Saturday 25th November 2000
Nuffin the Hamster reports on the festive meal
Florida (THURSDAY) - It was going to be
an interesting Thanksgiving, I seem to have remarked to myself as Yafa, Rab and
myself gathered round a small portion of turkey roast this Thursday to 'be
thankful'. Rab was all for diving in and immersing himself in the fowl (or
should that be 'foul'?) gravy which settled on the side of the dish but Yafa
raised a paw, motioning his intention to say a few squeaks before we
began.
'Thanksgiving' he began
'should be a time for giving thanks. Before we eat our festive meal, we should
at least think of a couple of things that we can be thankful for so that out
meal might have some basis'
I nodded my agreement as Rab
insisted: 'Okay, Yafa, you start'
Yafa lifted up his head,
allowing his thought processes to kick in fully, before stating with an air of
solemnity: 'I'm thankful that we have a fine upstanding President over
us'
I looked at Yafa in disbelief - then at
Rab whose lower jaw was already heading groundward.
'What?!' I squeaked 'What you
say?'
Yafa allowed a smile to
pervade his serious demeanour as Rab creased up in hysterics and rolled about on
the floor.
'Yeah!' Rab giggled 'And I'm
thankful for the fine upstanding future President - even though we have no way
of knowing who he'll be, when he'll be elected or if anyone'll follow
him'
'I was only giving an example
of what we might want to say' objected Yafa 'I wasn't necessarily meaning
that I was being sincere in my thanks. Now come on - think of something
sensible!'
'I have one' I interjected as Rab tried
to control himself 'How about - I'm thankful because we have such unbiased
judges who leave their political allegiances aside and only pronounce decisions
by what's written in the legislature?'
Rab giggled again and fell
over - boy, oh boy, what was in that punch we had an hour ago? - as Yafa tried
to draw matters to a more serious note:
'Look! We'll never get round
to the meal if you continue to jest. C'mon! Get serious!'
I stifled another giggle,
slapped Rab to sober up and insisted 'Yafa - you give thanks - my mind isn't
working too well at the moment'
Yafa thought long and hard as
our laughter subsided and then pronounced 'Yes, yes. I have something to be
thankful for. I'm thankful for numeracy amongst Floridians, thankful for common
sense, for accurate representations by our media, for...'
Rab, by this time, was
squealing 'No more, no more! You're killing me!' eyes full of tears of laughter
and paws raised to cover his ears.
My face was contorted in
convulsions of trying to remain serious while my muscles were in
spasm.
Yafa looked at the both of us
and threw his paws up into the air:
'Stuff giving thanks' he
squeaked 'let's just eat...'
Nuffin the Hamster writes
for the Rodent Weekly.
This article appears courtesy of that paper.
