topics abound, but today is for tidbits and talking turkey

Hello. Anyone there? Anyone?

Oh, who am I kidding? It's Thanksgiving Eve. There's no point pretending that you have time to relax with today's newspaper. If you're reading this, chances are you've propped it on your kitchen counter while you're playing with cranberries. Or you're glancing at the news while plotting your escape from work this afternoon.

We could tackle weighty matters today, but the only thing anyone really cares about is the size of tomorrow's turkey.

If this were any other day of the year, I'd ask you to join me in a little snark about the incredible myopia - or hubris - of Democrats in the Senate who last week scrapped the filibuster rule for appointees, especially judges.

They'll come to regret this. We all will. Federal judges are appointed for life. When partisans have an easier passage to the federal judicial system, all sorts of mischief may ensue.

Shoot. Who cares about the republic today? There's stuffing to be made. Cars to be packed. Flights to be missed.

If this weren't the day before Thanksgiving, I might also ask you to join me in a collective eye-roll over the end of Virginia Beach's five-year romance with Michael Jenkins, the developer who promised to turn old Dome site into something magical.

After multiple contract extensions and blown "show-me-the-money deadlines," it appears he simply couldn't get financing for his $172 million project.

Perhaps it's time for City Hall to ask whether anyone else will be able to come up with the loot after Jenkins failed.

But it's Thanksgiving Eve. No one wants to chew on the future of a vacant Oceanfront lot.

It would also be tempting today to ruminate about the ODU football coach's use of the mercy rule in the fourth quarter of Saturday's game against UNC. That would just remind everyone that college football season is almost over and make many of us impossibly sad on Thanksgiving.

Look, this is not a day to rant or complain. It's a day of food prep, travel and goldbricking.

Lots of people are at work, but no one is really working. Except state troopers with radar guns and supermarket clerks, that is. Everyone else is either on vacation or waiting for the boss to leave so they can take the early slide. Those hunched over their computers are working on grocery lists, not spreadsheets.

By late afternoon, offices will be empty, and the roads will be full.

So let's end on a cautionary note. According to a story in Newark's Star-Ledger, today is known as "Black Wednesday" in the insurance industry. A day when cars packed with people tend to collide on the interstates.

That's sobering.

So's this: At least one report says law enforcement types refer to tonight as "Drunksgiving." An evening when people who haven't seen one another in ages celebrate in bars and then drive home.

So be safe. Don't drink and drive. And remember to count your blessings.

Snark returns Sunday.

Kerry Dougherty, 757-446-2306,

kerry.dougherty@cox.net,

PilotOnline.com/dougherty