Thanksgiving Is for Food and Football

For food, Tablet Magazine columnist Joan Nathan has you covered: here is Jewish-style sweet potatoes, and here is how to prepare your turkey.

Sports-wise, first, some brief further commentary on Ryan Braun’s MVP award. It’s interesting that two prominent write-ups focus on two completely different sides of Braun’s merits. One, in the Wall Street Journal, reports on his prowess as expressed by the field of advanced statistics, or sabermetrics, and how it clearly distinguished him from his teammate Prince Fielder (a slugger who is subpar in the field and on the basepaths); another, in the New York Times, praises his ability to come through when it mattered most (“clutch” being practically a curse word to sabermetricians). What emerges is the sense that Braun had one of the two best seasons of any National League player, and since his team won its division while Matt Kemp’s Los Angeles Dodgers languished, it is clear who was the more valuable.

Second, an update on Bernie Fine, the longtime Syracuse basketball coach and founder of the Jewish Coaches Association who was accused of molesting two boys. Chiefly, it’s that head coach Jim Boeheim continues to support his longtime assistant and friend. Remember that this situation has very little in common with the one at Penn State: there is nothing like the credibility of a grand jury indictment and there is no university cover-up, among other things.

Finally, back to Thanksgiving! Football! You want to know whom to root for tomorrow, surely, in what is an historically great series of games. None of Tablet Magazine’s three official teams this season—the Chicago Bears, the New England Patriots, and the New York Giants—play. Dallas Cowboy Kyle Kosier will play his old teammate, the Miami Dolphins’ Igor Olshansky, in the mid-afternoon game. I’m liable to send you to the Dolphins: they have a Jewish player, Jewish owner, and a hefty Jewish fanbase, and for the day they represent, as all Dallas opponents do, man’s innate desire to defeat evil. But don’t sleep on (or fall asleep before) the night game, between the San Franciso 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens. And in the early game, you may be interested to know that star Green Bay Packer quarterback Aaron Rodgers’s longtime close friend is … Ryan Braun.

Regardless, have a happy Thanksgiving!

How Braun Was a Brainy MVP Pick [WSJ Daily Fix]
Braun Most Valuable in the Clutch [NYT]
Jim Boeheim Supports Bernie Fine [ESPN]
Related: Family Feast [Tablet Magazine]
Earlier: Turkey Tasting
Ryan Braun Wins MVP
Accused Helped Found Jewish Coaches Assn.