For the 19th year UBS sponsored Big Balloons scurry through the corporate concrete canyons of Stamford Connecticut bringing the joy of greed and unaccountable villany through big bags of gas and vapid consumer marketing to impressionable children of all ages.

This year we have 12 bands, 6 floats, and 18 Balloons the newest of which, The Lorax, is a 40 foot tall celebration of how ‘green’ and environmentally conscious the good burghers are, represented by the 9 members of the Grand Marshal Team of first responders fresh from their contest with underwater squirrels.

Also new this year is Red from Fraggle Rock appearing with old favorites Oscar the Grouch, Clifford the Big Red Dog, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Elmo, Billy Blazes, Kermit the Frog, Hagar the Horrible, Smurfette, Cookie Monster, Big Bird, The Cat in the Hat, Mr. Potato Head, Popeye, Scooby Doo, Garfield, Fred Flintstone, and Super Grover.  The master of ceremonies is Alan Kalter of “The Late Show With David Letterman”.

There are also clowns to scare the youngest-

For the most part, the Auguste plays the fool. As Season explained, they’re the clowns that have no idea what they’re doing in their routine, blowing up a balloon backwards, or accidentally letting it go so it whizzes out of their hands. But in the end, their balloon is perfect.

…

White Face clowns know exactly what to do with their balloon, mini-bicycle or the bowling pins they’re juggling. They do everything right. But in the end, it’s a total disaster.

…

The two work together, playing off each other’s yin and yang. As the perfectionist White Face clown meticulously works with his props, the Auguste garners giggles through his trial and error. In the end, the White Face generates laughter from the audience with his failed exercise, while the Auguste rejoices in his Tada moment.

What?  You say there’s another Big Balloon Parade?

Their mascot appears to be a windblown comb over about as convincing as Sam Puckett’s lip squirrel and they have a mere 16 Balloons following the retirement of Snoopy.  The returning veterans are-

• Buzz Lightyear
• Charlie Brown
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid
• Julius
• Kermit the Frog
• Kung Fu Panda
• Pikachu
• Pillsbury Doughboy
• Ronald McDonald
• Sailor Mickey
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Spider-Man
• SpongeBob SquarePants

with 3 new additions-

• The Elf on the Shelf
• Hello Kitty
• and Papa Smurf

They’ve also managed to find 12 bands to supplement their freezing cast of Broadway lip-syncers-

• Banda Musical Delfines, Veracruz, Mexico
• Father Ryan High School, Nashville, TN
• Kenton Ridge High School, Springfield, OH
• Macy’s Great American Marching Band, United States
• Niceville High School, Niceville, FL
• North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC
• NYPD Marching Band, New York, NY
• Oak Ridge High School, Conroe, TX
• Saratoga High School, Saratoga, CA
• United States Air Force Band & Honor Guard, Washington, DC
• University of Louisiana Lafayette, Lafayette, LA
• Wyoming All-State Marching Band, Wyoming

and 28 floats for 28 celebrities and 9 performance groups.

Plus Santa.

It’s nationally televised on CBS and NBC, I’m going to favor the CBS broadcast since NBC will repeat at 2 pm after the National Dog Show.  It used to be that you could gain an advantage by watching CBS’ uptown coverage but so much of it is pre-canned and tape delayed it’s hard to get any continuity out of either presentation.  If you want to see Broadway on Ice go with NBC’s Herald Square location.

Happy Thanksgiving all, I’ll be joining you again later for Throwball.

As opposed to night which will be coming soon enough.

Most of my regular readers know that I look on Holiday blogging as a public service.  Many times I need a distraction while I’m working or an excuse to get away from the crowd.  That’s difficult when schedules are disrupted and regular habits and outlets are unavailable.

So I put these little research projects up to inform you of special events of interest and alternatives to absent activities.

Additionally today we’ll have special coverage of Big Balloon Parades and three Throwball games and as the weekend progresses other Holiday sports including the final Formula One of the season from Interlagos.

This particular piece covers the hours from 6 am to 6 pm.  Feel free to contribute items I’ve overlooked.

Well, some people are up getting set for tomorrow and since many of them are seldom awake at this hour I thought I’d point out some background programming.

I’m a little behind myself so this is an appetizer.

midnight

• CBS– David Letterman (Amy Poehler, Josh Hutcherson, Tegan and Sara)
• A&E– Duck Dynasty (marathon until 4 am)
• BBCA– The Man With The Golden Gun
• Discovery– Moonshiners (marathon until 3 am)
• Food– Restaurant: Impossible (marathon until 4 am)
• History– American Restoration (marathon until 4 am)
• H2– How the Earth Was Made (marathon until 4 am)
• SciFi– For Your Eyes Only
• TLC– Here Comes Honey Boo Boo (marathon until 3 am)

12:30 am

• CBS– The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson

1 am

• AMC– Gone With The Wind
• Animal Planet– River Monsters (marathon until 6 am)
• TBS– Conan

2 am

• BBCA– Luther (marathon until 6 am)
• Hub– Facts of Life (marathon until 4 am)
• Turner Classic– Wise Blood

2:30 am

• Comedy– Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
• SciFi– Dr. No

3 am

• ESPN– Hoopies, Clippers @ Thunder
• ESPN2– Sports Center (until 6 am)
• Nat Geo– Ultimate Factories (marathon until 6 am)

4 am

• Turner Classic– The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

One Interesting Thing About Paula Broadwell’s Petraeus Biography

Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

POSTED: November 21, 1:50 PM ET

The book is so one-sided that it is almost supernaturally dull, and I was forgetting about it just minutes after I put it down.

Then it hit me – it was an interesting book, after all! Because if you read All In carefully, the book’s tone will remind you of pretty much any other authorized bio of any major figure in business or politics (particularly in business), and it will most particularly remind you of almost any Time or Newsweek famous-statesperson profile.

Which means: it’s impossible to tell the difference between the tone of a reporter who we now know was literally sucking the dick of her subject and the tone of just about any other modern American reporter who is given access to a powerful person for a biography or feature-length profile.

…

The real scandal in the Petraeus episode isn’t that a would-be journalist was sleeping with her subject, it’s that lots and lots of other journalists are doing the same thing – metaphorically, anyway.

Decades ago, when people like Sy Hersh were the go-to-profilers of influential people, journalists reflexively distrusted power, and any reporter, male or female, who wrote a blowjob profile (that’s what we call them) of a politician or tycoon was looked down upon as a hack and a traitor. But these days, you can’t tell the difference between your average profile of a Senator or CEO or a four-star general and an ESPN feature about a day in the life of Lebron James.

A specter.  Originally posted August 17, 2011.

Us Scandinavian Bachelor Chefs (h/t CompoundF) frequently find ourselves in the position of needing a last minute substitute for real food because planning ahead is not one of our strengths (if it were we probably wouldn’t be Bachelors anymore).

Here’s a recipe that is not too fussy and can be thrown together at the last minute and great expense as a cheap imitation of inferior quality.

You will need-

• Ground Turkey
• Dried Cranberries
• Onion (chopped coarse)
• Bread
• Butter
• Garlic Powder
• Bell’s Poultry Seasoning
• An Egg

• Dry Packaged Instant Turkey Gravy

Optional (of course the more you add the better it will taste)-

• Walnuts (chopped coarse)
• Canned Mushrooms (stems and pieces, chopped coarse)

The goal is simple, to create a reasonable taste facsimile of a Turkey dinner with stuffing and gravy without days of defrosting and hours of cooking time.  It is somewhat pricey as ground Turkey often costs as much as ground beef or more.

The primary problems to overcome are cohesion and dryness.  I’m going to recommend what seems like a lot of fat but Turkey is quite a lean meat.  I’ll be working with approximately 2 pounds of Turkey as a base (that’s how much the local Super Market puts in a package), you adjust the other ingredients for taste and volume.

The most labor intensive part of preparation is chopping the onion(s).  Depending on how strong the flavor (in decreasing order- yellow, red, sweet) you’ll want to prepare about half the volume of your meat.  If you use yellow and are sensitive to onions (I am) you may want to saute them a little to take some of the harshness out.

The most time consuming part is the bread.  Toast it a bit (hey, if you have enough time to stale it you most likely don’t need this recipe), smear generously with butter and shake quite a bit of garlic powder on top.  Cube.  You need about 3/4 of the volume of your meat (6 slices or a little more).  Crusty European breads work much better than Balloon breads because the goal (as with meat balls) is to lighten the texture of your finished dish.

Mixing–

I put the other ingredients in the bottom of the bowl with the meat on top but I don’t think it makes any difference.  The important thing is not to over mix because the loaf will get gummy and dense.

A cup or more of Dried Cranberries (I like them), Onion, Garlic Toast, 4 Tbls Butter (chopped), Ground Turkey, 1 – 3 Tbls Bell’s Poultry Seasoning (the primary flavor is Sage in case you can’t find it), an Egg or 2 to bind.

Mix gently, completely, and not too long with your fingers.  Now is the time to add your optional ingredients, if using Mushrooms include the liquid too.

Cooking–

I like loaf pans, others mound on a sheet.  Grease for clean release.  It leaks a bit so you’ll want a lip to catch the drip.  In any event at least an hour at 325 – 350 until the internal temperature reaches the recommended level for poultry or brown on the top and gray through the thickest part.

Rest 5 – 10 minutes while you prepare the gravy, slice and serve.

Thanksgiving on a stick.

Gobble, gobble.

Too soon?

Now I’ll admit that most of what drives this particular post is my New England skin flintiness and it’s  hard to find meat cheaper than Turkey even when it’s not on special.  Indeed the problem for most people is its abundance as in, what do you do with the 15 pounds of it you’re too sleepy to eat?

I have an easy and tasty solution that will tide you over until the briskets of spring are available.

Pulled Turkey (sometimes called Turkey Hash) is easy to prepare and freezes well.  Basically you take all the bits and scraps you can pull off the bone (or shred larger pieces by hand) and remove all the tendons and cartilage and fat and uncrispy skin so that you’re left with a pile of pure stringy meat.

Now you can freeze it right at this point in individual recipe size portions in case you’re a big fan of Turkey salad or other treatments that don’t require visually attractive slices.  I do it to save freezer space.

My ultimate destination is a pot of gravy which I make in my typical fashion from a dried mix heated and whisked for a few minutes before dumping the meat (frosted or defrosted) into it for warming to serving temperature.

If it is shortly after Thanksgiving there is usually some leftover stuffing around but it works equally well over egg noodles or rice.  In a pinch or a hurry just a slice of bread will do and you can call it an open face Turkey sandwich.

The simplicity belies the taste (if you happen to like Turkey) and last time I checked 2 cups of gravy mix (prepared) went for $1.50.

Hard to beat.

Tomorrow- Turkey Loaf.

Originally posted August 16, 2011.

Andrew Cuomo, fake Democrat

By Alex Pareene, Salon

Monday, Nov 19, 2012 07:45 AM EST

If the New York state Senate remains controlled by the Republican Party, it won’t be because of the voters. Democrats have 30 seats, with 32 required for a majority. They’re also ahead in two races currently being recounted. … One guy who’s staying conspicuously out of the fight: Democratic governor and 2016 presidential contender Andrew Cuomo.

…

(I)t’s not just that Cuomo’s not trying to help his party win a majority that voters actually voted for. He has at times actively hindered their chances. Cuomo signed off on gerrymandered state Senate districts and did not demand independent, nonpartisan redrawing. In doing so he intended to preserve the status quo – Republicans in charge of the state Senate, Democrats in charge of the more representative assembly – but voters in New York pretty clearly decided that they preferred Democrats in charge of both houses, even with districts drawn specifically to make that nearly impossible.

And if Republicans get their majority, with the tacit support of Cuomo, the governor will have once again shown that he is not the progressive figure he will likely try to sell himself as if he runs for president. His tenure so far has been marked by flashy liberal victories on issues like gay marriage, along with a quietly conservative economic agenda: A property tax cap, total neglect of mass transit, and (partial) support for fracking. Even on economic issues where Cuomo has more liberal priorities, he rarely pushes his Republican friends particularly hard. (A Republican-controlled state Senate will almost certainly block a minimum wage increase Cuomo ostensibly supports.) There’s a reason, in other words, that the National Review loves him.

…

Democrats ought to know what sort of Democrat he is. If Cuomo allows Republicans to subvert the will of the voters of New York, so that he has an easier time cutting taxes and rolling back regulations, he shouldn’t be allowed to sell himself to future primary voters as a progressive.

As Atrios says- Zombie Liberal Bloggers Can Still Eat Brains.

Our regular featured content-

• On This Day In History November 18 by TheMomCat
• Punting the Pundits: Sunday Preview Edition by TheMomCat

And these featured articles-

• Pull Up A Rock And Let Me Tell You How It Really Was by: terryhallinan
• Formula One 2012: Perry’s Pit by: ek hornbeck
• What’s Cooking: Turkey Technology by: TheMomCat
• Rant of the Week: Bill Maher by: TheMomCat
• What’s Cooking: Fried Turkey by: TheMomCat

Write more and often.  This is an Open Thread.

Daniel Day Lewis– Last of the Mohicans (1992) (1:57)

Our regular featured content-

• On This Day In History November 17 by TheMomCat
• Punting the Pundits by TheMomCat

And these featured articles-

• The Day The Mighty MC Turned The Reddest State West of The Pecos Green by: terryhallinan
• Formula One 2012: Perry’s Pit Qualifying by: ek hornbeck
• Health and Fitness News by: TheMomCat
• The Last Rhino by: mishima
• My Little Town 20121114: When Dad Blew off His Leg by: Translator

Additional special Formula One coverage from Perry’s Pit tomorrow.

Write more and often.  This is an Open Thread.