My favorite holiday charity is the NY Cares Coat Drive. I collect coats from my clients as I visit them through the month of December and drop them off at my local police precincts. I love the fact that not only are coats being given to those who need them most but also the fact that the coats are being recycled.
I also like to use the holiday season as excuse to get rid of all the stuff I no longer use or need and pass along. Even if your city doesn’t have such a program in place like the coat drive here in NY, there certainly are thrift shops in your city that could put your no longer needed items to good use. Take a few hours over the holiday season, go through your stuff and take whatever you no longer and pass it along to someone who can get good use of it.
The BackChannel Blog 
Great advise Brian and an easy way to give. I might add, that Taking this stuff to downtown charities is where most of this is needed. Not in the rural communities where the Charities get bogged down with too much. But don’t have enough money to transport it to other places.
Sorry to plop this down now, but I have to get ready for work. So here’s some good “Dish”. Getting to know Rahel Maddow
A Pundit in the Country
Rachel Maddow, host of left-leaning chat shows on Air America Radio and MSNBC, both named “The Rachel Maddow Show”, spends downtime in an 1865 house in western Massachusetts
Brian,
Great ideal. We’ve got “Coats for Colorado”
http://www.coatsforcolorado.org/
Your post was a good reminder. This black Friday, instead of shopping (which I never do; can’t deal with the crowds), I’ll donate a couple of coats.
I’m going to put up a list of links based on our posts this week, if you have any links you’d like me to add email them to me folks.
That’s a great idea, Brian. I’m sure I can round up several coats around here.
Sheila, our early Thanksgiving was wonderful! Food was good and having the family here was even better. Thanks for asking.
Yum! Nanny, no turkey for me this year. I’ll live vicariously through you guys.
No turkey??? Who are these people you work for???
Does anybody besides me find it annoying that the chattering class keeps referring to Tim Geitner as “young?” Sure he looks like he’s 27 rather than 47. But let me remind everybody that Einstein was 26 when he came up with E=mc2. He was 42 when he received the Nobel Prize in Physics. Mozart got some good work done in his 35 years.
Being young, just as being old does not preclude someone from talent and ability.
Haha, no I don’t find it annoying, I think they mean it in a positive light, a new team, with new energy type of thing.
Jason Love on the President’s new puppy:
http://www.denverpost.com/snapshots
From what I could see while making breakfast, He made ME feel a bit better.
At least Obama has got some beans shakin in his noggin
Isn’t it refreshing? Finally, after 8yrs I won’t have to shake my head in a mixture of disbelief, disgust, and embarrassment every time the president speaks.
Yes,,,,lol Won’t have to cringe and turn the station…..No more 3/4 cadense in speech timing. No more saying one sentance at a time before stoping for more time than necesary.
And that awful way Bush accents/emphasizes certain words and syllables I can hardly wait till Jan 20th!
OT…so why no turkey for Thanksgiving? Do you work for vegetarians or something?.
No, They are going to someone elses house for Thanksgiving. Its either frozen turky dinner or something else.
Who likes frozen turkey dinners or something tasteless from a deli. I’d rather have Mexican
Have you noticed that since he took office, his speech has begun to slur and there is a slight drooping of the left side of his lower lip. Like he can’t get it to form the words as sucinctly as he used to?
Shelia,
Three words: Cornish game hen. Though now that you mention it, a bunch of tamales and a big bowl of green chili would make me give thanks too 😉
I’m with you on that! I’d rather go hungry than eat a frozen turkey dinner. Mexican is a perfect alternative, especially if it’s chile rellenos, enchiladas, or chili verde.
Sheila, I had noticed that. Thought it might be a reaction to stress.
Add tamales to my list. Dnd just reminded me about them. Yum!
I think Bush has either had a mini stroke or some other degenerative desease that causes slight peralysis.
I’m going to get some GOOD Mexican from an outstanding mom and pop restaurant I found there and eat it all day on Thanksgiving.
Your right dnd…. I’ll be giving thanks for that.
I have to give you something that I have noticed on Facebook.
Of all the Peeps and Happy Snaps I know on Facebook, the ones at FNC only have a nighborhood and network built around FNC around the country and all us Active and Former Military……very telling isn’t it?
Nannymm,
Rellenos! Much better than green beans with Campbell’s mushroom soup and Frenches onion rings.
Shelia,
They probably have fresh tomatillos where you are! Don’t forget sopapillas for desert!
lol I’ve been pigging out on great Tomales……YUMMY!
he salsa verde around here has been wonderful too….AND….REAL LIVE HOT PICANTE.
REAL LIVE TACOS holy moley….
I’m now dying for real Mexican, but no good Mex places here to go. Guess I’m going to have to cook it. 😀
One of the things I really wish was close to home was a place that made fresh masa corn tortillas. I remember buying them for a few pesos/kilo in Mexico. They were completely different, and way better, than what you get in the grocery stores.
Stop! You’re making my mouth water, dnd. Now I’ve really got some serious cooking to do!
Afternoon folks, well the stitches are out, and Friday i go for root canal, the fun just never ends around here!
Brian: hope you are feeling better. Did the dental surgeon schedule Friday for your convenience (being able to eat a T’giving dinner) or his/hers (no appts available or in Cancun with family)?
Brian,
Well you have my sympathies. But if you have a good endodontist, it should go smoothly. My experience is having the damn thing capped by my dentist is a bigger pain. Either way, to stay on topic of this week’s topics, the elimination of pain and suffering is worth the sacrifice.
I am back from the wilds of New Mexico. We had a great time and heard some great music. Western music is still out there, “you just can’t see or hear it from the road.”
Welcome back, Doots!
Well actually the tooth that went bad is under a bridge.
hey doots
Doots,
“you just can’t see or hear it from the road.”
Seems to me that unless you get out on the road, you’ll never see it or hear it.
Glad you’re back. Hope you’re feeling ok. Are there photos from your road trip?
Hi Dnd,
that is a line from a song about a cowboy. “They are still out there you just can’t see them from the road”.
no photo’s we were either in a truck or a motel or a restaurant for three days. not very appealing photo opportunities if ya ask me.
We had a good time kinda tiring though. About 800 miles in each direction. We did not stop except to eat sleep or pee. Left yesterday in ALBQ about 9:45 mountain time in the AM and got into Decatur, TX about 9:30pm last night (Texas time) and I spent the night with my hosts and Allan brought me home this AM on his way to work.
Obama’s unusual transition: Already a co-president
WASHINGTON — America has never seen anything quite like this: The president and president-elect acting like co-presidents, consulting and cooperating on the day’s biggest crises.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/56399.html
This might be the first Thanksgiving in recent memory where people really reflect on what they’re grateful for. Passes in a blur when you’re in the midst of a booming consumerist paradise.
Looking at their own families’ fundamentals, and on smaller joys that abound.
Politically, we are getting better leadership, but slowly.
NEW THREAD