ON BALANCE, AN EXCELLENT THANKSGIVING: This was the first Thanksgiving my mom had to have at her house and it went off really well. 14 guests. Tons of appetizers--my theory was to err on the side of excess, which is appropriate for the holiday. My dad made four kinds of stuffing: the usual kind that stuffs the bird with chicken parts mixed in, one with bits of oyster, one with mushrooms, and one with peppers. There were three kinds of cranberry dishes: the canned kind, the kind of uncle makes with actual cranberries, and a choice bit of Midwestern cuisine my grandma made that was Jello-based. Three kinds of potatoes: mashed, sweet, and these sort of pureed yams, which I think is in the tuber family. Multiple vegetables. I had some of everything, as is the goal I set for myself every year. Other random notes:

--Two awful NFL games, with Indy just hopelessly outclassing Detroit and the Bears and Cowboys playing the football version of a Coleman Francis movie for three quarters before Dallas decided they didn't want to lose.

--The suspension-limited Pacers won again, against the Wolves. And I had no idea this happened:

Michael Olowakandi was suspended for the game by the team after being arrested at an Indianapolis nightclub early Thursday morning.

Police used a stun gun to subdue the 7-0 center after he would not leave the club. He spent the night in jail and was charged with disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing, both misdemeanors."We are extremely disappointed in Michael Olowokandi's actions last night," general manager Jim Stack said in a statement.

"Regardless of how the incident escalated, he never should have been in that situation."

And you wonder why I watch the NBA. Plus now my two favorite teams, the Nets and the Clippers, are on my teevee. I can't believe I'm the only one who thinks Marko Jaric looks just like Tintin.

--The Orange Revolution continues. I know it isn't as simple as Yuschenko good, Yanukovych bad, but it possibly is simply the Ukrainian citizenry just refusing to accept business as usual anymore.

--Your random thought of the day: Justice League International and Star Trek: The Next Generation are two of the prime cultural documents of the late 80s and early 90s--the hazy end of Reagan/Bush I/beginning of Clinton period, which I swear is a discrete time period. More if I care to elaborate; whatever I'm thinking involves the JLI's status as a UN-sanctioned body and the Enterprise's commitment to diplomacy and a sort of multiculturalism under Captain Picard, neither of which would happen in DC comics or Trek shows today.

Thus concludes one South Jersey Thanksgiving.