Thanksgiving

Let's face it — America just wouldn't be the same without the greatness that is Thanksgiving. After all, it is the one day of the year when it's completely excused, if not encouraged, to be obsessed with food. It's the one day of the year when turkey isn't processed into glistening disks of lunch meat. It's the one day of the year when we gobble down stuffing, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole and similar foods that are pretty much never eaten any other day. It's the four to five days of the year when we eat the same meal, and its creative variations, for every meal.

My neighbor has a huge plastic blow-up turkey on his front lawn. Good for him! Alas, he's an anachronism. You rarely see Thanksgiving displays anymore. During my lifetime, enthusiasm for the holiday has diminished markedly. That's sad. When I was a kid, Thanksgiving was America's No. 2 holiday, behind Christmas and a notch ahead of Fourth of July. Now it's an afterthought, lost between Halloween's sugar bender and the commercial extravaganza that is Christmas. If Thanksgiving were once the American holiday equivalent of Manchester United of the English Premier League, sadly, it's now in jeopardy of being relegated to Division 2. Arbor Day elicits more passion.

COSTA MESA — Volunteers stuffed clear bags with potatoes, carrots, onions, pears and oranges on Saturday morning while others filled brown paper bags with nonperishable items like pinto beans, rice, canned soup and cereal. Later, the chicken or turkey, bread and dessert item will be added to the Thanksgiving food bags to be handed out to those in need. "These are families that are struggling that might not have chosen to have Thanksgiving because they didn't have the food," said Julie Larson, the manager of volunteers at Share Our Selves (SOS)

Here are some leftovers for you on the day after Thanksgiving. Turkey. This fowl is also known as the Facilities Management West's deal with the state to buy the 150-acre Orange County Fairgrounds for $150 million. It's already generated one lawsuit, and rumors are swirling around town that additional litigation will be filed next week to block the transaction. The game plan for the deal's opponents appears to be this: Use litigation to run out the clock on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's term, which ends Jan. 3. Then, lobby the new administration of Jerry Brown to kill the ill-conceived deal that lacks any community support and reeks of an inside job. As a bonus, Brown could fire the fair board members en masse (this whole fiasco — including the wasted tax dollars — can be squarely placed on their shoulders)

COSTA MESA — At the third annual Someone Cares Soup Kitchen Thanksgiving Eve feast, the kitchen was abuzz as dozens of low-income and limited-income senior citizens from nearby Bethel Towers rubbed elbows with the homeless. "The price is right here, and it's something I need — that's for sure," said Lawrence Bubka, 83, who has lived in Costa Mesa for 20 years. He receives almost $900 in Social Security and disability checks a month. A former graphic artist and son of a Polish immigrant who came to California as a tailor in the early 1900s, Bubka dressed in a gray fedora and tweed jacket for Wednesday's meal.

Each day he doesn’t turn himself in, the man who killed a Corona del Mar resident on Thanksgiving Day digs himself a deeper hole, prosecutors said Tuesday. Clinton “C.J.” Hubbard, 27, was punched in the head just before 2 a.m. outside The Code restaurant in Newport Beach. The impact burst a blood vessel in Hubbard’s brain, family members said. He was taken off life support Friday night, with family by his side, his sister, Jessica Johnson, said. The man who punched him ran off before authorities arrived, family members said.

While most folks Thursday were sitting around a table, scarfing down turkey and gravy or crowded around a TV watching football, a small number of people had to keep the Newport-Mesa running. “Somebody’s got to work the holidays. Nobody likes to but these guys are out there doing what they do,” said Jamie Hooker, 24, a jailer at the Costa Mesa Police Department. So Hooker’s family, which is chock full of Costa Mesa police officers — her mother, father, brother, grandfather, among others — open up their home every Thanksgiving to their co-workers.

For many countless Americans, celebrating Thanksgiving this year may be difficult in the wake of such challenging times. It seems as though certainty has given way to uncertainty and every security is being threatened. Yet one certainty and security remains unshaken: God’s word. As hard as the times may be for some, times were harder for the early pilgrims celebrating their first “Thanksgiving” in 1621. Half the settlers died from starvation the year before because of a harsh winter.

Every Thanksgiving, as well as Easter, my family invites people over for a traditional banquet. Our nearest relatives are far away, so we decided to create our own tradition for these two key holidays. We invite over friends who have no local family as well as friends who are financially strapped. For the day, they become our extended family. I would encourage all who have the means and the willingness to remember those less fortunate and help them during the year. Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Newport Beach)

Executives from Newport Beach-based Integrity Wealth Management, will help serve a Thanksgiving Eve meal today at the Someone Cares Soup Kitchen in Costa Mesa. The executives will peel potatoes, prepare cranberry salad and dish out food for about 325 needy families during the lunch from 1 to 2 p.m. Integrity Wealth Management Chief Executive Ralph G. Adamo, helped out at the kitchen for the first time during last year’s pre-Thanksgiving meal. Some 800 needy people are expected to line up at the kitchen.