TODAY (Nov. 28) is Thanksgiving Day in the US, and while it has always been one of my favorite holidays, I am not inclined to go to any effort to mark the occasion in a conventional way this year. The idea of celebrating a uniquely American piece of culture is frankly unappealing at the moment for a variety of reasons, although there are still many things for which I am thankful. Acknowledging those, and perhaps allowing myself the small luxury of eating out instead of cooking dinner later, will have to do this year.

I've told this tale before, but as history is one of my favorite subjects, it amuses me to tell it again. The traditional story of Thanksgiving, the one taught to us in grade school, is that it originated with a harvest feast in the Plymouth Colony in what would eventually become Massachusetts in 1621. As one learns more history, it becomes clear this story is patently ridiculous; the relationship between the English Puritan interlopers and the various Native American communities in the area was chaotic at best.