price of a house is out of reach of most young people, unless the parents are loaded or downsize their own accommodation to give a downpayment to son or daughter. Because of this no one has the room anymore for large gatherings. I know I should not complain and I am all for family get togethers. You can not take for granted that all will be here for the next big family feast. Happy Thanksgiving!!! Our Thanksgiving was last month.
No, no, no!!! More like a Columbus-based event , closer to the beginning of October, more than a month ago. It took me awhile to figure out where you were coming from. LOL
If you're not already there, you will be. Grandma and Grandpa have already gone to the Great Hunting Ground in the sky. We have new grannies and papaws and they are us.
None of our wives want to fix 12 side dishes along with the latest way for papaws or grannies cook a turkey. Burning down the house isn't a risk we're willing to take anymore. So our dinner is being picked up by me, from the local smoke house. Yeah, smoked turkey with 4 sides.
I volunteered to bring Costco's XL pumpkin pies and you'd have thought I volunteered to let the children shoot guns in the backyard. No way! The grannies were baking pies so's to kill off half the diabetics in the family. Talk about dangerous!
Getting old brings about some wisdom. It ain't about the food. We need the company of each other. Without that, we'd really be in bad shape. So go ahead and unabashedly need your kith and kin. You'll thank me for it.
I love your essays, all of them especially the old one about New Orleans. We got sick and had chicken noodle soup out of a can. Our darling rescue dog made us laugh. It was an unusual day. But we are happy like the bluebirds.
great post!
I enjoyed Thanksgiving more this year than I have in years. My mom died last year, after living with ALS for two years. Last year was too raw and new and missing her to take much joy in anything. This year I stood shivering in my sister's cavernous barndo with 70 of my brother-in-law's relatives and loved having their company. We've been doing this thanksgiving gathering since I was 14, and now we are the grandparents (well, not me, my son is 14), but the original grandparents PawPaw and Mumsie are gone, along with a few of their children, the parents of my generation. I marched up to every one who would stand still and shared photos of my dad and me in Istanbul and Taormina and asked them about their lives. It's crazy how fortunate we have been, as a group. Sure good decisions help, but Lady Fortuna seems to have her favorites.
The older I get, the more it's the people and the travel. Of course I'm surrounded by things: Swarovski and Waterford handed down from my family, the ten acres that my house sits on that we work hard to earn and keep, older cars because we drive them until the wheels fall off or the engine falls out. And stuff doesn't matter: it's just the people. It's always the people, that's what makes the world go round.
Sorry to hear about your mom, Sheri. ALS is maybe the disease I'd least like anyone I know to go from. (Including myself.) I knew someone who had it, and it's the worst. But glad to hear you rescued Thanksgiving with your 70 relatives. May you have many more of those.......
I feel gratitude for big pharma for creating medications that have kept me alive 17 years longer than I expected (🖕to RFK).
I am grateful to have a family that enjoys each other’s company and knows what is truly important. Good food, sports and card games.
Glad you're alive, and agree about big pharma. It's why I'm alive. Ditto my first (almost-not) born.
And RFK can go 🖕 himself with a rusty garden hoe.
;-)
As a loyal member of the Matt Labash Fan Club & Flyfishing Academy, I want to know - Are there hats, jackets, coffee mugs, or other paraohernalia for purchase? I would personally love a Labash coffee mug to start my day.
I consider myself to be the president (and only member) of the local chapter of your Fan Club. Since I am the only member, it makes the bourbon I serve last much longer. I also appreciate your humor more after a few shots.
As you previously said, you may feel like your head is in a bucket of slowly drying cement, but your writing still makes me laugh. Occassionally, I even get a thought - but that might be the bourbon talking.
Happy Thanksgiving Matt! I loved the poem.
On Thanksgiving I noted just what a whiny bunch of snot bubble blowing simpletons Homo americanus are. We have freedoms that much of the world can't even imagine. Most of us live in climate controlled comfort which does not include chopping cords of wood or spending hours on end flapping a fan, magazine, or random dinner plate to move a bit of air. We think nothing of exchanging trivialties with uncle Dweebus on the other side of the country with tiny hand-held boxes without even a wire much less a string. We live forever compared to our forebears and with fewer infirmities. We retire without penury even if we haven't accumulated a quadrillion dollars. When faced with a dangerous pandemic that shuttered businesses and assassinated jobs the government stepped in with checks to keep people's noses above water. And now with the plague in the rearview mirror, the blip in inflation that resulted is being brought to heal and the US economy is outperforming other industrialized nations. Life, by any reasonable standard is good. It could be better of course, the bounty could be distributed more evenly, there could be less waste in government, there could be better treatment for the substance addicted. But by and large we live better than the lords and ladies of yeasteryear.
And yet one talks with many Americans and hears only of the horrors of how fucking hard it is. Mortgage rates are at 6%. Not that it matters that 6% or so is where mortgage rates historically hover because a year or two ago they were 3%. I for one remember a period in the 70s when mortgage rates were in the low teens. They wail that the government wants to take their guns all because a few people leap in front of high-powered ammunition from time to time. They pule that masculinity is under attack never considering for a moment that their antediluvian conception of masculinity is as relevant as buggy whips in the 21st century. Want to be a man? Get an education and contribute to the majestic saga of progress.
I read. Stop. I started to read Maureen Dowd's idiot brother's column in the NYT yesterday. The sky is falling ... has fallen in around us ... Joe Biden is a threat to all we hold dear ... grit your teeth against the sounds of rending clothing and the wailing of the put upon millionaires and billionaires.
Fuck me in the eye with a gravy ladle.
Coupla things:
1. As an unabashed profanity user myself, I appreciate your judicious and targeted use of "fuck." It's like jalapeno. Good punch, but just a sprinkling is enough.
2. When I got my first home mortgage in 1991, I was thrilled to have a 10% rate, which was down from 12% a couple of years prior.
3. MoDo's brother is a veritable douchebag.
there is only one Windriven
ever
in this wild and wooly universe
just one
and I rejoice
that your original dauntless soul
finds safe haven here
in matt's green growing meadow
where
freedom thinking minds
find listening ears
Mrs. Windriven would opine that one is more than enough.
Am gonna have to steal "eff me in the eye with a gravy ladle" for next year's Thanksgiving grace.
I could have " liked" all of the comments. Gratitude is an important aspect of Thanksgiving. Thusly, Matt must be grateful to purchase the support of his gracious commenters.
I would like this, but it'd just be a craven suck-up to subscribers if I did.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, Matt. I'm glad you wrote this column today. And, as always, I love your tunes!
Ellen (a happy paid subscriber)
"And I’m also legitimately grateful for you, dear readers, who share enough of my enthusiasms, even if not all of them, to make it possible for me to not have to get a real job. Which I think we can all agree would be an ugly fiasco, as I am not HR-compliant or well-suited for managerial oversight."
Thank you Matt!!! For writing like this - makes me laugh when sometimes laughter can be elusive.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Paul
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Anyone that has a military background understands "Embrace the suck."
I am thankful that God in HIS way answered every one of my prayers.
When He said No, I learned patience and understanding
When I asked why, I learned trust
When I asked for help, I learned faith and friendship and love
When I was not happy, He said yes to a prayer.
I have a lot for which to be thankful
Matt, Scott and I send love and well wishes to the entire clan. Please let them know.
Your mom puts me to shame. I made such a fuss about our Thanksgiving turkey that my son is going to do the Christmas turkey. Where we live the price of a house is out of reach of most young people, unless the parents are loaded or downsize their own accommodation to give a downpayment to son or daughter. Because of this no one has the room anymore for large gatherings. I know I should not complain and I am all for family get togethers. You can not take for granted that all will be here for the next big family feast. Happy Thanksgiving!!! Our Thanksgiving was last month.
During Halloween? You guys had a Satan-based Thanksgiving?
No, no, no!!! More like a Columbus-based event , closer to the beginning of October, more than a month ago. It took me awhile to figure out where you were coming from. LOL
Fair enough. I'll cancel the exorcist.
If you're not already there, you will be. Grandma and Grandpa have already gone to the Great Hunting Ground in the sky. We have new grannies and papaws and they are us.
None of our wives want to fix 12 side dishes along with the latest way for papaws or grannies cook a turkey. Burning down the house isn't a risk we're willing to take anymore. So our dinner is being picked up by me, from the local smoke house. Yeah, smoked turkey with 4 sides.
I volunteered to bring Costco's XL pumpkin pies and you'd have thought I volunteered to let the children shoot guns in the backyard. No way! The grannies were baking pies so's to kill off half the diabetics in the family. Talk about dangerous!
Getting old brings about some wisdom. It ain't about the food. We need the company of each other. Without that, we'd really be in bad shape. So go ahead and unabashedly need your kith and kin. You'll thank me for it.
A warm and cozy Thanksgiving to you Matt Labash, and family, both in your hearts and your minds.
God bless you Matt Labash, and all the readers on this page.