Valentine’s Day has changed a lot through the centuries. For one thing, it isn’t just sweethearts who exchange cards and gifts anymore. Since the first Valentine cards were produced commercially in the US in the 1800’s the industry has expanded to the point where there’s a Valentine for nearly everyone in your life, from your Grandma to your paper boy.

And for those who are fed up with the commercialism or just simply cannot stand another dose of hearts and flowers, there’s the anti-valentine.

The free anti-valentine messages are a sure antidote to the forced emotional nature of the holiday.

My favorite card says: Happy unimaginative, consumerist-oriented and entirely arbitrary, manipulative and shallow interpretation of romance day.

A Few Thanksgiving Thoughts…

Just a few of my favorite perspectives on the holiday. Have a wonderful day, I hope you all can spend it with family and loved ones.

What we’re really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?
- Erma Bombeck

An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day.
–Irv Kupcinet

May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
and your pies take the prize,
and may your Thanksgiving dinner
stay off your thighs!
-Unknown

As we approach Thanksgiving and I sit here writing from New England, not far from the site of the first Thanksgiving, I am reminded that another Thanksgiving tradition started here in Massachusetts colony - the Cranberry.

It was in 1816 that Revolutionary War veteran Henry Hall planted the first commercial cranberry beds in Dennis, Massachusetts.

It wouldn’t be a New England Thanksgiving without the cranberry sauce. Some prefer to make a fresh cranberry relish, others don’t mind the canned variety of cranberry sauce or jelly. Family tradition often determines what kind of cranberry sauce you prefer with your feast. I personally like the canned cranberry jelly with the telltale ring imprints molded into it from the can (look, cranberry sauce just like mom used to open).

But cranberries should be more than just a side dish that is overlooked at Thanksgiving. You can make cranberry muffins, cranberry bread, desserts, juice and even string them with popcorn to decorate your Christmas tree.

The cranberry is a healthful fruit that is high in anti-oxidants. Cranberries also contain proanthocyanidins (PACs) that can prevent the adhesion of certain of bacteria, including E. coli, associated with urinary tract infections.

The cranberry comes to the consumer in many forms, sauces and jellies, juice, as well as fresh and dried fruit.

Of course the best way to eat cranberry sauce is on top of turkey and stuffing in a post-feast leftover sandwich.

Check out some other cranberry sources:

The Cranberry Insitute

Ocean Spray Cranberry recipes

National Insitutes of Health - Cranberry