Happy Thanksgiving! Here is a look at the top headlines as we start the day.
Weather: A chilly morning, then sunny and pleasant. High: 66 degrees.
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Ready, set, shop! Here are D-FW shopping center opening times for Thanksgiving, Black Friday
The national big box discount chains and department stores aren't giving up on their stores or the not-so-controversial idea anymore of shopping on Thanksgiving Day.
Doors open Thanksgiving Day at 7 a.m. this year at Big Lots and Dollar General, followed at 8 a.m. by Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's. There are afternoon openings staggered as well. If you're ready to take on the shopping centers and get your hands on some merchandise, retail reporter Maria Halkias has a full list of major stores' opening times for Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday.
Not cooking today? You’ve got options
If you want to take a year off from the table-setting and cleanup, no one will blame you — and D-FW restaurants have you covered. GuideLive has rounded up 20 brunch, lunch and dinner options if you want to get out for a Thanksgiving bite.
If you know someone who would love a good meal but who can't afford it, here are three restaurants in Dallas that are handing out free Thanksgiving food, no strings attached.
Here’s some more Thanksgiving food and fun:
- Turkey tips: Here are step-by-step instructions for how to fry your Thanksgiving turkey — without blowing yourself up in the process.
- Frying not your thing? How to smoke a local, pasture-raised turkey.
- Thanksgiving, in waffle form: AT&T Stadium is serving a Texas-shaped waffle made of stuffing at today's game between the Cowboys and the Los Angeles Chargers. (You have to see this thing to believe it.)
- Don't panic about the potluck: Here are nine foolproof Thanksgiving recipes anybody can make.
Why this priest is thankful for sinners
Joshua J. Whitfield is a pastoral administrator for St. Rita Catholic Community in Dallas. He writes commentary for The Dallas Morning News. Below is an edited excerpt from his latest piece.
As a priest, part of my gig is listening to people tell me their sins. Each week, for hours in the confessional, I simply sit and listen. ... And to be honest, it's boring, very boring.
I've learned there's nothing so uncreative as sin, nothing so repetitive and dull. It's not sanctity or clairvoyance on my part, but I could probably tell you what your sins are before you ever opened your mouth, human sin being what it is: mindless, dumb and visionless. A palette of but a few grays, at our most sinful and stupid, we rarely create anything new. Most of us look pathetic naked. It's a humiliating truth.
But here's the strange thing. The overall effect of this experience for me has been to love these people, to love humanity in general, and even this bitter, ugly world. The effect has been to love them more, not less. Hearing all this sin has given me hope.
Read Whitfield’s full essay here.
Editorial: By giving to DMN Charities, you can feed the hungry while feeding your soul.
Helping hand: Inside Cowboys center Travis Frederick's mission to feed hungry people in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Commentary: Thanksgiving is a time to reach out to children in need.
Photo of the morning
Grapevine Police Senior Officer RJ Hudson is greeted by fellow law enforcement officers from around the area on Wednesday after being released from Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Grapevine, after being seriously injured in a crash five weeks ago on his motorcycle.
His spleen and one of his kidneys were damaged. His back was fractured. His nose, clavicle, arms, ankle and ribs were broken. The seven bones in his wrist were crushed into 40 pieces. Road rash covered his body and face.
After only 10 days in the hospital, Hudson and his 23 broken bones had recovered enough to be handed over to physical therapists to begin rehabilitation.
“He has a lot to be thankful for today and tomorrow when he’s at home enjoying Thanksgiving dinner with his family,” said Jason Miller, a rehabilitation physician at the hospital.
In non-Thanksgiving news...
Texas politics: Capitol Police are investigating explicit images that U.S. Rep. Joe Barton warned a woman not to release.
Courts: Texas' latest attempt to restrict abortions was struck down Wednesday, as a federal judge ruled banning a common procedure unconstitutional.
Police: No, Dallas, your new police chief isn't resigning — and she's sick of the rumors.
Accidental death: A toddler drowned Wednesday afternoon in Hurst after being left alone in a bathtub, police say.
JFK: Oak Cliff's Texas Theatre installed a new JFK historical marker that fixes the record.
Real estate: Downtown Dallas' skyscraper redevelopment has landed $67 million in funding.
Crime: A Dallas man was arrested Tuesday after fire officials say he set a blaze at Oak Cliff apartments two days earlier.
Must-see movies: Here are five films worth your time in theaters this week.
Finally,
On a cold and wet Thanksgiving day some 30 years ago, runners grew impatient as they waited in the rain for the Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot to start.
Once the sound system crackled to life after a delay, then-mayor Annette Strauss made some introductory remarks — and was promptly booed. Then she handed the microphone to David Kelton.
"I didn't say any opening remarks or anything. It was just 3-2-1," Kelton said as he sat in his kitchen table in his Far North Dallas home Tuesday, two days before the 50th edition of the Turkey Trot kicks off.
Kelton has been the Turkey Trot's public address announcer for 39 of its 50 years. When he receives awards for his service from the YMCA, many of them are simply inscribed with, "The Voice."
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