Columns and Editorials

The holidays provide us with a great excuse to eat, drink and be merry as though we’re fattening up our friends, our family and ourselves like the Christmas goose.

I have not yet taken the plunge, but I’ve long been curious about the proverbial wassail and figgy pudding of traditional carols. 

With only about two-and-a-half weeks left before Christmas, time is drawing short for those looking for the perfect gift or a holiday event to attend.

Fortunately, there is help available, beginning with the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet and the Kentucky Arts Council.  The websites for both (Kentuckytourism.com and artscouncil.ky.gov) have collected long lists of available businesses and attractions that are doing their part to make the season special.

It may not have generated much publicity, but Kentucky’s economy hit a high-water mark in October, when our civilian labor force saw its biggest one-month gain in at least 40 years.  It grew by almost 15,000 during those 31 days, putting us just shy of two million people who are either working or actively looking for a job.

This week, our families and friends will sit down at the dinner table to celebrate Thanksgiving, the oldest of the American-based holidays.

Nearly 400 years have passed since the most famous of these harvest feasts was held by the Pilgrims and Native Americans.  It didn’t become the holiday we recognize today, though, until President Washington and then President Lincoln helped solidify its place on the calendar, which Congress finalized in the 1940s by declaring it to always be on the fourth Thursday of November.