Helping! Thanksgiving is a relatively new tradition for me. Being a Canadian, ours comes a month earlier — with the 10 cm sheet of ice that blankets the country from October to May — and we never had much of a tradition other than sawing ice blocks off for the igloo or wrestling bears to the ground for sport. But here in your country, Thanksgiving is HUGE — the first big family holiday of the chillier months and the gateway drug to a holiday season of massive, gut-busting eating. I have availed myself happily at many a friend's table, worn Pilgrim hats, taken goofy photos with paper turkeys, and, last year after Sarah Palin ruined the whole turkey thing for me, enjoyed a delicious vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner that was served to me between naps. I really, really like your holiday. But not everyone is so lucky. This Thanksgiving, the economy sucks (not to put too fine a point on it. But how else do you describe 10.2% unemployment nationwide?). In New York, where Mediaite is based and where Mayor Bloomberg rules the city with a shaky mandate, there will be a lot of people going hungry on Thanksgiving. Here is the part where you help! (more...)

I use Twitter a lot, but I was not among the very first to see the new Lists feature. I can now, though. And what I find much more interesting than actually using the feature myself is the fact that I woke up this morning to find that I was on dozens of other people's lists. Even though the irony is that Twitter introduced lists about a year after I stopped wanting such a feature, I do think there is some value in having other people put me on their lists. Braggadocio. Oh yes, braggadocio. (more...)