Category Archives: History

This story was originally published in November 2019.

Story by Richard Shaw.

You had to hand it to Fred French, a vestryman at St. Johns Episcopal Church in Bangor. He knew how to impress his 16 dinner guests with a classic 1878 Thanksgiving Day feast.

As described in a 1934 Bangor newspaper article, the meal began with oyster soup and crackers, followed by a mammoth turkey (no trimmings except for its own brown skin), two large boiled fowl and an English roast of beef. Vegetables included mashed potatoes, squash, boiled onions and cranberry sauce.

With the turkey the guests were served unlimited quantities of champagne in spite of the fact that even then, Maine had prohibition, the article noted. At each corner of the table was a cut glass decanter of rum, gin, brandy and whiskey for those who preferred the stronger drink to the somewhat milder champagne.

Next came mince, squash, apple and pumpkin pies. Then the table was cleared and candies, nuts, raisins, figs, dates and port wine, snatched from the churchs communion cupboard, topped off the meal. Coffee came last, served in breakfast-sized cups. Hopefully, the guests made it home safely after this glorious epicurean exercise.

Maines Thanksgiving history is brimming with stories of both lavish meals and Great Depression famines, when families depended on public assistance to get through the holiday. Today, dining out in a restaurant, or attending a soup kitchen dinner, is as common as preparing a meal at home. But French might wince at the thought of diners insisting that vegetarian Tofu Turkey tastes as though it once gobbled and lived on a farm.

When I was growing up in the 1940s and 50s, most people celebrated Thanksgiving quietly, said David Crouse, a historian and researcher from Bangor. Now, people feel pressured to do things more expensively. Dad earned just above what most people in town made, which wasnt much.

Crouse lived with his parents and sister in the town of Stow, a rural Oxford County town that has a current population of around 411. Before noon each Thanksgiving, they would travel the short distance to his grandparents home in Chatham, New Hampshire, and enjoy a modest meal. His mother typically supplied the apple pie.

This wasnt a traditional turkey dinner, Crouse said. Grandmother made a sort of turkey stew covered with biscuits. You might have called it a pie. We never had a turkey until a company that father worked for later donated one for the holidays.

Stow had a one-room schoolhouse where the teacher, Mrs. Andrews, was like a second mother to Crouse and his classmates. Her young charges crafted paper Pilgrim hats, and probably also read the accepted account of the first Thanksgiving in 1621, attended by the Pilgrims and local Indians at Plymouth Plantation.

She might have cited another New England holiday connection, the role that New Hampshires Sarah Hale, a well-known magazine editor, played in persuading President Abraham Lincoln to establish a legal holiday in 1863, giving thanks on the last Thursday of November. Before Maine became a state in 1820, Thanksgiving was commonly observed on this day. A document signed by Maines first governor, William King, archived in the University of Maine Fogler Library Special Collections, proves his support of this unofficial holiday.

Yet another area Thanksgiving connection alleges that the first meal was actually served at Maines Popham Colony, 14 years before the Pilgrims feast. In 1985, President Ronald Reagan fueled this theory in a proclamation, stating that the time and date of the first American Thanksgiving observance was uncertain and then mentioned as his first example that a band of settlers arriving in Maine in 1607 held a service of thanks for their safe journey.

Whatever the truth about where America first broke bread and gave thanks, Thanksgiving remains a placid holiday filled with food, football and parades.

Thanksgiving provides a reason for culinary researchers to leaf through old grocery advertisements and restaurant menus to discern the cost of earlier meals compared with today. In 1940, for only 50 cents, Bangors Brass Rail restaurant served a full Thanksgiving dinner, including a choice of native young tom turkey or Virginia ham, Hubbard squash, English plum pudding and hot mince pie.

In 1980, the Red Lions traditional dinner of turkey, vegetables and Indian pudding cost $6.95. Today, dining out on turkey day can run anywhere from $25 to $50, depending on drink orders.

The cost of cooking your own dinner is surprisingly cheap, compared with prices stretching back to the 19th century. In 2017, a Maine supermarket chain advertised a Thanksgiving dinner for eight for less than $20. Included were grade A frozen turkey for 39 cents a pound, a bag of russet potatoes for $3.49, and butternut, buttercup or acorn squash for 39 cents a pound.

By contrast, during the war year of 1917, the Bangor Cash Market was selling freshly killed fancy Vermont turkeys for 40 cents a pound, chickens for 33 cents and geese for 30 cents. Seven pounds of sweet potatoes went for 25 cents, and two quarts of Cape Cod cranberries, 25 cents.

In todays economy, that would be a far heftier cost.

By 1975, when inflation was rampant, the new self-basting turkeys sold for 53 cents a pound at one local supermarket. Four 16-ounce cans of cranberry sauce sold for a dollar.

Today, it is important to preserve your families Thanksgiving stories to gain perspective on how Maine, and the nation, have observed the holiday. Mary Ellingwood Andrews, a retired real estate broker, antique dealer and appraiser from Bangor, recalls the holiday feasts of her youth in 1940s Winterport.

A chicken from our hen house was slaughtered the day before and mincemeat, and pumpkin pies were baked in the cast iron Wood and Bishop kitchen wood stove, she recalled. Vegetables from the garden were washed in the pantry and prepared for cooking the next day, and preserves were brought up from the basement.

The square oak dining room table was covered with a special tablecloth and special dinnerware was set while the whole house was filled with the smells of vegetables cooking and a chicken with our traditional family stuffing recipe baking in the oven, and later biscuits, too, she said.

It was a day free from chores, she said.

Time to give thanks for the years harvest of activities and projects completed and gratitude of Thanksgiving for those who came before us, sacrificing through challenges and hardships to make life easier for us who followed, she said. Today, quiet time shared with families is almost lost with members scurrying in different directions, commitments, and interests. We live in a different world of what is next, how, when, and where.

This story was originally published in Bangor Metros November 2019 issue. To subscribe to the magazine, click here.

More articles from the BDN

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The history of Thanksgiving in Maine - Bangor Daily News

Chinese President Xi Jinping is the son of a revolutionary whose life was more shaped by the danger of competing narratives about party history than perhaps anyone else in his generation. Xis father, Xi Zhongxun, was persecuted for 16 years because of his support for a novel about party history. Now, his son has led the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to a new historical decisiononly the third in its hundred-year historyand one in which Xi junior is an extraordinarily prominent figure.

A new history resolution allows Xi to implicitly compare himself to illustrious predecessors such as Mao and Deng Xiaoping and present the CCP as a historic force uniquely capable of modernizing China. But the actual content of the document prioritizes continuity, treats several controversial subjects vaguely, and avoids assigning blame. Although the resolution acknowledges an accumulation of problems during his predecessors eras that only Xi is allegedly capable of solving, the Cultural Revolution is still characterized as a mistake and Reform and Opening Up a triumph. Xi uniquely understands why historical grudges and differing views about the past are so potentially explosive.

Xi Zhongxun was from the northwest, where the local CCP movement was far distant from the Central Soviet, the partys core leadership, in the southern provinces of Jiangxi and Fujian. The Long March of 1934-35 would eventually bring the central party leadership to Shaanxi, but before that Xi and other Communists from the northwest went through vicious factional infighting that left behind mutual antagonisms that lasted decades. Personal and party histories became deeply intertwined, and the battles of the 1930s would shape CCP politics for decades. Wang Xiaozhong, who worked for the Central Advisory Council in the 1980s and helped manage those continuing debates over what happened 50 years earlier, wrote in his memoirs:The scars left behind by brutal killings within the revolutionary units left a deep mark on their hearts forever, hurting them for their whole lives. In party history propaganda, such a major historical event as the Northwest Issue was played down, skirted around, treated casually. As for the internal turmoil and butchery that are unbearable to look back on, they were simply not brought up.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is the son of a revolutionary whose life was more shaped by the danger of competing narratives about party history than perhaps anyone else in his generation. Xis father, Xi Zhongxun, was persecuted for 16 years because of his support for a novel about party history. Now, his son has led the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to a new historical decisiononly the third in its hundred-year historyand one in which Xi junior is an extraordinarily prominent figure.

A new history resolution allows Xi to implicitly compare himself to illustrious predecessors such as Mao and Deng Xiaoping and present the CCP as a historic force uniquely capable of modernizing China. But the actual content of the document prioritizes continuity, treats several controversial subjects vaguely, and avoids assigning blame. Although the resolution acknowledges an accumulation of problems during his predecessors eras that only Xi is allegedly capable of solving, the Cultural Revolution is still characterized as a mistake and Reform and Opening Up a triumph. Xi uniquely understands why historical grudges and differing views about the past are so potentially explosive.

Xi Zhongxun was from the northwest, where the local CCP movement was far distant from the Central Soviet, the partys core leadership, in the southern provinces of Jiangxi and Fujian. The Long March of 1934-35 would eventually bring the central party leadership to Shaanxi, but before that Xi and other Communists from the northwest went through vicious factional infighting that left behind mutual antagonisms that lasted decades. Personal and party histories became deeply intertwined, and the battles of the 1930s would shape CCP politics for decades. Wang Xiaozhong, who worked for the Central Advisory Council in the 1980s and helped manage those continuing debates over what happened 50 years earlier, wrote in his memoirs:

The scars left behind by brutal killings within the revolutionary units left a deep mark on their hearts forever, hurting them for their whole lives. In party history propaganda, such a major historical event as the Northwest Issue was played down, skirted around, treated casually. As for the internal turmoil and butchery that are unbearable to look back on, they were simply not brought up.

When the Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), turned against the CCP in 1927 and began a bloody anti-communist purge, the party in Shaanxi was badly damaged. Subsequent uprisings and mutinies almost all ended in failure, and communication with the party center was poor. Power struggles became common. In February 1932, for instance, two prominent cadres, Xie Zichang and Yan Hongyan, secretly decided to execute Zhao Erwa, a close associate of Liu Zhidan, another legendary Shaanxi Communist. At a rally in Sanjiayuan, Xie declared that Zhao was a bandit and that his units weapons would be confiscated; Zhao was shot dead as he started to realize what was happening. Xi joined the base camps shortly after the incident and became one of Lius favored proteges.

In 1935, Guo Hongtao and Zhu Lizhi led a purge in the region that culminated in the arrest of Xi, Liu, Gao Gang, and other prominent local Communists under the charge of right-ism, a term that referred to not adopting sufficiently radical policies. These men were only released when Mao and the rest of the party leadership happened to arrive in the region. Yet Mao did not fully reverse the verdictsfor many years, the cadres who suffered in the purge worked in low positions with a black mark on their record.

In 1936, Liu, Xis beloved mentor, died trying to demonstrate his loyalty to the CCP by showing personal valor on the battlefield. Zhou Enlai himself later said Liu was trying to clean himself, to prove that he was not an agent. He preferred to charge ahead into battle to sacrifice himself. Despite Lius valiant efforts, however, his record still included the verdict that he had previously committed the serious mistake of rightism when he died.

Since Xie Zichang had already died from a battlefield injury in 1935, Lius death the following year left the northwestern cadres without a leader whom both they and outsiders respected. This was a particularly tricky problem because of regional prejudices: As Mao noted, outside cadres often said, What do locals understand? Theyre country bumpkins!

It was under these circumstances that Mao used his own interpretation of party history to adopt Xi and the other northwesterners. At the 1942 88-day Northwest Bureau High-Ranking Cadres meeting, Mao, himself determined to rewrite the history of the CCP in a way that would put the stamp on his final victory over internal opposition, helped shape a resolution on the Northwest Issue that defined its history as a microcosm of the party as a whole. Gao Hua, a historian of the Yanan era, noted that Mao was making the resolution on the Northwest a test case for a resolution of the entire party.

For the chairman to compare himself in such powerful terms to Liu, Xi, and Gao Gang must have been electric for these men who had suffered so much. At the meeting, Xi said, If past history is not clarified, that means, in the future, the party in the border region will suffer major failure!

One purpose of the new version of history was to install Gao as the undisputed leader of the northwesterners. Yet not everyone, especially Yan Hongyan, believed Gao had made enough contributions to deserve such a position. Yan, along with Zhu Lizhi and Guo Hongtao, rallied to oppose Gao, and recriminations were so severe that rumors spread that the party in northern Shaanxi would split when the party center left the region. According to Gao, some people spread rumors that Xi Zhongxun is a baby, he didnt do any work, hes stupid and confused, he smokes opium, and so on.

Therefore, another history discussion meeting on the Norwest Issue was held in 1945, at which Yan, Guo, and Zhu were mocked. In Xis own speech at the meeting, he emphasized that while it was no big deal if people did not know history, the most damaging is the distortion and falsification of history. Kang Sheng, a close ally of Mao, declared, Gao Gang is the revolutionary leader of the northwest. Subsequently, no one is allowed to oppose him. Yan Hongyans opposition to Gao Gang is wrong.

But this version of the northwests history was soon challenged. In 1953-54, Gao was the target of the first great purge of the Peoples Republic of China. Goaded by Mao, Gao complained to many top elites about Liu Shaoqi, Maos named successor who was associated with the white areas, meaning underground CCP activities in KMT-controlled areas. Gao said it was inappropriate to equate the historical contributions of cadres in the white areas with those of cadres in the red areas (controlled by the CCP), and he was upset that the northwesterners were dismissed as riffraff, bandits.

Yet Gao had misunderstood Maos intentions. While Mao had likely only wanted to issue a warning to Liu, Gao, believing Maos intent was to remove Liu, went too far and started to tell people about private conversations with the chairman. Gaos behavior became too dangerous, and Mao, with some regret, was forced to give up one of his cherished allies. Gao was subjected to outrageous accusations and killed himself.

Xi was upset with Gaos machinations, which he thought were foolhardy, because they, as northwesterners, could never, in his mind, win the respect of people who had participated in the Long March. But Xi was also deeply frustrated by how Gao was treated. Xi was forced to perform multiple self-criticisms, managed by Deng Xiaoping, another rising star in the party, about his relationship with Gao. In 1958, Mao apologized to Yan Hongyan for ignoring his warnings against Gao. Deng encouraged Guo Hongtao and Zhu Lizhi to challenge the Yanan-era history decisions, and in 1959, the Central Supervisory Committee finished a report that absolved them of most of their crimes.

Also in 1959, Defense Minister Peng Dehuai was purged from the leadership because of his criticisms of the Great Leap Forward, Maos disastrous agricultural-industrial project that produced mass starvation. It was the second fall, after Gao, of a major party figure since the foundation of the Peoples Republic. Xi and Gao were deeply linked to PengXi was Pengs top civilian lieutenant on the northwestern battlefield against the KMT, and Gao was the party boss in the northeast during the Korean War, during which he supported Pengs forces on the front line.

As trends in official historiography were moving against Xi, and his old friend Peng was facing persecution, Li Jiantong, Liu Zhidans sister-in-law, pressured Xi to support a book she was writing about his old hero. Xi said no. He warned her that she did not understand the history well enough, it was too complicated, and it touched on too many people who might misunderstand what she was doing. Yet Li rallied other northwesterners to pressure Xi to support her, and he finally relented.

When excerpts of the novel, titled Liu Zhidan, appeared in 1962, Yan Hongyan complained that it was trying to rewrite party history. The top party leadership response was vicious. At the time, Mao was returning to the theme of class struggle after a brief period of rectification following the Great Leap Forward, and the chairman was worried about Pengs attempts to achieve rehabilitation. The novel could not have appeared at a worse time. As the Chinese historian Xiao Donglian explains:

According to the logic of the time, writing about Liu Zhidan meant writing about Northern Shaanxi, writing about Northern Shaanxi meant writing about Gao Gang, Gao Gang and Peng Dehuai had already established an anti-party alliance, and Xi Zhongxun moreover was the commissar of the Northwest Field Army, Peng Dehuais old partner. Therefore, the Gao, Peng, Xi anti-party clique and the Northwest anti-party clique were formed.

Kang Sheng demanded that investigations into the book look for evidence that it propagated the ideas that the northwest saved the party center and Gao Gang was the king of the northwest and Xi his heir. Ultimately, Xi was forced to say he had tried to use propagandizing a dead person to propagandize the living me. Xi was fired from his position as vice premier, and Zhou told Xis wife, Qi Xin, to make sure he did not kill himself. In the end, some 20,000 people were persecuted, some fatally, as part of the Xi Zhongxun anti-party clique.

Xi only returned to work in 1978. According to Gaos widow, Li Liqun, Xi was distressed when she asked him for support in rehabilitating Gaos history:

Xi said while crying, What can I say now? Everything is linked to me. You also know I was investigated again over the Liu Zhidan novel. To be honest, I sympathized with Gao Gang. I felt very sad over his death. Look, what could I say to the [Central Committee] now? Could a verdict on Gao Gang be done in a way that seeks truth from facts?

When Li Jiantong told Qi Xin that she was campaigning for Liu Zhidans rehabilitation, she said, Jiantong, absolutely do not appeal for justice. My husband was just released. As soon as you appeal, he will be thrown in jail again! One high-ranking official told Li: Comrade Zhongxun does not agree to rehabilitate you. He believes if you are rehabilitated, it would be bad for Chairman Mao.

When all three volumes of Liu Zhidan were republished in the mid-1980s, again some of the northwesterners complained. Xi supported the party leaderships decision that the book should be banned if Li did not make appropriate changes. Li refused to obey. In August 1986, she wrote directly to Xi:

I already do not understand you. Now, you have changed. You cannot resist the leftist opportunism, the repeated attacks of the factionalists. You are beaten with fear. Soon youll be a fool. As soon as you fall into disarray, the leftist factionalists go drink in celebration. This book should not be bannedthe more it is banned, the more people will want to read it!

Yet the book was yet again pulled from shelves.

Ultimately, Gao was never rehabilitated, and Liu Zhidan was never published freely. In January 2000, Li Liqun called Li Rui, Maos former secretary, and told him that she had seen Xi in Shenzhen to discuss the matter of rehabilitating Gao Gang. She said: Zhongxun was very agitated. He said even Chen Duxiu [one of the founders of the CCP who was later expelled from it] has been rehabilitated. Gaos verdict should be reversed. In 2009, a publisher in Jiangxi tried to release all three volumes of Liu Zhidan. But again someone complained, and the book was banned a third time. In other words, even when Xi Zhongxuns son was the partys designated successor, Liu Zhidan still could not be published.

Why was history so dangerous for the Xi family? As a member of the CCP, everything was political. These men and women who gave their lives to the CCP were enormously sensitive to how this all-encompassing political organization characterized their contributions to the revolution. Moreover, as I argue in my forthcoming book, for much of the CCPs history, the most powerful source of authority for leaders has been their historic contributions to the partyand the most powerful weapon has been compromising material about someone elses history.

In this kind of political environment, party leaders understand that history must be treated carefully. Compromise is essential, and compromise usually means adopting vague formulations, emphasizing victories, and avoiding blame. Ultimately, however, as the story of the Xi family shows, most party members accept that, even when narratives do not go in the direction they like, the partys interests come first.

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Xi Jinping's Father, Xi Zhongrun, Almost Fell in a Quarrel Over Party History - Foreign Policy

Turkey crop at Roseburg short

Number offered only about fifty per cent of normal

Buyers were paying 40 cents pound San Francisco will have cheap birds to offer

ROSEBURG But few turkeys were sold in Roseburg Saturday, the price paid by all buyers being 40 cents, a 5 cent raise over Friday. Very few growers brought their turkeys in however, and receipts were light. It is estimated here that the annual turkey crop is 50 per cent below normal.

Local buyers, of whom George Kohlhagen and the Roseburg Produce Company are the most prominent, bought steadily all day at 40 cents, opening the market at that price this morning. Buyers for outside concerns were finally forced to that mark, after offering 35 cents.

The pool has still received the largest number of birds. Half of the bird from Roseburg went to the pool, two-thirds at Oakland, and virtually all the birds from Myrtle Creek, Yoncalla, Drain and Elkton.

Fresh killed turkeys will be sold in San Francisco this week to consumers at wholesale prices, through an arrangement made by Harry S. Maddox, state market director, with turkey producers, according to announcement by Mr. Maddox. The birds will be sold at a free market.

One of the largest producers interested in the sale has 20,000 turkeys, Mr. Maddox said. Both producers and the buying public will benefit, he declared, as there will be no middlemans profits charge.

Fishing boat sinks in bay

The Lucile goes down while captain sleeps

Man aboard manages to get out in time to save himself boat raised today

The fishing boat Lucile sank in the lower bay early Saturday. A fisherman in charge was asleep in the boat at the time but woke up soon enough to get out and save himself.

The coast guard crew today went to the place opposite Empire where the boat sank and managed to raise her. The Lucille was at the dock at Empire when she swamped and went down.

The Lucile belonged to E. Collins. She was at anchor and was swamped in the storm. The loss of some of the fishing gear was the principal damage. Capt. Jensen and crew aided in floating the vessel and later towed her to the upper bay with the coast guard power boat.

Prefontaine, Webfoots top WSU in NCAA

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. The University of Oregon, with Steve Prefontaine leading the way, won the 33rd NCAA cross country championships Monday.

Prefontaine was the individual leader with a time of 29:14.9 and his team posted 83 points for the team title.

Washington State was second with 122 points followed by the University of Pennsylvania. Villanova, favored in the championships, came in fourth. East Tennessee State was fifth.

Coming in second over the hilly, six-mile University of Tennessee Fox Den course was Garry Bjorklund of the University of Minnesota with a time of 29:21.

Prefontaine and Bjorklund were side by side after the first three miles. Heading into the downhill, final lap, Bjorklund took a lead of several steps. Prefontaine moved past the challenger and won by about 30 yards. Prefontaines time was well below his record 1970 time of 28:00.2.

NB adopts 3 traffic aims for downtown

The North Bend city council Tuesday night adopted three recommendations aimed at improving downtown traffic problems including one that would cut speed from 35 to 25 miles per hour on Sherman from the south end of McCullough Bridge to the intersection with Montana.

The proposals were contained in a traffic committee report by Councilman B.L. Higgins.

They followed a request for solutions to excessive noise, speed and downtown parking limitations brought before the council earlier this month by a merchant committee.

A second recommendation proposes eliminating yellow zones downtown no longer being used and making them available for additional parking. The third asks the city to participate in providing original off-street parking by grading and rocking a parking lot on the north side of the IOOF building 50 feet wide and 200 feet deep. Higgins said the Sherman Avenue speed request would need to go before the Oregon State Speed Control Board.

David Douglas wins both tank titles

EUGENE (UPI) David Douglas easily won both the boys and girls state high school swimming championships at Leighton Pool Saturday.

The Scots boys team had 165 points to 127 for second place Sunset. The girls scored 227 to 131 for second place Gresham.

Olympic hopeful Kim Peyton of David Douglas set a new state record of 4:18.75 in the girls 400-yard freestyle, and was a member of the Scots 200-yard freestyle relay team which also set a state mark of 1:45.83, breaking the old record set by Marshfield last year.

Both Marshfield and North Bend finished well down in the pack in the team standings.

In boys competition, Marshfield was 15th with 20 points and North Bend totaled 17 all by Bob Parken for the number 20 position.

In girls competition, Marshfield was seventh with 70 points and North Bend had 11 points for a 21st-place tie.

Reedsport hogs play over their undersized status

Football: Braves have succeeded all year with strong line play

The Hogs have been getting down and dirty this year.

Outmanned and undersized, the five starters on the Reedsport offensive line also known as The Hogs have had to test the size of their heart every time the ball is snapped. It is a major reason the Braves went 8-1 during the regular season, tied for the Far West League title, and battled the odds to beat Henley and Sherwood on the road in the Class 3A playoffs.

Anytime you coach kids that overachieve, it is a kick in the butt, said Reedsport offensive line coach Brad Allred. They keep getting better.

The offensive line now has its toughest test of the season when the Braves play top-ranked Pleasant Hill at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Pete Susick Stadium.

It is nothing new for The Hogs, a nickname the Reedsport offensive line has carried for the past three seasons. The 2001 version gave it a little twist, however.

Is anyone over 200 pounds? asked left guard Jamie McWilliams to the rest of his offensive line teammates. This year we are the Piglets.

On paper, McWilliams is right. The Reedsport offensive line may be the smallest in the whole state.

They average 181 pounds on the line. Center Darren Rose and right guard Shane Henning are 190 pounds, while right tackle Danny McLain, left tackle Uriel Osorio and McWilliams, who plays left guard, are 175 pounds each.

Even quarterback Chad Harrington, at 195 pounds, weighs more than the players up front.

All five starters on the line have played every game and outperformed every preseason expectation the coaching staff had.

Brands named MVP of MAAC tournament

Marshfield graduate Laurie Brands was named the MVP of the MAAC conference volleyball tournament while helping the Fairfield Stags to an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament with their fifth straight conference tourney title.

Brands, a sophomore from Marshfield, had 12 kills, eight digs and three aces and assisted on seven blocks in the tournament finale against St. Peters. In the semifinal win over Sienna, she had seven kills, five aces, five digs and a stuff block.

Marshfield graduate Aaron Young earned All-American honors while helping Willamette Universitys cross country team to its second-best finish ever at the NCAA Division III national championships on Saturday.

Young finished in 27th place, matching his college personal best with a time of 24:51 over 8,000 meters, while Willamette placed seventh overall. Fellow sophomore Jacob Stout was fifth overall and the team finish was the best for the school in 19 years. In 1982, the Bearcats finished fifth in the NAIA national meet.

Young said this years performance is probably better by the team. It was the first time the school has qualified for the national meet since moving up from NAIA to Division III.

Coach known for Thanksgiving speech

Marshfield: Bill Lilley has 40 years of Pirate football experience to draw from for sermons

Marshfield football assistant coach Bill Lilley loves Thanksgiving especially if the Pirates are still alive in the Class 4A playoffs.

The turkey week usually means it is semifinal week, but because the holiday is in the third week of November instead of the fourth week, it is the quarterfinals this year. The Pirates travel to Hillsboro Stadium to play Glencoe at 8 p.m. on Friday, the second game of a doubleheader that features Sheldon vs. Pendleton at 5:30 p.m.

Before they hit the road on Friday, Marshfield football will get another serving of Lilley on the holidays.

After an 8 a.m. practice Thursday, which will most likely be a walk-through at the main gym, players are treated to food and a speech from Lilley.

He has had plenty of opportunity to give it.

The Pirates have practiced during the Thanksgiving week four times in the last nine years, and it is Lilleys second favorite day of the year.

It all starts with Lilleys third favorite day of the year the first day of practice with pads.

That is a starting point, Lilley said.

When Thanksgiving arrives, however, that is when Lilley takes over.

It is a special day to start with, he said. That means you are deep in the playoffs. Things are going good. We are still playing and having fun.

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This Week in History | Local News | theworldlink.com - Coos Bay World

Sorry, apple. Pumpkin is the true home-baked American pie tradition. (Or maybe sweet potato, but more on that later.)

Each year on the fourth Thursday of November, America embarks on a pumpkin pie feeding frenzy unknown anywhere else in the world. In the lead-up to the Thanksgiving holiday, sales of pumpkin spike like a toddlers blood sugar. Even people who dont really like pumpkin pie often eat it anyway. After all, its tradition as American as college sportsand unused vacation days.

But it wasnt always so.

The Thanksgiving pumpkin pie is now a symbol for sweet, sweet national unity. But it was once a hotly contested battleground in Americas original culture war. In the 1800s, the humble pumpkin became a totem of the fight to abolish slavery in America.

There are these New England abolitionists writing saccharin-sweet stories about pumpkins, said historian Cindy Ott, author of "Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon."They very consciously saw these pumpkin farms in contrast to the immoral plantation economy and plantation farms in the South. They very specifically and explicitly compare those two landscapes.

In the mid-19thcentury, according to Ott, eating pumpkins was a matter of identity politics. And much the same could be said of Thanksgiving itself.

When Abraham Lincoln declared a day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November in 1863, it was the culmination of a long pro-Thanksgiving campaign by abolitionist, pumpkin lover and home economics icon Sarah Josepha Hale. Lincoln framed it as a call to "heal the wounds of the nation and restore it,"andthe declaration became an annual tradition for American presidents.

But some in the Confederacy decried the Thanksgiving declaration as a rank political ploy. Worse, Thanksgivingwas yet another example of self-regarding New Englanders telling them how to live.

This is an annual custom of that people, heretofore celebrated with devout oblations to themselves of pumpkin pie and roast turkey,read a fiery anti-Thanksgiving editorial in Richmond.

For years after the Civil War, according to Ott, many Southern families refused Thanksgiving and especially pumpkin pie as cultural artifacts of the Yankees. This is true even though pumpkins grow just fine in the Southand pumpkin pie or pudding recipes had long existed there, including inMary Randolphs famous 1824 cookbook The Virginia Housewife.

So how did the New England anti-slavery movement get sole custody of the pumpkin?Its complicated.

Pumpkins were always a strange romance.

The orange field pumpkin is impressively massive. But it is also dry, stringyand a bit tasteless.

Unlike other varieties of domesticated squash,the field pumpkin never took hold in the everyday urban market of the 1800s. It was too ungainly. Too cheap to be profitable. Too … meh.

Contrary to legend, it didnt have any place of pride in the Pilgrims 1621 feast, which few associated with Thanksgiving until decades after the holiday had become a national tradition. In fact, no one from that feast recorded serving pumpkins at all. If it was served, it was just as kind of like a savory side dish, Ott said. It was not in any way a special part of the occasion. It was probably served the day before and the day after, too.

Listen: What really happened during the first Thanksgiving?

The native pumpkinwas a fast-growing source of sustenance, a staple but not a beloved food for early colonists up and down the coast.By the 19th century, increasingly picky eaterspreferred more flavorful winter and summer squashes.

The fast-growing field pumpkin was often grown in manure bins or amid corn rows, and used as feed for dairy cows to make milk taste richer. In the rural South, it was the province of poor and littlefarms, said Ott, not really something you'd get sentimental about.

But in theurban North, it became something city dwellers encountered only while on salutary trips out to the country to appreciate nature.

For the New England literati, thepumpkin came to symbolizea noble and primitive way of life that urbaniteshad left behind. Even as farmers were derided as rubes and pumpkin eaters nothing spoils your appreciation of a farms natural beauty quite like encounteringactual farmers, wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson pumpkinsbecame nostalgic totems of abundance and connection to the land.

This coincided with a change in how New England celebrated the old religious tradition of Thanksgivings.Once marked bya dayof fasting, the tradition hadmorphed into a celebration of autumn prosperity, with all God's rustic spoils laid out on the table. Amid cranberry and turkey, pumpkin pie reigned supreme.

The thought of keeping Thanksgiving without a pumpkin pie is surely almost unsupportable, wrote a correspondent for American Farmer in 1833.

Storytellers of the day filled the world with proto-Hallmark Channel fantasies of New England Thanksgiving that almost invariably ended with pumpkin pie, said Ott. Others wrote poetic odes to the honestpumpkin.

Prominent among them was Thanksgiving activistHale.As the editor of wildly popular Godey's Lady's Book and the author of nursery rhyme Mary Had a Little Lamb, Hale was the Martha Stewart of her day. She alsohad a habit of writing letters to state governors on behalf of Thanksgiving.

Like many New England writers who loved pumpkin pie and Turkey Day, Hale was a deeply religious voice against slavery. She depicted the Norths idyllic little pumpkin-filled farms as morally superior to the vast slave plantations of the rural South.

I have no doubt that many of the slaveholders would rejoice to have the southern states entirely freed from slaves, and cultivated in the same fashion as we Yankees do in the North, wrote Hale.

The Northern farmer, just by existing, was a natural-born abolitionist, she argued.Pumpkin pie and Thanksgiving were celebrations of a better, more godly way of agriculturewithout the institution of slavery.

Hale'scampaign for state Thanksgivings had been largely successful in the early 1800s, helping spurdeclarations in 29 states by the 1850s. But as the fight over slavery intensified and the Civil War loomed, commentators in Southern states began to reject any Northern cultural aggressions.

The state of Virginia, in particular, wanted no part of it.

In a letter to Hale, stridently pro-slavery Virginia Gov. Henry Wise inveighed against New Englands abolitionist aims, calling out this theatrical national claptrap of Thanksgiving, which has aided other causes in setting thousands of pulpits to preaching Christian politics.

An 1856 editorial in the Richmond Whig likewise decried the repugnant holiday, opining that it incurred nothing but Northern idleness and drunkenness.

Even for decades after the Civil War, Southern States remained leery of the Yankee holiday. As each president made his annual Thanksgiving proclamation, some Southern states moved their own Thanksgivings to a different day as a form of resistance.Texas refused to acknowledge the holidayaltogether until the 1880s.

Its only after Reconstruction that the Southern states finally say, well, we realized weve finally got to get back in the fold and get with the program to show that we are after all American that the Southern states start to embrace Thanksgiving, said historian James Cobb, in a 2018interview with Arizona State University publication Zocalo.

Not until 1941 did the date of the Thanksgiving holiday become enshrined in federal law.

As for pumpkin pie, itremained a mostly Yankee food for years. Arguably, it didn't fully spread through the Southuntil the 20th century and the advent of mass-marketed pumpkin pie filling.

I think it happens more in the 40s and 50s of the last century, said Frank Clark, foodways historian at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. Its something that happens as we homogenize the cultures a little bit more with TV and fast food in supermarkets. You start to see some of these things move around from place to place and become more common in places where they weren't necessarily prior to that.

Before that, said Clark,the paucity of pumpkin pie in the South may have been in part a matter of preference, and of pre-existing traditions like sweet potato pie.

Enslaved Africans who were cooks in much of the South had brought with them a love of the African yam, which wasnt available in the New World. The sweet potato became a substitute, and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are often still called yams today.

More: Are yams and sweet potatoes the same? 5 questions answered about the Thanksgiving favorite

A lot of these African things just merged into the Virginia diet, Clark said. If you take a look at the first cookbook written and published in Virginia, 'The Virginia Housewife'by Mary Randolph,there are at least four or five recipes of clearly African origins.

And so rather than eat the pumpkin pie loved by abolitionists, white Southerners instead cooked a sweet potato version made according to the preferences of formerly enslaved Africans.

But during the 20th century, New England's yen forpumpkins swelled into a truly national love affair, from the porchfront jack o'lantern to the pumpkin spice latteand throwback decorative gourds. Some small farms make more money with eight weeks of pumpkin patch than during the whole rest of the year, Ott said.

The sweet potato pie endures as a parallel and SouthernThanksgiving tradition, and also in the homes of many African American families who migrated north.

I don't think many people in New England eat sweet potato pie for Thanksgiving,Ott said. But there's a lot of people in the South who do,and its because of this cultural history. Its not because the South cant grow pumpkins. It is because of the cultural and political history of the South.

Continued here:

The abolitionist history of Thanksgiving and pumpkin pie and why the South resisted both - NorthJersey.com

On November 19, British Home Secretary Priti Patel announced that she is seeking a terror designation for the Palestinian movement Hamas. Its military wing has already been banned in the United Kingdom, but now the government wants to extend the measure to the political party as well.

If the designation is approved by the British Parliament, this would effectively criminalise support for the movement, including actions such as wearing clothing with its slogans or flying its flag. Patel claimed that the proscription order is vital for protecting the UKs Jewish community and combatting anti-Semitism.

It is well-known that Hamas has no formal activities in the UK. So it is hard to believe that this move is actually meant to uproot some kind of Hamas presence on British territory that somehow threatens the Jewish community. On the other hand, there are many initiatives in the UK supporting the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian population in Gaza and there are several British charitable institutions operating in the Strip.

What I, and many Palestinians, suspect is that this is yet another legal tool the British government is deploying to suppress these pro-Palestinian activities. The proscription order can easily be used to equate support for Hamas with support for Gaza or support for Palestine, thus criminalising peaceful activism and charity work.

Outlawing a political party that enjoys wide support among Palestinians is also a dangerous prospect. The British government, along with other Western allies of Israel, often try to portray Hamas as an alien organisation that holds the Palestinian population in Gaza hostage. But that is not the case.

In 2006, Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections, securing 74 seats in the 132-seat parliament. Had elections been held this year, as was originally planned, the movement would have won once again which is why Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, with Western and Israeli backing, postponed them indefinitely.

Thus, designating the movement a terrorist organisation means effectively labelling Palestinian voters as terrorists. While that may be exactly what Israel wants and has been striving for over the past 20 years, it goes against any moral and legal norms the British government alleges to abide by.

Even Palestinians who disagree with Hamas on its ideology or governance do not disagree with it on its anti-occupation stance. The Palestinians are almost unanimous in their right to resist occupation on the basis of international law, which gives people under military occupation the right to resist it in any shape or form. The text of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 37/43 of 1982 also affirms that people under occupation have the right to take up an armed struggle for freedom, independence and self-determination.

The Palestinian people outright reject the UK governments actions. In a show of solidarity, Palestinian factions have also come out in support of Hamas, saying in a statement: The Palestinian people and their political and national forces are united in rejecting and condemning the British designation of Hamas as a terrorist organisation.

While we, Palestinians, are outraged at the UK governments actions, we are by far not surprised. Earlier this month we marked the 104th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, with which then British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour promised the Zionist movement to do his utmost to establish a Jewish state on Palestinian land.

The British colonialists kept their promise. Several years later, they took control of Palestine and paved the way for accelerated Zionist colonisation. Over the following decades and to this day, Palestinians have been systematically uprooted from their lands, oppressed, ethnically cleansed and killed to make room for the Zionist colony, unreservedly supported by Britain and other Western powers.

The British government bears the historical responsibility for the continuing Palestinian tragedy. But instead of apologising, trying to set the record straight, and offering compensation to the Palestinians, the British authorities are now sending a message that they remain faithful to their colonial history and to suppressing anti-colonial struggles for liberation and independence.

The government order on designating Hamas a terrorist organisation comes amid a concerted effort to curb the growing support for the Palestinian cause within British society and to undermine pro-Palestinian activism. The peaceful Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, for example, has also been a target. In 2016, the British government issued guidance to local councils forbidding them from adopting boycotts on ethical grounds. It has since announced that it will turn the policy into law.

The same year, the British government adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition of anti-Semitism, which has been widely criticised as an attempt to silence critics of Israel and its occupation of Palestinian land. The forced public equation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism has been used against numerous British public figures who have spoken out in favour of Palestinian rights.

The UK governments drive to designate Hamas as a terror organisation should also be seen within the context of Israels global efforts to suppress pro-Palestinian activism. A generational change in attitudes towards the Israeli occupation and its war crimes against the Palestinians is becoming ever more apparent. Israel is losing ground among young Westerners, who are more outspoken and more mobilised in their support of the Palestinian cause. This was on full display in May, when solidarity marches with Gaza, amid Israels latest deadly assault, were held in the UK, US, Canada, Germany, France and elsewhere.

By now, Palestine has been elevated to an international issue of justice, freedom and equality. People across the world who support progressive ideas embrace the Palestinian struggle as their own. On the other side sit regressive forces who want to preserve the (neo)colonial status quo, who thrive on injustice, oppression and dispossession. They may be powerful today but time is not on their side. History has proven that regimes founded on injustice and subjugation do not last.

Today, the British government stands once again on the wrong side of history by supporting a settler-colonial apartheid regime. However, it is never too late to learn from past mistakes, correct course, and embrace justice.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.

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The UK government is on the wrong side of history again - Aljazeera.com

Ukulele artist Jake Shimabukuro. (Photo courtesy of Sienna Morales)

PHOENIX What has four strings and starts with u?

You probably know the answer but maybe not the history behind the ukulele. Its sound is distinctive, but the pronunciation of the name varies.

I think the most common pronunciation is you-kih-LAY-lee, like y o u, but its actually ook-ih-LAY-lee, said Rich Walter, curator for the U.S., Canada and Europe at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix.

He said the ukulele is associated with Polynesian and other Pacific Islander cultures because of Portuguese influence that arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in the 19th century.

Originally, a very similar instrument did come directly from Portugal and the Madeira Islands, Walter said. It was a variation of something called a cavaquinho or burgeenya.Although it may not be thought of by some players as a serious instrument, the ook, as its often called, it certainly is for most professional musicians and for the fans who love its sound.

Since it was renamed and kind of re-embraced in Hawaii around 1879, 1880s, theres a real tradition of it being an incredibly serious and even kind of royal instrument, Walter said.

Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. (Photo courtesy of David Lofink)

Scotty Spenner, a longtime musician and music teacher in the Valley, said most people who play other stringed instruments and sing often just strum chords to accompany their voice. But the ukulele offers unique tuning and complex sonic options its sibling instruments do not.

Because of that unusual tuning on the fourth string being tuned an octave higher than you would find on most stringed instruments like a violin, guitar or mandolin, it creates a situation where you can really have notes ring against each other like a harp more than most stringed instruments, he said.

Spenner plays a variety of music and has taught for 40 years. For some of that time, he has focused on guitar, mandolin and ukulele for aspiring players at Strum University, which offers professional lessons in north Phoenix.

Practicality is one of the reasons Spenner encourages the ukulele versus the guitar for some younger students.

When I get kids that are younger than 9 that just arent physically big enough to play a guitar, Ill usually steer them to ukulele because the tuning is very similar, he said. If they go on to play guitar theyll be able to use the same chord shapes.

(Spenner, by the way, said he pronounces it you-kih-LAY-lee because hes from North Carolina and retains the regions characteristic drawl.)

Jake Shimabukuro is a ukulele phenom whose unique style has electrified audiences worldwide and inspired many to pick up the instrument. More than a decade ago, Shimabukuro made the Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps famous again, and his other covers include Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.

Shimabukuro is a native Hawaiian who was 4 when his mother taught him the ook.

Musician Scotty Spenner. (Photo courtesy of Scotty Spenner)

She was the one who first introduced me to the instrument. She sat me down and taught me just a couple of chords and I just fell in love with it.

He said one reason he adores the ukulele is it can be played straight away. In an interview before his performance Friday at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Shimabukuro laughed when asked how he pronounces the name of what some refer to as a miniature guitar.

In Hawaii, we say ook-eh-LEH-lay. Its two Hawaiian words: uku and lele, which actually means jumping flea. Its one of the only string instruments aside from, like, a strumstick where you can play full chords with just one finger. It doesnt require a lot of left-hand or finger strength.

Shimabukuro is touring in support of his new release, Jake and Friends, whose list of collaborators includes Willie Nelson, Bette Midler, Jimmy Buffett, Michael McDonald, Vince Gill, Amy Grant and Moon Taxi. Proof of vaccination is required to attend, and all patrons must wear masks.

Shimabukuro said he was humbled to collaborate with those iconic musicians but acknowledged he didnt think the album would ever come to fruition.

It was such an honor. When I first started talking about this project with my manager, I thought, Its a great idea. But in the back of my head, I was saying, This is never going to happen.

I mean, it was such a far out idea and I just think all of these artists who I love, admire and respect wouldnt really take the time and do a song with me on this project.He capped his comments with a characteristic salutation: Mahalo. Take care. Aloha.

See the original post here:

You probably know the ukulele, but maybe not its history - Cronkite News

This story originally featured on Mel Magazine.

Deep within the recesses of the Department of Health and Human Services, your embarrassingly slow one-mile run time from high school is collecting dust somewhere.

Okay, truthfully, whether or not your sluggish mile time actually made its way to Washington, D.C. has a lot to do with reporting procedures. It also has a lot to do with the era in which you attended high school. And it has a lot to do with if your school forced you to adhere to the somewhat arbitrary Presidential Fitness Test standards in the first place.

Although it was ultimately abandoned in 2013, the Presidential Fitness Test was a holdover from years of government tinkeringboth direct and indirectin the physical education of the nations youth. But while millions of American children were subjected to the individual tests that collectively made up the test, with the top 15 percent (more or less)qualifying for a special award, its unlikely that they understood that their results were part of a massive information-gathering effort by the feds.

It goes way back, actually. The early stages of the federal governments interest in gym-class activities has its roots in the founding of the American Physical Education Association (APEA) in 1885. By 1903, the formal membership roll of the APEA consisted primarily of Ivy-League-caliber universities, the Young Mens Christian Association and a few organized athletic clubs. Thirteen years later, just prior to Americas direct entry into World War I, the APEA began to aim its promotional efforts rather unsubtly in the direction of exercises that could be characterized as constituting military-preparedness training.

Unfortunately, some educators are putting the soft pedal on the physical training idea for fear that it may be the means of encouraging military training, remarkedPhiladelphia Inquirereditor James Elverson in response to the APEAs flirtation with advocating for combat training in gym class. And yet, the two ideas are perfectly reasonable and logical. It is the duty of the individual to keep himself in a physically sound condition in order to protect himself in case of need. And in the same way, it is the duty of the nation to be prepared to defend itself in case of an attack. Self-preservation is one of the first laws of nature, and it applies to both individuals and nations.

By the late 1930s, the debate had less to do with whether or not the APEA should be touting battle readiness, and was instead tailored to discussions about if school time should be allocated for full-blown military drills. In citing his support for the APEAs decision not to encourage uniformed drills in school, the pastor of a Wisconsin church addressed the local Lions Club and had these remarks recorded by theKenosha News:

It will not be a realistic training for war. If the training were realistic, our high school boys would be instructed in how to twist a bayonet in another boys body, how to wear gas masks, how to throw grenades, how to battle cooties and rats and spend hours in mud in trenches.

Because a decade after World War II ended, President Dwight D. Eisenhower founded the Presidents Council of Youth Fitness. According to a report filed by the Associated Press in June 1956, he was concerned over failure of American youths to pass a basic minimum fitness test that European youths breezed through.

What resulted was a battery of physical-fitness tests that would collectively be known as the Presidents Challenge, or the aforementioned Presidential Fitness Test. The original six-part test consisted ofpush-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, a standing broad jump, a shuttle run, a 50-yard dash and a softball throw for distance, ostensibly because its helpful to know who amongst the troops has the arm strength necessary to chuck a grenade the furthest,or at all.

By the 1980s, the softball throw had been eliminated altogether, and a one-mile run had been added. Moreover, schools that ranked in the top three overall within their state were awarded with the distinction of being state champions by the federal government, which encouraged willful participation and score reporting (and even potential score inflating).

So if your school was among those thatsubmitted scoresto the Presidential Fitness Test between roughly 1980 and 2013, your name and one-mile run time probably reside in the archives of the Department of Health and Human Services, which still retains oversight over what has now become thePresidents Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition.

The Obama administration eliminated the Presidential Fitness Test, dispensing with it in favor of a comprehensive program dedicated to replacing a fitness attitude that hinged on preparation for a single test with one that was devoted toward establishing a lifelong fondness for fitness. Reactions ranged from an appreciation for the holistic approach to fury over the elimination of the competitive aspects and the push toward a so-called participation-trophy culture. Either way, it marked an end to the incentivized, federally endorsed reportage of fitness test results to government agencies.

You can take a deep breath and relax. Your high school mile time was never about sizing you up as a candidate for the military; it was about sizing up the youth of this country in direct comparison to our Cold War competitors. But welost that battleto the Eastern Bloc a long time ago.

Plus, even if the feds were going to dust off the old draft and scrape up some military recruits, youre at least 25 years old now if you were in the final round of Presidential Fitness Test takers. Ultimately, this means youve aged out of prime contention for military service. Which means no matter your high-school mile time, theres at least one thing youve been able to outrun.

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The history of the Presidential Fitness Test - Popular Science

Today is Thanksgivingand chances are northeast Ohio residents will be spending the day with friends and family.

In honor of the holiday,weexploredsome Thanksgivings of the past, as depicted in the Star Beacon and in other Ohios newspapers on Ohio Memory and Chronicling America.

Although the United States Thanksgiving tradition dates back to colonial times, it was not nationally observed until 1863. Following a proclamation issued by President Abraham Lincoln in October of that year, Thanksgiving became a federal holiday. Since then, it has been observed annually.

In 1941, a joint resolution of the U.S. Congressproclaimed Thanksgiving to be celebrated onthe fourth Thursday of November. Theresolution appeared in local newspapers so that citizens knew exactly which date was set aside.

Ohio newspapers in the mid-20th Century published stories and poems themed around thankfulness and family celebrations,who was visiting who for the holidays and photos of wild and domesticated turkeys

A winter blast 65 years ago leftarea residents thankful theysurvived Mother Natures wrath27 inches of snow in Ashtabula County.

According to the Star Beacon, everything came to a temporary standstill that holiday. Cars were stranded on both sides of several roads, including Route 20.

The National Guard was called in to deliver food and clear the streets.

Snow had bombarded Ashtabula County six years earlier, as well. At the time, Thanksgiving 1950 wasdeemed the most treacherousin Ashtabula County history.

The National Guard from Ashtabula brought out tanks and half-tracks to clear Route 46.Six semi-trucks were off the road in a one-mile stretch near the Miller familys farm.

They had to tunnel through the snow from their house to the barn to milk the cows, according to news reports.

In the past, and more so in the present, Thanksgiving signaledthe start of the holiday season, and the day after, Black Friday, when shoppers find sales at local stores and online.

This year,most retailers will be closed for Thanksgiving, changing history.

The new trend startedlast year when stores closed on Thanksgiving to limit crowds during the COVID-19 pandemic andpushed more sales online. What started as a temporary measure, isbeing repeated again this year.

To learn more about Ohio Thanksgivings of the past, check outthe Star Beacons newspaper collections at the Ashtabula Public Library and on Ohio Memory and Chronicling America.

We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story.

Original post:

History of Ohio Thanksgivings | Local News | starbeacon.com - The Star Beacon

Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. bounced Wednesday, to put them on track to snap the worst five-day performance in their public history, as Susquehanna analyst Shyam Patil slashed his price target but continued to push his positive view on the China-based e-commerce giant.

The stock BABA, +2.14% climbed 1.2% in afternoon trading, toward the first gain in six sessions.

The stock had plunged 20.6% over the past five sessions to close Tuesday at the lowest price since Jan. 3, 2019. Some of the factors weighing on the stock included regulatory concerns and macroeconomic pressures in China, topped off with disappointing fiscal second-quarter results reported last week.

That five-day selloff was by far the biggest since the stock went public in September 2014. The previous weakest five-day run, prior to the current stretch of losses, was the 16.3% tumble through Aug. 20, 2021.

Susquehannas Patil lowered his stock price target to $200 from $310, but his new target still implies nearly 50% upside from current levels. He also reiterated the positive rating hes had on Alibaba at least since February 2020.

[Alibaba] has been dealing with regulatory overhang, and now the slowing macro in China is pressuring the business in the near-term, Patil wrote in a note to clients. Although COVID may continue to cause periods of softness in the near-term macro, we continue to view [Alibaba] as the China e-commerce category killer with a large secular growth opportunity and maintain our long-term-oriented positive view.

Of the 52 analysts surveyed by FactSet who cover Alibaba, no less than 36 have cut their stock price targets since Alibaba reported earnings on Nov. 18. That has lowered the average price target to $201.46 from $236.98 at the end of October.

Meanwhile, 47 of those analysts, or 90%, are bullish on the stock, up from 89% at the end of October. Of the five analysts who arent bullish, only one is bearish and the other four are neutral.

Alibaba shares have plunged 51.7% over the past year, while the iShares MSCI China exchange-traded fund MCHI has dropped 17.7% and the S&P 500 index SPX has rallied 29.0%. Some analysts have pointed to Alibabas investor day, which kicks off on Dec. 16, as a potential important catalyst for the stock going forward.

Also read: How to Invest: These are the most important things to check on a stocks quote page before deciding whether to buy or sell.

Separately, Susquehannas Patil also reiterated his positive rating on China-based search-engine giant Baidu Inc. BIDU, +0.60%, while cutting his stock price target to $175 from $200.

While the company continues to be cautious around the pandemic situation, Patil said his long-term bullish view remains unchanged, as he sees the company as a leading player in Chinas search market, a key player in the feeds market, owner of one of the top video assets in the country and the clear market leader in AI applications.

The stock slipped 0.1% in midday trading Wednesday. Although it was still up 11.9% over the past 12 months, it has lost more than half its value since closing at a record $339.91 on Feb. 19.

Patil also stayed neutral on China-based e-commerce company JD.com Inc. JD, -0.11%, but raised his stock price target to $95 from $80 in the wake of solid third-quarter results, as he sees potential for longer-term upside from its advertising and logistics initiatives and the companys ability to successfully incubate new businesses.

JD.coms stock fell 0.6% on Wednesday. It has run up 18.2% over the past three months but has slipped 1.0% over the past year.

See the original post here:

Alibaba stock just suffered the biggest 5-day selloff in its history, but Susquehanna analyst stays 'positive' - MarketWatch

The U.S. Womens National Team will play its final matches of 2021 when it takes on Australia in two matches Down Under to close out the calendar year. The USA kicks off the two-game set against theMatildasat Sydneys Stadium Australia on Saturday, Nov. 27 at 3 p.m. local (Friday, Nov. 26 at 11 p.m. Et on FS2). The teams will meet again at McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle on Tuesday, Nov. 30 at 8:05 p.m. local (4:05 a.m. ET on ESPN).While this marks the USAs first trip Down Under in 21 years, Australia is a very familiar foe with the teams having met twice earlier this year at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.For more on the matchup and the 2023 FIFA Womens World Cup co-hosts, here are Five Things to Know about theMatildas.

INSIDE THE ROSTERAustralia head coach Tony Gustavsson who previously served as an assistant coach for the USA has called up 25 players for the two matches, 18 of whom were on the 22-player roster for the 2020 Olympics.

Clare Polkinghorne, who had stints with both the Portland Thorns and Houston Dash in the NWSL, is the most-capped player onthis rosterwith138appearances.MidfielderEmily vanEgmond(110 caps), defender Alana Kennedy (101), and forwardsKyahSimon (103) and Sam Kerr (102) also have 100+ caps while veteran midfielder TamekaYallopis just one appearance away from joining the 100-cap club.

Complementing this experienced core are 10 players with fewer than 10 caps, including a pair of uncapped players in 18-year-old forward Charlize Rule and 17-year-old defender Jessika Nash.

The leading goal scorer on this roster - and in the history of the Australian Womens National Team is Kerr, who has 49 international goals in 102 international appearances. Widely considered one of the worlds best strikers, Kerr currently plays for Chelsea in the FA Womens Super League, but still holds the distinction of being the all-time leading scorer in NWSL history with 77 goals and was a three-time Golden Boot winner during her seven seasons in the league. The 28-year-old Kerr needs just one goal to tie Tim Cahill as the all-time scoring leader mens or womens in Australia soccer history.

AUSTRALIA WOMENS SOCCER TEAM - ROSTER BY POSITION

GOALKEEPERS (3): 1-Lydia Williams (Arsenal, ENG), 12-Teagan Micah (Rosengrd, NOR), 18-Mackenzie Arnold (West Ham United, ENG)DEFENDERS (9): 4-Clare Polkinghorne (VittsjoGIK, SWE), 14-Alanna Kennedy (Manchester City, ENG), 7-StephCatley(Arsenal, ENG), 21-Ellie Carpenter (Lyon, FRA), 3-Courtney Nevin (Melbourne Victory), 8-Charlotte Grant (Rosengrd, Sweden), 5-KarlyRoestbakken(LSKKvinner, NOR), 2-Angela Beard (FortunaHjrring, DEN), 24-Jessika Nash (Sydney FC)MIDFIELDERS (4):19-Kyra Cooney-Cross (Melbourne Victory), 10-Emily vanEgmond(Orlando Pride), 13-TamekaYallop(West Ham United, ENG), 6-Clare Wheeler (FortunaHjrring, DEN)FORWARDS (9): 20-Sam Kerr (Chelsea, ENG), 9-CaitlinFoord(Arsenal, ENG), 11-Mary Fowler (Montpellier, FRA), 15-EmilyGielnik(Aston Villa, ENG), 16-HayleyRaso(Everton, ENG),17-Kyah Simon(Tottenham Hotspur, NED), 22-Bryleeh Henry (Western Sydney Wanderers), 23-RemySiemsen(Sydney FC), 25-Charlize Rule (Sydney FC)

SERIES HISTORY: USA vs. AUSTRALIA

The USA has played Australia 32 times overall, including twice earlier this summer at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Japan. The sides played to a 0-0 draw on July 27 in the final match of the group stage. The result sent the USA through as the second-place finisher in Group G while Australia advanced to the knockout rounds from third in the Group G standings. The teams met again nine days later in Kashima, Japan, squaring off in the Bronze Medal Match. The Americans won 4-3 as Megan Rapinoe and the now-retired Carli Lloyd each scored twice, helping the USA claim its sixth all-time Olympic medal. Sam Kerr, Caitlin Foord and EmilyGielnikscored for theMatildasin the defeat.

The USA leads the all-time series between the teams, 27-1-4and while the two countriesfirst met in 1987, Australia only beat the USA for the first time on June 27, 2018, a 1-0 victory in Seattle, Washington. The teams tied 1-1 on June 29, 2018,in East Hartford, Connecticut, but the USA picked up a rousing win in the most recent meetingbefore the Olympics, a 5-3 triumph on April 4, 2019,in Commerce City, Colorado. Alex Morgan scored her 100thinternational goal, Mallory Pugh tallied a brace in front of her hometown crowd, and Megan Rapinoe and Tobin Heath added goals of their own in a thrilling matchup that also saw the USA erase a 2-1 deficit.Lindsey Horan is the only player on this current U.S. roster who has scored against Australia at the senior international level.

Over its lastfivegames with Australia, the USA has a record of2-1-2and all three matches have been decided by two goals or fewer.

BACK IN ACTIONON HOME SOIL

Australias most recent on-field action came in October, when theMatildashosted Brazil in Sydney for a pair of friendlies. However, though matches had extrameaningas they marked Australias first games at home in nearly 600 days, last playing at home in March of 2020 due to travel restrictionsresulting from theCOVID-19 pandemic. Australia won the opening match against Brazil onOctober 23,3-1 on goals by Clare Polkinghorne, Mary Fowler and Emily vanEgmond. The teamsdrew 2-2 onOctober 26 with goals fromPolkinghorne and Kerr.

The USA has never faced Australia in Sydney. The last time the USA played Australia in Australia was June 11, 2000, a 1-0 win in Newcastle. The lone goal of the match was scored by Shannon MacMillan.

WELCOMING THE WORLD DOWN UNDER

Australia has already secured a spot in the 2023 FIFA Womens World Cup as co-host nation along with New Zealand.It will be the first time a Womens World Cup will be hosted across multiple countries and will also see the overall field expanded from 24 to 32 teams.While this is Australias first time hosting a World Cup, Australia has hosted the Summer Olympics twice previously, most recently the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney. In fact, Stadium Australia, where the USA and Australia will play their first match in this two-game set, was originally built for the 2000Olympicsand hosted numerous events, including the opening ceremonies, track and field, and the mens soccer final. The 2023 FIFA Womens World Cup final will be played at Stadium Australia on August 20, 2023.

Almost all of Australias top players have at one time or another played in the NWSL, though the onlyplayer on this roster who currently does is Emily vanEgmond, who recently resigned with the Orlando Pride. Eleven members of thisMatildasroster have been rostered with NWSL clubs, many competing with or against players on this USA roster during their time in the league.Outside back Ellie Carpenter was the youngest player at the time to play in the NWSL when she debuted for Portland Thorns FC. She made her debut on May 9, 2018, on the road against Houston at 18 years, 12 days. The now 21-year-old Carpenter now plays for Olympique Lyonnais in France where she is teammates with USWNT attacker Catarina Macario.Six players on this U.S. roster have also previously played for clubs in Australia Kristie Mewis, Abby Dahlkemper, Sofia Huerta, Emily Sonnett, AshleyHatchand Lynn Williams.The familiarity between the teams also extends to the sidelines. Head coach Tony Gustavsson, who was the assistant coach for the USA under Pia Sundhage in 2012 and under Jill Ellis from 2014-2019, helping the USA win the Olympic gold medal in London and Womens World Cup titles in 2015 and 2019, was announced as Australias head coach in September of 2020. However due to COVID-19 restrictions, he had to wait until April of 2021 to coach his first matches with the team.

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International Friendly: Australia vs. USA - Match History & Preview | Five Things to Know - U.S. Soccer