Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free

a tip of the hat to the folk who wrote ’tis a gift.

about an hours drive from me is Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill. ’tis a gift to visit, see their artistry, stay there, eat the wonderful food grown on the premises and most of all enjoy the peaceful atmosphere of a long gone era.  

About Us – Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill (shakervillageky.org)

Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill is a landmark destination that shares 3,000 acres of discovery in the spirit of the Kentucky Shakers. With 34 original Shaker structures, the site is home to the country’s largest private collection of original 19th century buildings and is the largest National Historic Landmark in Kentucky.

Attribution: The Last Thanksgiving by Christopher Weyant, The Boston Globe, MA

‘Our little uniter’: New Jersey town bereft by capture of Turkules the wild turkey | New Jersey | The Guardian Residents of West Orange, New Jersey, have been left heartbroken after a wild turkey named “Turkules”, whose resilient nature and ability to evade capture “brought the town together”, was finally snared by state officials. Turkules, who was named by a local man, first took up residence in West Orange, 25 miles west of New York City, over the summer. The bird’s fearless attitude towards traffic and disregard for authority soon made him a local celebrity, and his fame only grew as Turkules spent weeks outwitting animal control officers. Standing at 3ft tall, with a vibrant red wattle and a wingspan of more than a yard, Turkules claimed a patch of grass, next to a busy road, as his own. He soon became known for his tendency to wander into the road, causing all sorts of commotion. On Facebook and Instagram, people regularly posted photographs and videos of the turkey standing in the middle of a road, preventing cars from passing by fearlessly pecking at tires and flapping his wings. Despite sometimes causing mile-long traffic jams, Turkules was hailed as a sort of West Orange mascot. His popularity was such that on Saturday businesses organized a “Hometown Hero” event in Turkules’s honor. But it turns out that the Hometown Hero celebration, during which businesses donated a portion of profits to the Wildlife Conservation Society, was really a goodbye. On Tuesday, the New Jersey department of environmental protection told the Guardian that after a weeks-long effort, Turkules had been captured and relocated to Wharton state forest, 85 miles away. It has left locals bereft. “I’ll miss him a lot. I’ll miss the daily reports on his sightings, I look forward to getting updates about him every day,” said Gia Garcia, who owns Willow and Olivia dessert cafe in West Orange. “With everything being so tense in the world, political-wise and all that stuff, he came around, and he was the one thing that could just bring the whole town together. No one was arguing about politics, no one’s talking… Read more »

this is the kind of turkey that Pres. Biden should pardon next year.  more fitting to be a wild turkey – the bird ben franklin wanted as our national emblem – and probably the kind that Lincoln (who started the whole ritual) pardoned to begin with due to the insistence of his son Todd.

turkules, nick-named “our little uniter” (see above comment at 9:41) should fit right in by that time for Joe to urge the country to come together after a likely divisively mean election.

Turkules, not pictured, has been captured and relocated to Wharton state forest, 85 miles away from West Orange. Photograph: Robin Loznak/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

let’s start a Trail Mix movement for Joe to pardon Turkules.

also in today’s guardian Trump called Iowa evangelicals ‘so-called Christians’ and ‘pieces of shit’, book says | Books | The Guardian

In the heat of the Republican primary of 2016, Donald Trump called evangelical supporters of his rival Ted Cruz “so-called Christians” and “real pieces of shit”, a new book says.
The news lands as the 2024 Republican primary heats up, two months out from the Iowa caucus and a day after Trump’s closest rival this time, the hard-right Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, was endorsed by Bob Vander Plaats, an influential evangelical leader in Iowa.
The new book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, by Tim Alberta, an influential reporter and staff writer for the Atlantic, will be published on 5 December. The Guardian obtained a copy.
Early in the book, Alberta describes fallout from an event at Liberty University, the evangelical college in Virginia, shortly before the Iowa vote in January 2016.
As candidates jockeyed for support from evangelicals, a powerful bloc in any Republican election, Trump was asked to name his favourite Bible verse.
Attempting to follow the advice of Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, the thrice-married, not noticeably church-going New York billionaire and reality TV star introduced it as “Two Corinthians”, rather than “Second Corinthians”, as would have been correct.
“The laughter and ridicule were embarrassing enough for Trump,” Alberta writes. “But the news of Perkins endorsing Ted Cruz, just a few days later, sent him into a spiral. He began to speculate that there was a conspiracy among powerful evangelicals to deny him the GOP nomination.
“When Cruz’s allies began using the ‘Two Corinthians’ line to attack him in the final days before the Iowa caucuses, Trump told one Iowa Republican official, ‘You know, these so-called Christians hanging around with Ted are some real pieces of shit.’”
Alberta adds that “in private over the coming years”, Trump “would use even more colourful language to describe the evangelical community.
[continues]

sturge, as long as it’s his pet goose “googles” and not himself.  I picture Joe pardoning Turkules to a happy life at the national zoo so everyone in the USA, not just the citizens of west orange or the state NJ, can enjoy his antics.