Thanksgiving in cyber space

The Web provides an abundance of interesting Thanksgiving history and
background for students, as well as the opportunity to find a family-tested
grace to say over your turkey and trimmings. You can even access the Macy’s
Thanksgiving Day parade online. But if you’re not in the mood for
Thanksgiving until Thursday, we have some interesting non-holiday sites for
you, too.

The First Thanksgiving. From the Pilgrims to the Mayflower to the
Wampanoag Indian nation: Plimoth
Plantation, the living history demonstration of what things were like in
17th-century Plymouth, Mass., covers the historic ground thoroughly (even if
a bit heavy-handedly in an essay on the politically correct way to refer to
Indians). Among unexpected tidbits, you’ll learn what Pilgrim church
services were like. Also facts and
myths of the first Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving. A simple site, All About
Thanksgiving provides basic information on the holiday and links, for
kids and adults, setting the tone with a number of Bible verses that stress
thanksgiving (Psalm 100:4, for instance).

Talking Turkey. The best place on the Web to find the ins and outs
of roasting a picture-perfect turkey is at Butterball.

A Family Day. Family.com’s Thanksgiving pages offer
crafts to keep the kids busy and advice on how to have a stress-free holiday
as well as some recipes.

I Love A Parade. Let the kids check out the stuff behind the
scenes at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade online before
tuning it in on TV.

Ghosts of Thanksgiving Past. Well, Dickens never got around to
this one, Thanksgiving being an American holiday, but you can share amusing
or touching stories of Thanksgivings that you remember at Aristotle’s
Thanksgiving on the Web.

Feline Thanksgiving. Max and Myron, two Greenwich Village cats,
wish you Happy
Thanksgiving in a Quicktime movie.

Giving Thanks. If you’re looking for a special grace for the
Thanksgiving meal, dozens for children and adults have been collected at Thanksgiving
Grace.

Smile! Holiday shutterbugs who want their candid shots of family
and friends to turn out well can get tips from the professionals at the New
York Institute of Photography, which has posted How to Capture
Thanksgiving With Your Camera.

Say Hi to Hanks. From 2-3 p.m. PST (5-6 p.m. EST), Tom Hanks will
be chatting with fans at Yahoo! Chat.

I Left My Heart… Although it’s intended as a promo for a
commercial walking tour of the historic areas of San Francisco, the Victorian Walk site has lovely photos of some
of the city’s most colorful architecture, as well as charming gardens and
other sights.

The Worst Movie Of All Time. The Academy Awards honor what are
supposed to be filmdom’s best movies each year. But only the Razzies name the worst. Currently you can
vote for what you think were the most awful flicks of the past 100 years,
although the list that you choose from mostly has examples from the ’60s on.
Still, it might be fun to have “Ace Ventura” or the ’60s’ “Attack of the
Killer Tomatoes” win a Golden Raspberry award.

For Teens. If the SAT looms large in the life of the teen at your
house, maybe the College Board’s SAT Question of
the Day will help. EverythingTeen.com aims to become a
teen community and is looking for teen editors to help it get there.
Currently it offers plenty of links to sports, technology, games,
entertainment, college information, e-zines and teen-built sites.

Off-Season. If you tend to agree with this statement — “Baseball
is that blessed silence that comes between Dick Vitale and John Madden.” —
then Billy Ball,
subtitled “a B Czar look at baseball,” is for you.

Going To The Dogs. You’ve got a new magazine and you’d like to get
the word out to potential subscribers; wouldn’t it be great if you could get
CNN to inform millions of potential subscribers by doing a feature on you?
Well, one clever group had that happen this past week. It was late at night
and I was making my way from one gate to another at a big-city airport, when
I heard the words “centerfold” and “family” and this URL. That’s all. Intrigued, I wrote it down
and keyed it into my computer the next morning. The magazine is Playdog,
“entertainment for dogs and their humans.” With the picture of the dog of
the month, you get Daisy’s turn-ons (sleeping, eating, running) and
turn-offs (cats that don’t have a sense of humor). It sounded potentially
funnier at midnight, but is enjoyable if you like to look at photos of dogs.