Forget the turkey. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without...

...Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant." (This video uses clips from the original movie along with a 40-year anniversary performance in the original church.)



Not-to-fun fact: After 40 years, the fine for littering is still $25. Or at least for leaving trash out early...and they do dig through it and take photos as evidence...not 8X10 glossy photos, but digital photos. And they still send our kids to war.

Friday Lyric of the Week

City of New Orleans

Riding on the City of New Orleans,

Illinois Central Monday morning rail.

Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders,

Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail.

All along the southbound odyssey,

The train pulls out at Kankakee

Rolls along past houses, farms and fields.

Passin' trains that have no names,

Freight yards full of old black men

And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles.

CHORUS:

Good morning America how are you?

Don't you know me? I'm your native son,

I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,

I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

Dealin' card games with the old men in the club car.

Penny a point ain't no one keepin' score.

Pass the paper bag that holds the bottle

Feel the wheels rumblin' 'neath the floor.

And the sons of pullman porters

And the sons of engineers

Ride their father's magic carpets made of steel.

Mothers with their babes asleep,

Are rockin' to the gentle beat

And the rhythm of the rails is all they feel.

CHORUS

Nighttime on The City of New Orleans,

Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee.

Half way home, we'll be there by morning,

Through the Mississippi darkness

Rolling down to the sea.

And all the towns and people seem

To fade into a bad dream

And the steel rails still ain't heard the news.

The conductor sings his song again,

The passengers will please refrain

This train's got the disappearing railroad blues.

Good night, America, how are you?

Don't you know me I'm your native son,

I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,

I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.

Written by Steve Goodman, made into a hit by Arlo Guthrie

It would be a fashion crisis if, well, I cared

As a bit of backstory: When I came out of the closet, so to speak, and announced that I was leaving a career in finance to become a writer (well, it left me, but that's a minor technicality--that just speeded up the process) a colleague (and still a friend) asked me when I had decided to change careers. "Was it a couple of months ago, when you stopped cutting your hair?" And another friend, my dogwalker who has seen the inside of my home as much as I have sometimes, once commented on my "bohemian lifestyle." I think what she really meant was, "You know, there's such a thing as a broom."

Needless to say, now that I can wear what I want combined with the fact the I hate to shop, has led to the creation of what can only be described as my own sense of style: every day is casual Friday, some more casual than others.

Well, in the past couple of weeks, I have heard the following eerily similar, left-handed compliments:

Today, the photo intern where I copyedit, said, "Those are fantastic pants!" When I said thank you, she said, "Yeah, not too many people can wear such a bright shade of green, but on you they look good!" (Needless to say, I spent the rest of the day noticing other people's pants. None green, let alone bright green.)

And a couple of weeks ago, while working at Symphony Hall, a patron came up to me after the concert and said, "I love your glasses!" When I said thank you, he said, "Not too many people can get away with that look, but it works for you."

As Arlo Guthrie once said, if one person says something, maybe they're crazy. If two people say it, well...