Turkey Trot

 

Thanksgiving / Weekend Edition

It has been a while Rink Rats readers, almost two months, why so long you ask? Two words: writers block. It happens.

So, we move on, I have had my two Covid shots, a flu shot, my shingles shots, my Covid booster shot, so I am considered an Eternal.

The best time of the year is upon us, sports, eating, drinking, no classes, no politics (sort of).

To our Canadian readers who celebrated their Thanksgiving on October 11, please indulge me in acknowledging the American Thanksgiving weekend.

More specifically, the Turkey Trot. The time-honored celebration of running in freezing weather. The first Turkey Trot was in Buffalo, New York in 1896. Six participants ran eight kilometers (almost five miles). These days we run 5k or 10k or in my case a 0k.

It’s a classic Thanksgiving tradition: Go around the table and say what you’re grateful for. That’s not exactly a common practice on corporate earnings calls, we thought we’d highlight some of the things that business leaders said they were grateful for this month during presentations to analysts.

Most often, executives say they are thankful for investors and employees, the corporate equivalent of “friends and family” around the table. But some are grateful for other things, and if you can’t come up with something tomorrow when it’s your turn to express thanks, try one of these alternatives:

I, an executive officer of this company, am thankful …

“for the mortgage boom.” (Chris Cartwright of TransUnion)

“to the F.D.A.” (Stephen Hoge of Moderna)

“that our customers continue to wait for our products.” (Brittany Bagley of Sonos)

“to operate in a large and growing market.” (Neil Blumenthal of Warby Parker)

“for your interest in our company.” (Alexandre Bompard of Carrefour)

Thanksgiving weekend recs: 1) This new book on the history of HBO 2) 24 hours with Squid Game’s HoYeon Jung 3) King Richard

THANKSGIVING TRAVEL - U.S. travel has nearly rebounded from the pandemic, but a global return could take years.

Pumpkin pie in the sky... The TSA is prepping for what it expects to be the busiest travel day of the year (FYI: this Sunday). Just a year ago, the vaccine rollout hadn't even begun in the US. Now, 80% of Americans over age 12 have been vaccinated thanks to early vax access, and 18% of adults have received a booster. Last Friday, the FDA and CDC cleared Pfizer and Moderna boosters for all adults, making them widely available in time for the holidays.

Bags packed; potatoes mashed... The vax rollout has benefited travel companies, as Americans make up for lost vacays. US travelers are splurging 46% more on trips this year compared to pre-pandemic.

By air... Domestic air travel has almost completely recovered from its pandemic plunge, and Thanksgiving flyers are expected to hit pre-corona levels. Delta and American have returned to profitability. But they still expect revenue to be down by about 20% from pre-pandemic to end the year.

By road... T-giving trips are coming up for over 48M Americans. Too bad car-rental prices are up 75% from 2019. Not bad for companies like Hertz, whose sales soared 62% last quarter from the start of this year. With US gas prices at seven-year highs, oil giants like Exxon and Chevron could also benefit from holiday mileage.

By stay... Only about 22% of Americans plan to stay in hotels this season. Room prices have jumped as demand recovers, but sales at Hilton and Marriott are still down from pre-pandemic. Marriott’s international bookings plunged a whopping 40% from 2019, as overseas travel continues to lag US leisure. On the flip side, Airbnb just had its best quarter ever, as travelers embraced longer-term stays in rural cabins and yurts.

PSYCHOLOGY 101 - Reset your alarm: Waking up just an hour earlier than usual could reduce your risk of depression by 23%, according to a new study.⁠

And each hour earlier that you wake up, the better the benefit, according to the study. Past research has shown that there’s a link between chronotype, or a person’s physiologic preference for mornings or nights, and mood. Night owls, for example, are two times as likely to develop depression compared to morning people.⁠

COVID SURGE? - The seasonal pulse of this pandemic has public health officials bracing for a spike in cases and hospitalizations. Colder weather and holiday gatherings are poised to bring more people together inside, mingling households and broadening people’s exposure to unvaccinated (or at least un-boosted) loved ones. We’ve been here before. Elected officials and health officers are working to avoid a repeat.

The number of U.S. Covid-19 deaths recorded in 2021 has surpassed the toll in 2020, according to federal data and Johns Hopkins University, demonstrating the virus’s persistent menace.

The total number of reported deaths linked to the disease topped 770,800 on November 20, Johns Hopkins data show. This puts the pandemic-long total at more than twice the 385,343 Covid-19 deaths recorded last year, according to the most recent death-certificate data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The spread of the highly contagious Delta variant and low vaccination rates in some communities were important factors, infectious-disease experts said. The milestone comes as Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations move higher again in places such as New England and the upper Midwest, with the seven-day average for new cases recently closer to 90,000 a day after it neared 70,000 last month.

Covid-19 has proven to be an enduring threat even in some of the most vaccinated places, many of which are confronting outbreaks again now, as the world prepares to live with and manage the disease for the long term. In Europe, parts of Austria, Germany and the Netherlands have imposed new restrictions in recent days after Covid-19 cases rose and hospitals came under strain.

 

POTUS - President Joe Biden will be spending his 45th Thanksgiving on Nantucket this year — a tradition broken only by the pandemic and the death of his son Beau Biden.

The family has been spending Thanksgiving there since 1975, when Biden was a first-term senator and a single dad to two boys. It was there, Biden wrote in the first chapter of his 2017 memoir “Promise Me, Dad,” that he and Jill Jacobs, soon to be Jill Biden, “started to talk seriously about a future together.”

It’s very clear that Biden loves the tradition, which he described as “splendid and enforced isolation” (probably a lot less true now that a Secret Service detail, comms staffers, and nosy reporters have joined them on the island). It’s also where Biden said Beau in November 2014 urged him to run for president.

With its quaint New England charm, pristine beaches, and Hallmark-like settings, the small island off of Cape Cod has a reputation as a ritzy getaway.

MARKET WEEK - The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell to a historic low this week. Jobless claims dropped by 71,000 to 199,000, the lowest since mid-November 1969. But seasonal adjustments around the Thanksgiving holiday contributed significantly to the bigger-than-expected drop. Unadjusted, claims actually ticked up by more than 18,000 to nearly 259,000. The four-week average of claims, which smooths out weekly ups and downs, also dropped — by 21,000 to just over 252,000, the lowest since mid-March 2020, when the pandemic slammed the economy.

Even while these numbers are good, don’t expect them to immediately change Americans’ negative perceptions of the economy. There’s still a major disconnect between these sorts of positive statistics and how everyday voters feel about their own finances. At the moment, it all comes back to fears about inflation — and growing concerns that Democrats aren’t doing enough to address it.

For 35 years, the discount chain Dollar Tree committed to selling almost everything for $1. Time has come to pass the buck: Prices for most items will increase to $1.25.

TARGET BREAKS FOR TURKEY - Target employees can finally spend their Thanksgiving like the rest of us: having a meltdown over forgetting to brine the turkey. The “come on, you need more travel mugs” retailer said yesterday that it will permanently shift to closing its doors on Thanksgiving, a change it made temporarily last year to limit crowds during the pandemic.

Some background: In the last 20 years, large retail chains started merging Black Friday into Thanksgiving to compete with online retailers like Amazon. But last year, Covid forced stores to rethink inviting hordes of people to climb over each other for a PS5.

Other large retailers like Macy’s, Kohl’s, and Walmart will also close for Thanksgiving this year, but haven’t decided if they’ll go full “spirit of the holiday season” and make it permanent, like Target has.

Big picture: Just because stores are closed on Thanksgiving doesn't mean people won't shop. For the past two years the holiday was the third-largest online shopping day on the calendar, behind Cyber Monday and Black Friday.

TOP FIVE THANKSGIVING MOVIES –

•          “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” (1987)

•          “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” (1973)

•          “The Big Chill” (1983)

•          “Home for the Holidays” (1995)

•          “What’s Cooking” (2000)

BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to Traci Attman, Jamie Lee Curtis (63), Billie Jean King (78), Jack Meek …we hope enjoying retirement, Sarah Prosenko … an unsung hero of the University of La Verne, Senator Chuck Schumer (71).

 

O CANNABIS - If you live in Canada, love weed, and hate lines, then boy-oh-boy do we have the story for you. Uber is partnering with a Canadian cannabis retailer to allow customers in Ontario to order cannabis products through Uber Eats.

You can’t order special gummies as a side with your chicken parm just yet, though: It’s pickup only for now, with orders ready to be retrieved within the hour they’re placed in the Uber Eats app. Toronto-based Tokyo Smoke, which operates more than 50 dispensaries in Ontario, is handling the sales.

The move marks Uber’s first entry into the marijuana business. In October, the company closed its acquisition of alcohol delivery app Drizly for $1.1 billion, though Drizly’s cannabis delivery service, Lantern, wasn’t part of the deal.

In the States when? Rest assured; Uber wants to eventually send you a vape with that breakfast burrito. In April, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said “when the road is clear” the company will absolutely look into cannabis delivery in the US. Blocking the road, of course, are rules prohibiting the purchase of federally illegal products with a credit card and the fact that only 18 states currently allow for recreational cannabis use.

 

ROLLING STONES SET LIST DETROIT CONCERT NOVEMBER 15 –

"Street Fighting Man"

"You Got Me Rocking"

"19th Nervous Breakdown"

"Tumbling Dice"

"Ain't Too Proud to Beg"

"Wild Horses"

"You Can't Always Get What You Want"

"Living in a Ghost Town"

"Start Me Up"

"Honky Tonk Women"

"Connection"

"Before They Make Me Run"

"Miss You"

"Midnight Rambler"

"Paint It Black"

"Sympathy for the Devil"

"Jumpin' Jack Flash"

Encore:

"Gimme Shelter"

"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"

 

THE SWAMI’S WEEKEND PICKS –

NFL Football Pick of the Week – Thursday 11/25, 9:30 AM (PDT), Fox: Chicago Bears (3-7-0) vs. Detroit Lions (0-9-1). Two words: “Who cares!” Lions! 24 - 20.

College Football Pick of the Week – Saturday 11/27, 12:00 PM (EDT)), #2 Ohio State Buckeyes (10-1) vs. #5 Michigan Wolverines (10-1). The Bo's and the Woody's get together Saturday for their annual Big Ten (14) grudge match and it will be the 24th time both are ranked in the top 10 of the AP poll at kickoff. That's seven more than the next closest rivalries (Notre dame-USC and Nebraska-Oklahoma). This could be a classic, but also a classic dud: Blue wins 38 – 35.

2021 Season to Date (48-35)

 

Next Blog: Jackass of the Month and College hockey

Until November 30, 2021 Adios.

Claremont, California

November 25, 2021

#XII-4-4401

 

2,016  words, six-minute read

 

CARTOON OF THE WEEKEND – Peanuts, Charles Schulz

 

 

RINK RATS POLL – Does a baked ham belong as part of the Thanksgiving dinner?

___ Yes

___ No

 

QUOTE OF THE MONTH – “Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough.” – Mark Twain

 

Rink Rats is a blog of weekly observations, predictions and commentary. We welcome your comments and questions. Also participate in our monthly poll. Rink Rats is now viewed in Europe, Canada, South America and the United States.

Posted at Rink Rats The Blog: First Published – May 3, 2010

Our Eleventh Year.

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