Thanksgiving has become the holiday caught in the middle
Pity Poor Thanksgiving – The Holiday Caught in the Middle By James Terminiello Last week, I saw one of those menacing 18-foot skeletons that people p la nt on their lawns for Halloween, but with a twist. It was dressed as a P ilgrim. Today, I saw an inflatable turkey on another lawn being menaced by three knife wielding skeletons . Yes, it appears that the venerable Thanksgiving holiday has now become something of a punch line. It has been coming for years. Halloween has evolved into a consumer sensation with $11 billion plus being expended annually on candy, decorations, party items, and costumes of increasingly detailed and often terrifying design. (What the Chinese who make all this stuff must think of us , I leave to your imagination . ) Christmas, of course, is the grandmaster of consumerism with an estimated $960 billion shelled out annually in an orgy of excess. Poor, sad, tragic , corn-fed Thanksgiving comes in at around $5.6 b...