A Blue-State Thanksgiving Menu

Plus: our brains explain the season’s sadness, and our favorite holiday stories from the archives. View in browser | Update your preferences In November of 1943, the writer and editor Wolcott Gibbs published a Comment in The New Yorker recounting how the magazine and its editors were holding up during wartime. “The ink in our well is often mud and dust,” he wrote, “and the ersatz paper clips crumble away in our hands.” Yet, all in all, he observed, the staff maintained its resolve to continue the work of publishing—an act that, amid the tumult of the Second World War, constituted in and of itself, as he called it, “a small, impertinent miracle.” In March of this year, nearly eight decades after the publication of Gibbs’s piece, The New Yorker, like so many businesses, schools, and other institutions, temporarily shut its physical doors and embarked on a new chapter, working remotely in an effort to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nine months after the outbreak began, we, like our readers, find ourselves faced with unprecedented circumstances—and, as we continue to report on the changing lives of millions of Americans, we’ve kept Gibbs’s words in mind. As he once put it, in an earlier era of collective purpose and resolve, we are thoughtfully counting our blessings on this Thanksgiving. Today, we’re bringing you two new pieces, by Louis Menand and Robin Wright, plus a selection of some of our favorite holiday stories from the archives. In “Wonton Lust,” Calvin Trillin writes about his family’s tradition of dining in Chinatown on Thanksgiving Day. In “Pilgrim’s Progress,” Jane Kramer recalls the many holiday dinners that she has prepared while working as a reporter in Europe. In the poem “Gravy,” Raymond Carver offers gratitude for his good fortune. In “Magical Dinners,” Chang-rae Lee reminisces about his mother’s cooking and his family’s elaborate immigrant meals. In “Talking Turkey,” Bill Buford visits a wild-turkey expert and chronicles the history of turkeys in North America. In “Friendsgiving Will Set You Free,” Bryan Washington examines how friends and family are crafting new ways in which to celebrate the holidays. Finally, Helen Rosner offers the recipe for the perfect cocktail to serve with your Thanksgiving meal. We hope you enjoy these stories and that they serve as an apt reminder of the small, everyday miracles of this holiday season. Consider these pieces our thanks to you. Happy Thanksgiving. —Erin Overbey, archive editor Daily Comment A Blue-State Thanksgiving Menu The country has been damaged—we don’t even know how badly—but it still has a soul. We should feel gratitude this week for some of those through whom it shone. By Louis Menand Our Columnists Our Brains Explain the Season’s Sadness A pandemic, compounded by simultaneous political, civil, and natural crises, is overwhelming human evolution’s greatest innovation. By Robin Wright From the Archive Comment Counting Our Blessings There is, in fact, so much to be thankful for. By Wolcott Gibbs Shouts & Murmurs Wonton Lust A Thanksgiving tradition in Chinatown. By Calvin Trillin Personal History Pilgrim’s Progress Cooking Thanksgiving dinner abroad. By Jane Kramer Poems “Gravy” “Pure gravy. And don’t forget it.” By Raymond Carver Recollections Magical Dinners An immigrant Thanksgiving. By Chang-rae Lee Notes of a Gastronome Talking Turkey The man who communicates with gobblers. By Bill Buford Kitchen Notes Friendsgiving Will Set You Free For some of us, Friendsgiving is as close to Thanksgiving as we’ve conjured for some time. By Bryan Washington Kitchen Notes The Perfect Thanksgiving Cocktail Is the Boulevardier Contrary to popular conception, Thanksgiving is not a holiday of turkey and side dishes but of lubrication. By Helen Rosner Humor from The New Yorker Daily Shouts Everyone, Go Around the Table and Say What You’re Thankful for Someone, say something. Anything. Please. By Corinne Caputo and Eli Grober Daily Cartoon Thursday, November 26th By Paul Noth This e-mail was sent to you by The New Yorker. To insure delivery, we recommend adding newyorker@newsletters.newyorker.com, to your contacts, while noting that it is a no-reply address. Please send all newsletter feedback to tnyinbox@newyorker.com. For more from The New Yorker, sign up for our newsletters, shop the store, and sign in to newyorker.com, where subscribers always have unlimited access. Contact us with questions. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2020. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.