First and foremost, this has been a great year for dancing! Although it looks like the Ambitious Carlyle Club is a bust, there is still plenty of swing dancing on almost every night of the week. The rising star is J.P. McDermott, whose blend of Rockabilly and Buddy Holly has endeared him to many. The same goes for his home venue, the slightly seedy Quarry House Tavern. Gottaswing seems to have venues everywhere and has brought us lots of great entertainment from around the country, including the Jive Aces, the whole George Gee Orchestra, Mora's Modern Rhythmicists, Dr. Zoot and Blair Carman. Tom Cunningham continues to provide high quality big band music almost monthly at Glen Echo. Hats off to Mike and Tina Foley for getting a new Thursday venue at the Old Fairfax Town Hall. DC is the envy of every other city in the world (as far as swing dancing is concerned!)

President Obama: FINALLY, racism is dead. Anybody can become the President if He or She works hard and listens to the people. Everybody who works hard, pays taxes, and respects others is welcome in society. Mr. Obama is the living proof of this. So, let's all pull together and make 2009 a year to be thankful for. Let's also make citizens of those industrious folks who risked all to come here so that they can stand up for justice without fear of deportation. Our swing dance scene is harmonious and quite diverse. The whole country can be that way.

Weather: For the second year in a row, we were spared weather emergencies like major major hurricanes. In addition, the Weather Channel went to High Definition broadcasting, greatly improving the scenery.

     

The High Definition Weather Goddesses

I'm not really sure which one I'm more thankful for...

Oil Prices: In 2006,I noticed that oil was priced at $60/bbl. I said "...For those of you who don't know you get 19.6 gallons of gasoline out of a barrel of oil, so the wholesale price is going to be approaching $3.00 sooner than later..." In 2007, I said, " our good pals at OPEC are selling oil at $100 per barrel, look for $4.00 gasoline..." During 2008, we saw $4.00 gasoline, and people seemed to finally get the message: demand for petroleum dropped by 20%, taking the "wind" out of OPEC's sails, and prices fell like a stone. As I am writing, oil is selling for about $55/bbl. It looksl like the public got the message, and SUV's are piling up unsold at the dealers. Similarly energy wasting McMansions are going unsold. This brings me to:

drum roll

The Global Financial Crisis: The good thing is that the "savvy" CEOs of Wall Street have been shown to be the empty suits that most people knew they were deep down. The bad thing is that you and I are getting the bill for their stupidity. Finally, you voted in the market against SUVs and now we have to bail out Detroit. Finally, people came to their senses about McMansions that are 150 miles from their work. Now you get to bail out the Developers and Mortgage Brokers who feasted on that "growth". I have no doubt that times are going to be tough for a long time. This is going to put a crimp in the social life of those who go to "night clubs" and pay $750 for Cristal Champagne (and put it on their credit card). BUT- we can go dancing for about $15 a week. Since time immemorable, bar owners have been telling me that "Dancers are cheap." My answer has always been "Dancers are smart!" So, we'll probably boogie through the bad times.

What can you do? Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that you should never go anywhere near a Wal-Mart. Although things are cheap there -- we are helping to enslave the Chinese people, kill industry here, and p**s away our foreign exchange. The next thing you should do is support Unions everywhere. If the CEO takes home $300 million, there is room to give some of that to the workers. Close your ears to the specious arguments of the legion of MBAs who are trading a BMW now for foreign domination tomorrow -- and hope that the Global Financial Crisis hits them before it hits you. How many of those 53,000 workers dumped by Citibank rue the day that they looked down on Unions?

I hope that our friends and neighbors who are serving in Iraq will be home soon. However, if they weren't there, friendly folks like Hugo Chavez and the Commissars in Peking would have driven the price of oil up to $300/bbl. Make no beans about it -- these guys want what you have and what your children expect. Some times, I think the only people who DON'T think that the USA is worth defending are rich people who have had the privilege of lots of Ivy League Education. Maybe they can be outsourced to China... all MBAs more-or-less look the same anyway.

Even with all this dismal news, we still have a lot to be thankful for.

You can STILL go swing dancing in DC 7 nights a week, with a live band on four and sometimes five evenings. For quite some time, we have had 10 live band events per week. There is so much swing dancing in DC that you can actually afford to "specialize" -- and get snotty about it!. If you like to travel, there seems to be a big event almost every weekend.

I, for one, am thankful to be in good health, to have a few dollars in my pocket and to be an American. Here at jitterbuzz.com, we are unabashedly proud of American Culture, possibly even including Jerry Lewis (who we share with the French..)

Once again, we have a few things to share with our readers

Many of you are part of our"Roaster Roster" --- that is, you are Devotees of cooking with the Westinghouse Roaster Oven. At last count, the Roster had 2,500 names. Thus, for all you roaster fans, here are the directions for roasting Thanksgiving Turkey taken right out of the Manual

Roasting the Turkey
From the Westinghouse Roaster Manual

In Case, you can't read this, here is the text:

Clean and stuff turkey using favorite dressing recipe. Place turkey on rack in large inset pan. If an especially large turkey is to be roasted, it may be placed in the well of the roaster-oven on a flat shallow pan and the inset pan inverted over the well to form the cover. The small pin on either side of the well will hold the inset pan in place. To clean well after roasting, wipe with a damp cloth. Do not immerse oven-roaster in Water.

Next, most people know that I am from Pittsburgh because I "talk funny". The physical isolation caused by the region's very unique geography contributed to the persistence of a unique speech style called Pittsburghese, which is a mixture of Old English tempered with contributions from the zillions of ethnic groups. This is serious stuff --- even the local television and radio announcers broadcast in the dialect. This, combined with regional specialties in cusine, have contributed to the following "Ideal Pittsburgh Thanksgiving" It works for me!!

A Pittsburgh Thanksgiving
Not suggested for Health Food Nuts

By the way, the Pittsburghese Website even provides a Translation Algorithm should you desire to maximize you communication opportunities.

Here are some more interesting facts about Pittsburgh:

• First Heart, Liver, Kidney Transplant - December 3, 1989. The first simultaneous heart, liver and kidney transplant was done at Presbyterian-University Hospital.
• The First Internet Emoticon - 1980. The Smiley :-) was the first Internet emoticon, created in 1980 by Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist Scott Fahlman.
• First Robotics Institute - 1979. The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University was established in 1979 to conduct basic and applied research in robotics technologies relevant to industrial and societal tasks. The college is still working on Robots ~~ in fact it is their robots used in the unmanned air crafts that fly over Iraq.
• First Mr. Yuk Sticker - 1971. Mr. Yuk was created at the Poison Center at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh after research indicated that the skull and crossbones previously used to identify poisons had little meaning to the children of today (for most children it means exciting things like pirates and adventure). Covering 27 counties and 33 percent of Pennsylvania's population, the Pittsburgh Poison Center at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh is the largest such center in the United States.
• First Night World Series Game - 1971. Game 4 of the 1971 World Series was the first night game in Series history. Pittsburgh tied the series in that game with a 4-3 win and went on to win the series, 4 games to 3. This was one of the last big moments in the career of well-loved Pirate, Roberto Clemente. Fourteen and a half months after the 1971 World Series, he died in a plane crash off the coast of his native Puerto Rico as he attempted to take food, clothing and medical supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
• First Big Mac - 1967. Created by Jim Delligatti at his Uniontown McDonald's, the Big Mac debuted and was test marketed in three other Pittsburgh-area McDonald's restaurants in 1967...Bellevue and Butler. By 1968 it was a mainstay on McDonald's menus throughout the country and eventually, the world.
• First Pull-Tab on Cans - 1962. The pull-tab was developed by Alcoa and was first used by Iron City Brewery ! in 1962 For many years, pull-tabs were only used in this area.
• First Retractable Dome - September 1961. Pittsburgh's Civic Arena boasts the world's first auditorium with a retractable roof. This is still being used although the Hockey team wants to tear it down and build a new building.
• First U.S. Public Television Station - WQED - April 1, 1954. WQED, operated by the Metropolitan Pittsburgh educational Station, was the first community-sponsored educational television station in America and was also the first to telecast classes to elementary schools (1955).
• Polio Vaccine - March 26, 1953. The polio vaccine was developed by Dr. Jonas E. Salk, a 38-year-old University of Pittsburgh researcher and professor, and his staff at the University of Pittsburgh.
• First All-Aluminum Building - ALCOA - August 1953. The first aluminum-faced skyscraper was the Alcoa Buil ding, a 30-story, 410 foot structure ! with th in stamped aluminum panels forming the exterior walls. (This building is still being used today.)
• Zippo Lighter - 1932. George G. Blaisdell invented the Zippo lighter in 1932 in Bradford, Pennsylvania. Although hardly a community "in the surrounding area," you can even find the name of the manufacturing location, either Bradford or Niagara Fall s, stamped on the bottom of every Zippo lighter. The name Zippo was chosen by Blaisdell because he liked the sound of the word "zipper" - which was patented around the same time in nearby Meadville, PA.
• BINGO Hugh J. Ward first came up with the concept of bingo in Pittsburgh and began running the game at carnivals in the early 1920s, taking it nation-wide in 1924. He secured a copyright on the game and wrote a book of Bingo rules in1933.
• First U.S. Commercial Radio Station - KDKA - November 2, 1 920. Dr. Frank Conrad, assistant chi! ef engi neer of Westinghouse Electric, first constructed a transmitter and installed it in a garage near his home in Wilkinsburg in 1916. The station was licensed as 8XK. At 6 PM. on Nov. 2 , 1920, 8KX became KDKA Radio and began broadcasting at 100 watts from a makeshift shack atop one of the Westinghouse manufacturing buildings in East Pittsburgh. (The station is now KDKA.)
• The Gas Station - December, 1913. In 1913, the first automobile service station, built by Gulf Refining Company, opened in Pittsburgh at Baum Boulevard and St. Clair Street in East Liberty. It was designed by J. H. Giesey.
• The First Baseball Stadium in the U.S. - 1909. In 1909 the first baseball stadium, Forbes Field, was built in Pittsburgh, followed soon by similar stadiums in Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, and New York. Forbes Field closed in 1970 when Three Rivers Stadium opened. PNC Park is the newest replacement, opening in 2001.
• First Motion Picture Theater - 1905. The first theater in the world devoted to the exhibition of motion pictures was the "Nickelodeon," opened by Harry Davis on Smithfield Street in Pittsburgh.
• Banana Split - 1904. The banana split was invented by Dr. David Strickler, a pharmacist, at Strickler's Drug Store in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
• The First World Series - 1903. The Boston Pilgrims defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates five games to three in baseball's first modern World Series in 1903. The Pirates lost the final game 4-3, before a crowd of 7,455 in Boston. Four of the series' games were played in Pittsburgh.
• Ferris Wheel - 1892/1893. The first Ferris Wheel, invented by Pittsburgh native and civil engineer, George Washington Gale Ferris (1859-1896) was in operation at the World's Fair (Columbian Exposition) in Chicago. It was over 264 feet high and was capable of carrying more than 2,000(!) passengers at a time.
• Long-Distance Electricity - 1885. Westinghouse Electric developed alternating current, allowing long-distance transmission of electricity for the first time.
• Air Brake - 1869. The first practical air brake for railroads was invented by George Westinghouse in the 1860s and patented in 1869. In the same year he organized the Westinghouse Air Brake Company. With additional automatic features incorporated into its design, the air brake became widely accepted, and the Railroad Safety Appliance Act of 1893 made air brakes compulsory on all American trains.
• The STEELERS were purchased by Art Rooney Sr. for $2500...they were originally the Canton Bulldogs. They are the first team to win four super bowls, now five after six appearances, and the first team to get in the playoffs as a wild card and go all the way to win the Super Bowl.
• The Rolling Stones came to Pittsburgh first and played at West View Park Danceland. It cost $.50. They were considered too weird and went back to England and came back after the Beatles broke the ice.

OKAY! That's it! Have a VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!