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| …because i said so “the one with the turkey” by nancy wassner Primetime is my enemy. It’s so alluring, with its glossy advertisements and its glossy people smiling at me over the new-fun-and-exciting music. It wants me to want it. It needs me to need it. I can feel it pulling me from the TV in the room across the hall. Friends. The West Wing. Will & Grace. Felicity. Come laugh. Come cry. Come drool over our newest sex symbol. Come on… Please? Somebody’s pregnant this week! Make it stop! Somebody’s always pregnant. Or dying. Or falling in love or just sleeping with the ex. With the same tired lines. And at some point, there has to be a massive downpour so somebody beautiful can come in shining and gorgeous and soaking wet. When I come in from the rain, I look like a drowned rat. I have yet to see a drowned rat on primetime. That’s why I hate primetime so much, I think: it’s just too beautiful. Not a damp rodent anywhere. Drives me crazy. But it’s almost Thanksgiving. Time to be positive. Because I love Thanksgiving. It’s my favorite holiday, and not just because of the food (though the food does play a big part in my enjoyment of the holiday; it’s hard to be angry when you’re so stuffed you can’t even get up off the couch). I love Thanksgiving because it’s the one time during the year when all the kids come home, the cousins come down, my crazy grandmother has people to listen to her stories, and there’s always time to watch the football game. And because it’s the one time of year I actually sit down and think about how good I have it. The rest of the year I’m busy being a typical Wes student: raging against the machine, fighting the man, and just generally getting stressed out because, let’s face it, life’s rough. You know what, though? My life’s not that rough. MoCon’s no four-star restaurant, but the food’s generally edible and disease-free, which is more than a lot of people in the world get. My clothes aren’t exactly the height of fashion, but I wouldn’t know it if they were, so I’ll stick to my Kmart t-shirts and jeans. And my room here is great. I have plenty of space, well heated. It sure beats living in a tent. And those are just the three basic necessities. I have a lot more than those, and I’m thankful for all of it: my computer, my teddy bear, prepaid phone cards, credit cards, guitars and those who play them, email, battery chargers, eyeglasses, sparkly pens, sports bras, duct tape and safety pins (I am convinced that duct tape and safety pins will one day save the world), fun socks, air conditioning, hidden corners of Olin, CD burners, and needle threaders. But wait! Those are all material things. I’m also grateful for the privilege of attending a school that ranks among the best in the nation, a school where the biggest issues on campus are fought out in the newspaper, as opposed to the campus center. Where members of Students for a Free Palestine and a pro-Israel group could sit down in the same room and hold a civilized conversation. Where vegetarian and vegan food is almost always readily available and pretty good hummus is sold ten steps away from my door. Where classes are taught by real professors and the President has office hours. Where a free readership program allows me my newspaper and a few moments of Monday crossword puzzle joy, and where the leaves turn so fantastically in October. Not to mention my friends and my family and my health and of course, the food. I do love the food. Yeah, I’ve got it pretty good. But above all, even above my crazy grandma and my mom’s homemade cranberry sauce, this Thanksgiving I’m thankful for PBS. Down with primetime!
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