Today’s old cartoon from November of 1992 isn’t typical Thanksgiving fare, but it reflects my mood at the moment I write this. As I’ve told you more than once, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. The concept is simplicity itself: loved ones gather to share a special meal in a spirit of gratitude and affection. It is the only major holiday that has not been overly commercialized, largely because it falls in the shadow of Christmas, and nobody can be bothered with pennies in November when all those December dollars are glimmering just ahead. Even the parades, commercial to be sure, long ago morphed into benign and charming institutions. It just seemed Thanksgiving was incorruptible. Now they’re going to kill it altogether.

Sears and Toys R Us and other corporate retailers are not content to open their doors at some ungodly hour Friday morning. They’re “breaking with tradition,” that’s how the news accounts are describing it, and opening on Thanksgiving itself. I feel sorry for the people who work for these heartless turnip-squeezers. To anyone who says, “It’s a tough envirnoment,” I say if the environment is that tough we need to back off and take a long hard look at what we should do to make it better.

There, I feel better already.