Today is Thanksgiving, when we gorge on turkey and trimmings and football, gather with family and friends, and hopefully take a moment or two to reflect on the good things in life.

I’ve got a bunch of stuff to be thankful for that I could bore you with, but instead I think I’ll throw out some sports-related (and not-so-related) stuff and go for a second helping of green bean casserole:

• Good local high school football: Even though they lost earlier in the playoffs than we’d all hoped, Warren Central and Vicksburg both had outstanding football seasons and deserve a round of applause.
It wasn’t that long ago that both teams were mucking their way through one- and two-win seasons. Years like this, when WC was a play away from reaching the Class 6A semifinals and Vicksburg won nine games, are a lot more fun for everybody.

• Cranberry sauce: When I was a kid, I hated the stuff. It was nasty. I never realized it was a complementary item and not a standalone side dish. Then, a few years ago, I tried some and accidentally mixed it with my dry turkey.

Holy cow. That was the Thanksgiving equivalent of the Reese’s guys mixing chocolate and peanut butter. It changed my life. Parents, please do me a favor and show your kids the wonders of cranberry sauce. Don’t let them wander the culinary wilderness like I did.

• Bullet-pointed columns: Why string together one coherent thought for 425 words, when you can string together four or five incoherent thoughts for 80 words apiece? Every journalist should be thankful for the guy who came up with this concept.

• My wife: Being a sports writer beats digging ditches for a living, but it’s not without its drawbacks. Chief among them is the long hours and late nights. It takes a special person to put up with a spouse who wanders in at 3 a.m. every Friday night reeking of adrenaline and football. Thankfully, my wife Shannon is just such a person. I couldn’t do this job without her love and support. Thanks, honey. Love you.

• Sports: They bind us together. They’re a perfect metaphor for the highs, lows and brutal honesty of life. One man’s joy is another man’s pain. It’s the ultimate drama, played out in real time in front of us.
And they’re on now. Go watch some football and eat some turkey already — and don’t forget the cranberry sauce.

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Ernest Bowker is a sports writer for The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com