Here’s about 10 minutes from the classic “turkey drop” show.

Larry Gross

Forget turkey for me this Thanksgiving. I know where I’m gonna be heading.

Picture this for a Thanksgiving meal.

• a quarter beef patty
• covered with Gold Star Chili
• add onions and cheddar cheese
• all served on a garlic bread bun
• and for a dollar more, you can supersize it, get a double beef patty!

Now that’s living, folks.

Maybe it’s a heart attack waiting to happen but the chili burger is back at Gold Star. I just pray they’re open tomorrow so I can eat half a dozen.

Oh yeah, have a good Thanksgiving.

Larry Gross

Walking to work this morning, I passed the Free Store and noticed the long line of people looking for a little help. It took me back to last year when me and my sister were in that same line waiting to get a little something for our Thanksgiving Day dinner. It made me feel bad. It made me feel like I was a poor black girl looking for a handout.

Things are different from last year. I was out of a job and so was my sister. She’s still looking but I’ve been waiting on tables for the past ten months and now making a little money – so I went over to Kroger’s on Vine and got me a turkey last week. Paid for it myself this year – no handouts for me!

I feel proud when I look in my freezer and see that frozen bird.

It’s the little things like that that make me thankful this year.

Happy Thanksgiving to everybody.

Karen @ The Hood

I see him at the bus stop now most mornings. Often we take the No. 17 in together downtown.

We’re strangers and while sometimes I’ll say good morning while we wait for the bus, he never says good morning back. Lately, I don’t bother to speak.

The man looks like an old friend of mine. In fact, he could be my old friend’s twin. When I first saw them, I thought it was my old pal, but as I looked future without trying to stare, I realized he wasn’t.

But seeing this man at the bus stop and on the bus brings back memories of him. I wonder what he’s up to, wonder how he is.

We used to work together at the same company. I always bought him a tie for Christmas and he always got the same for me.

Back when I knew my old friend, I was married, had two young kids. He was a little younger than me and had two older kids.

We shared the same birthday – May 1st. It was always a given that we would do lunch and drinks together on that day. He would pay for mine, I would pay for his. Maybe that was silly, but that’s what we did.

We would go to Reds games, at least 10 a year and drink lots of beer. We loved doubleheaders, because that meant we could drink even more.

He loved rock and roll music and always wanted me to like the same groups he did. Sometimes I did – but most of the time I didn’t.

Sometimes I would try to get him interested in books, but he wasn’t a reader. Sometimes there were television shows he wanted me to watch, but I wasn’t a viewer.

He liked my sense of humor and I had the ability to make him laugh. He was a good guy and we were really good friends. Now, I don’t even know where he lives.

I know we don’t mean to, but I guess this happens to all of us from time to time – just letting friends go. No real goodbyes, just the passage of time that turns a friendship loose. I don’t know or can’t remember why it happened in this case, but we got disconnected and out of touch. I mean, I haven’t seen or talked to him in years.

Seeing that stranger at the bus stop brings back the past and some good times and the older I get, the more I realize that it’s a very sad thing to simply let friendships die.

Larry Gross

Even though I wasn’t raised in the heart of Appalachia, my father and his brothers were. They were originally from Hazard, Kentucky. Because of my father’s raising, my own childhood was replete with Appalachian ways.

I remember that for all family picnics, generally on Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day, my mother and her sisters-in-law would prepare fried chicken, potato salad and other home made goodies. These women could cook!

The brothers would load up their cars with wives, children, food and coolers of beer and caravan to a place called The Rock Crusher. This was a very small quarry located on Big Indian Creek. It isn’t far north of the Ohio River near Pt. Pleasant.

The grown ups would spread the feast on a blanket on the ground while we children would explore and wade in the creek. I loved fossils; I still do in fact. My main job in walking the creek was to find fossils.

I strongly remember one of these excursions. I was wading barefoot in the shallow creek. The water was running strongly, crystal clear, and it was very cold – so this must have been Memorial Day.

I watched with some detachment as a leaf flowed from upstream down to land on my foot. I bent down to pick the leaf off and realized, to my horror, it was not a leaf, but a leech – and it was stuck, STUCK, to my toes!

My parents quickly became aware of my wailing and stomping (I was trying to dislodge the leech without touching it, you see).

Even though it was generally my mother’s job to tend to problematic children (more of that Appalachian conditioning and behavior), my anguish was so great and urgent that my father came running to the rescue.

He had some difficulty stopping my frantic dance as I was quite unwilling to stand still with this nasty, slimy bloodsucker attached to the top of my toes.

However, my father’s experience with leeches went back probably to 1943; this was nuttin’ but a thang.

He simply took the lit cigarette from his mouth and touched the hot cherry to the leech. The leech leggo, right now.

Instantaneous and overwhelming relief and gratitude ensued for me and likely for the leech as well.

After the picnic, we’d generally pack up and pay a visit to The Honey Man. This was a guy who lived in a rustic shack on a dirt road not far from The Rock Crusher. He sold honey with the comb, and it was packed in big mason jars.

Dad would always drive up and call out his open window, “You got some honey, Honey?”

We kids would roll around in the backseat, thinking it the funniest thing we’d ever heard. Our gruff, manly father calling The Honey Man, ‘honey’.

After a big day like this, we kids would be asleep in the back seat as our parents headed for home. I’m sure my parents were grateful for the quiet time.

Marilyn

I had the pleasure of seeing B.B. King a few years ago when he was playing Riverbend. Here he is with some friends performing “The Thrill is Gone.” Enjoy.

Larry Gross

Let’s call it a grand experiment that didn’t work. Yesterday morning, I went back to drinking coffee.

Like other drugs, it’s not good for you. If I drink too much of it, it causes my heart to race and I get all anxious. Last week, I decided to stop drinking it.

Decaf sucks and every morning I went to work with a headache. I felt out of it all day long. Yesterday morning, I said fuck it. I live here in Clifton and walked down to the UDF which is always open and returned to my nasty habit.

I don’t smoke, don’t do other drugs. Maybe if drinking coffee everyday is the worst thing I do, maybe I can live with it. Hell, I just will.

Teri Archer

I’m too trusting and when it comes to loaning people money, I never learn my lesson.

The girl is new to the office, has only been here maybe a couple months. About three weeks ago, I asked her how things were going – this was on a Monday – and she said she had about 20 cents to last her until Friday. That answer was something I wasn’t expecting and I felt put on the spot.

You know what I did, right? I loaned her some money – 15 bucks. You know the rest of the story, right? She has yet to pay it back.

She seems nice enough around the office but never brings the subject up and I don’t know how to. I mean, I could use the money this week myself. Why do people do this?

Any suggestions on how to approach her?

Marie Dodge

Think you know us well? Think you know who sucks and who doesn’t? Think you got us all figured out? Take the L-O-L Blog Quiz and find out. Correct answers will be given down at the bottom of the post.

Teri Archer
A. Doesn’t care for smokers.
B. Doesn’t care for men who lie about sex protection.
C. Think men suck when they make jokes about being on her period.
D. All of the above.

Heather now lives in California and doesn’t miss the Queen City at all.
A. True
B. False

When Larry talks about going “full circle,” he’s talking about
A. Once being straight, and then turning gay, then back to being straight.
B. Walks in circles to get dizzy thinking its fun.
C. Returning to his first job after being gone for over 30 years.
D. Does anyone really care?

Jim likes to
A. Go to strip clubs.
B. Wear his clothes in the shower.
C. Tell us what he has for lunch.
D. Give homeless people cigarettes while walking down the sidewalk.

Marilyn lives in the country and has no desire to move back closer to the city.
A. True
B. Man, is that totally false.

numb is
A. A complete asshole and a total distraction to the blog.
B. Misunderstood.
C. Bill O’Reilly.
D. Just numb.

David E. Gallaher’s posts
A. Make me feel stupid about life and the world.
B. Are the only smart posts ever put up here. The rest suck.
C. Are really written by Heather.
D. Who the hell is David E. Gallaher?

C.A. MacConnell
A. Has a cat.
B. Enjoys being a girl.
C. Sleeps with her socks on.
D. Likes to poison herself with her cooking.

Karen @ The Hood lives in Over-The-Rhine and usually writes her posts in the morning before going to work in a diner.
A. True
B. False

Brian Ciesko
A. Takes the bus to work.
B. Works in the library downtown.
C. Tells scary ghosts stories.
D. All of the above.

LOL Girl
A. Has breasts.
B. Does not have breasts.
C. Has sexy legs.
D. Depends on the photo.

Larry lied to us when he said he would provide correct answers to the quiz questions when we reached the bottom of the post.
A. Of course he lied.
B. He’s a sucking liar.

Larry Gross

Lunch = Chicken Flavored Instant Lunch & Vernor’s Ginger Ale.

How was your Chicken Salad Sandwich?

Jim