On Thursday, we will take the day off to celebrate Thanksgiving. For most people, Thursday will be a day to watch football, fight with relatives and eat enormous quantities of food such as turkey and cranberry sauce (which exists solely to eat on Thanksgiving, I am convinced).
I will be engaging in all of these activities, too. However, I will also be harkening back to the time of the first Thanksgiving hundreds of years ago, when the Indians and the newcomers to America got together to celebrate the harvest and all that was good in the world. (Shortly afterward, the Indians were robbed of their land and either killed or put on little reservations by those newcomers, but that's another story). Therefore, in celebration of Thanksgiving, I would like to publicly give thanks for what is right in my life.
--I am very thankful to be blessed with a number of friends and family, who love me no matter how ridiculous I act or how horrible my column mug shots may look.
--I am thankful for the fact that I live in a country where people can make jokes about the president's sex life, and not face any punishment (That is, assuming I am not in the military.)
--I am thankful for my job, where for the past 10 months I have been able to learn and grow as a journalist, while having one hell of a time.
--I am thankful for my other job, which helps me pay the bills in light of the fact that my main job -- where for the past 10 months I have been able to learn and grow as a journalist -- pays like crap.
--I am thankful for the remote control, which allows me to change the channel whenever those God-awful Pepsi One commercials with Cuba Gooding, Jr.? Come on. I personally feel he should have his Oscar revoked, and be publicly flogged, for making these ads -- which have accomplished the impossible feat of being more annoying than those Rail City commercials could ever be.
--I am thankful for 99 cent Whoppers. Looking at my waistline, it appears I may be a bit too thankful for them.
--I am thankful for Willie Albright, who has brought the word "blighted" into my vocabulary.
--I am thankful for my cat, Beavis, who proves to me every day that any creature named "Beavis" is bound to have mental problems.
--I am thankful for construction companies, who will not hesitate to close down 19 miles of a busy roadway to work on one ridiculously small section of the road somewhere in the middle. Oh, wait. I am not thankful for that. That seems really stupid, actually. Never mind.
--I am thankful for my little nephew Stephen who never fails to bring a grin to my face with his adorable smile.
--I am thankful for Dave Barry, who has given me an impossibly high standard to attempt to reach when it comes to being a funny smart-ass.
--I am immensely thankful for the Reno City Council, because they never fail to give me column fodder by making idiotic decisions like putting a big, windowless theater on a small, beautiful plot of land along the Truckee River.
--I am thankful that downtown Reno, which truly qualifies as "blighted" in many senses of the word, has nowhere to go but up. At least, I hope so.
--I am thankful for the Daily Sparks Tribune and the Reno News & Review, two publications that make it so print journalism in the Truckee Meadows keeps a degree of respectability. Of course, I am a little biased.
--I am thankful for the inspiration and guidance that I get every day from Sparky the Tribune Trout, our beloved mascot. He's a plastic fish taped to a filing cabinet, but we love him deeply.
--I am thankful for the Big Nickel, which makes it so I can get a paycheck every two weeks.
--I am thankful for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Stanford Cardinal, just because I think sports are really damn cool.
--I am thankful for a meal at Denny's of a Moons Over My Hammy, fries and a coke.
--I am incredibly thankful that my editor did not make me go on that damn ride at the Reno Hilton, because I surely would have wet myself.
--I am thankful that we usually do not have to put up with the wind like we've had over the past few days.
--Finally, I an truly thankful that I have so many things to be thankful for.
Jimmy Boegle, a fifth-generation Nevadan, hopes that he never has to choose between Beavis and Sparky the Tribune Trout. Jimmy's column appears here Tuesdays.