Thank Goodness for Thanksgiving

By Scot Feldmeyer – BarryStaff of Cincinnati weekly newsletter 11/22/11

Wow! Thanksgiving is upon us already.   This weekend signals the start of the holiday season and that means most of us are going to be really busy.   If your company is caught in a year-end crunch, it’s not too late to get the help you need from BarryStaff.   We know you have a lot of work to do at your business and that often means you don’t need the hassle of interviewing, reference checking, testing and evaluating employee candidates.    So why not leave that to the pros?   At BarryStaff we can take the time to find the right people for you.   It’s what we do and we are good at it.   You go ahead and do your thing while we spend our time in finding you the help you need.   Don’t just take my word for it.   Check out what some of our customers have to say at www.barrystaff.com.

THANKSGIVING TRIVIA: While we’re on the subject, check out these fun Thanksgiving facts.
– On December 11, 1620 the Pilgrims, or “Puritans” landed at Plymouth Rock.
– By the fall of 1621 only half of the Pilgrims, who had sailed on the Mayflower, survived.   The survivors, thankful to be alive, decided to have a feast of thanksgiving.
– The Pilgrim leader, Governor William Bradford, invited the neighboring Wampanoag Indians to the feast.   It was these friendly Indians that had taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate the land.   About 90 of them including Chief Massasoit came to the party.   Massachusetts is named after this chief.
– The Pilgrims brought their favorite drink, beer, with them on the Mayflower.   I’m guessing it was Bud Light.
– The first Thanksgiving celebration lasted for 3 days.   Probably when the beer ran out.
– George Washington made the first Thanksgiving Day Proclamation in 1789. Up until 1863 Presidents would declare every year which day would be clebrated as Thanksgiving.
– In 1863 Abraham Lincoln set aside the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving.   In 1939 Franklin D. Roosevelt liked Lincoln’s idea about the last Thursday in November for the holiday and declared this as the day for Thanksgiving in order to prolong the Christmas shopping season and stimulate the economy. Congress made November’s last Thursday official as a national holiday in 1941.
– The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade began in the 1920’s.
– We eat turkey at Thanksgiving because it was a big part of the first Thanksgiving feast.   They had venison, too but wild turkeys used to be plentiful in the area.
– Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the U.S. but Thomas Jefferson insisted on the bald eagle. It is believed that Franklin first started the practice of calling a male turkey, “Tom” to spite Jefferson.

In a way I’m glad that the turkey is not the national bird.  I don’t think that a national bird is supposed to be delicious.