Happy day after Thanksgiving! We hope you had fun yesterday with your loved ones, friends and families as you trypped the light (to)phantastic and joined with the rest of the nation in making like a turkey and getting stuffed. We packed a lot into that sentence because Thanksgiving is supposed to be about overindulging — and what better way to do so than to chase yesterday's fantastic post on Media Maven Thankiness with yet another heaping helping of thoughts and reflections for this wonderful, festive time. So help yourself to this veritable smörgåsbord of thanks, because really, it's not Thanksgiving without an umlaut. We hope you all had a wonderful and pleasingly stomach-distending holiday, and we'll see you all right back here Monday!
Mort Zuckerman, chairman and editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report, publisher of the New York Daily News, real estate mogul and general multi-hyphenate:
"I am grateful to have a daughter who just said to me that one of the many advantages of having a daddy who loves her so much is that she wins more arguments with me!"
Nikki Finke, LA Weekly "Deadline Hollywood" columnist and prolific writer of entertainment world must-read Deadline Hollywood Daily:
"I'm thankful that, even during this bitter writers strike, Hollywood hasn't lost its sense of humor. I think this YouTube video says it better than I ever could..."
Jay Rosen, NYU journalism prof, press-thinker and avid proselytizer of citizen journalism:
I am thankful for the bright young people — guys and gals in their 20s — who are going to change the news business and the media world forever. The way they laugh at instead of emulating the newsroom curmudgeons is especially heart warming. The companies they've started, the empires they're building, the tools and platforms that are evolving as a result of their choices have made my world so much more interesting--and open--than it was seven or eight years ago. Here's to them, especially Amanda Michel!
Craig Newmark, Craigslist founder, netroots stalwart, and objectively the nicest guy on the Internet:
"I'm grateful that there are folks who're smarter than me and have more
courage; check out:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Freedom%27s_Watch
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Consumer_Freedom"
Harvey Levin, managing editor of TMZ, executive producer and host of TMZ TV:
"I'm actually thankful that no one has gotten badly hurt, because it's really crazy in LA right now with all of the celebrities being chased by papparazzi — we don't do it and we tell our people not to do it — but I'm really just glad that no one has gotten badly hurt, because it's almost an accident waiting to happen. That's the thing that scares me the most."
Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor & Publisher and author of the forthcoming So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits — and the President — Failed on Iraq:
"We may gripe about some of the coverage, but I'm thankful that American reporters are still willing to risk their lives to get at least some of the truth out of Iraq. Imagine if the U.S. military controlled the story even more than it does. Special tip of the hat to the Iraqi journalists who take even greater risks - and have paid a much higher price. Also thanks to Paul Rieckhoff and other vet leaders who have helped tell the story back home. Finally, if you're like me, and you desperately need something to get you through more years of war and at least one more season of Bush, let me suggest that you turn to Him - no, not God, but that god substitute, L.V. Beethoven. Next time you need your faith in life, if not the media, restored, just try, for starters, any one of numerous piano sonatas (e.g. numbers 5, 8, 12, 14, 15, 17, 21, 23, 30, 31,32). And give thanks."
Brian Farnham, editor, Time Out New York and sex-issue envelope-pusher:
"I'm thankful for my beautiful wife, our DVR, the chrysler building, the night when the Ringling Bros elephants parade through the midtown tunnel, "30 Rock", dogs, the bolognese at Manducati in LIC, and Google — our benevolent lord and master who graciously allows us to live in its world. Also James Madison, because Jon Meacham is very persuasive."
Dave Zinczenko, Men's Health, author of the bestselling Abs Diet series and the forthcoming Eat This Not That and steward of the Magabrandalicious 2007 AMC:
"I'm thankful to work on magazines that help others, and to take a timeout to reconnect with family."
Rachel Maddow, "Air America" host and cable news show voice of reason/average IQ raiser:
"I'm grateful my in-laws so fully embrace both the letter and the spirit of the 2nd amendment. Who ever thought I'd get to spend a Thanksgiving shooting mini-Howitzers off the deck. Yay America! Fire in the hole!"
Farhad Manjoo, Salon staff writer and crusader for the preservation of the Facebook status-update "is":
"I'm thankful for the good people of San Francisco, who make living life so much fun. Also: Cast-iron cookware, Google, Wikipedia, Roger Federer, David Simon and a new season of "The Wire," and the Arctic Monkeys. And next year, I'll let you know whether I am indeed thankful for the odd bird known as the Tofurkey. Fingers crossed."*
*Farhad and Rachel both submitted theirs yesterday. We hope Farhad's stomach is okay and Rachel wasn't shooting with anyone like Dick Cheney.
Michael Gross, author of 740 Park (and others), prolific magazine writer and Contribute contributor (how often do you get to say that?):
"I'm thankful that enough people still read words on paper to insure that I can afford to buy a turkey dinner when I really want one. I'm thankful for book publishers who don't let advertisers decide what they'll publish. I'm thankful that I once bought a Kaypro, ensuring that I would eventually be unafraid of blogging. I'm thankful that in cyberspace, you're as young as your thoughts."
Daniel Radosh, also a prolific magazine writer, proprietor of Radosh.net, and author of the forthcoming Rapture Ready! Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture:
"I'm thankful that no matter what you search for on Google Images, there will always be a picture of a naked or half-naked woman within the first three page. This makes it very easy to spice up blog posts on any subject at all, even
Alex Blagg, comedian and "Best Week Ever" blogger:
"I'm thankful for day-after-Thanksgiving sandwiches and regret."
Campbell Robertson, NYT theater reporter and sometime-poet :
"I'm thankful for Canadians! And sputum! And peaches!"*
*As told to Rachel Sklar, who had permission to make up his quote. But this part he actually did say: "I love peaches like Bubba Gump loves shrimp" before going on to list all the peach-based foods he enjoyed, like peach pie, peach cobbler, peach preserves, peach salsa, and peach ice cream, but not canned peaches. "Better to have never eaten peaches at all than to have eaten them from an aluminum can," he said. "Unless you're baking." How quickly we compromise our principles. And on Thanksgiving! For shame.
Nikola Tamindzic, award-winning nightlife photographer and Gawker's go-to snapper of media types:
"I'm thankful for (and to) all the wonderful onymous and anonymous New Yorkers who helped me capture the glossy sleaze behind bathroom doors of downtown clubs & bars. Also, I'm very thankful for locks on said doors."
Gail Shister, columnist & reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and now TVNewser:
"Any day above ground is a good day. Thank you."
Amen to that. Happy Thanksgiving everybody!