91% and the Grand Tradition

I read somewhere that 91% of Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving.  And then someone told me about the pork tenderloin she was all excited to make for her Thanksgiving feast.  Someone else mentioned their "Thanksgiving Salmon" -- as if everyone had a Thanksgiving Salmon.  And I thought about my own turkey-less Thanksgiving dinner.  But regardless of the main protein source of the dinner, each of us was preparing for a grander than normal meal at our house or elsewhere.  So even if it's really not 91% of America sitting down to a turkey, if it's 91% of America sitting down to reflect on all they have to be thankful for -- what a grand tradition Thanksgiving is.

Canola Oil and Saving the Rainforest

In soap making, palm oil is king. It makes a great, hard white bar with lots of lather. Perfect bar! And not only do soap makers like palm oil but also the cookie and cracker manufacturers of the world. Palm oil is in everything! So happy were the governments and landowners of Indonesia and Malaysia! So let's mow down all of these rainforests that are in the way so we can plant more palm trees. Ooops, there goes another orangutan! Interestingly enough, plain old canola oil does a pretty good job in soap making -- not quite as white or hard or sudsy as palm, but pretty close. And in baked goods, it's much more healthy since it is lower in saturated fats. And not a single square foot of rainforest is affected by producing canola oil. Orangutans get to stay put. Seems like a fair trade.