THANKSGIVING 2008

THANKSGIVING 2008

It's my favorite holiday. I love the colors, the food, the parade. 

And the fact that it's always on a Thursday. 

If a holiday falls on a Monday or a Friday, you more or less feel ripped off, the victim of some sort of boss-led conspiracy to eliminate the extra day off. It can make you so mad you start flirting with the idea of moving to France . . . just to take off the whole month of August. 

If a holiday falls on a Wednesday, you pretty much need a shrink. It creates a kind of downside schizophrenia. The work week stops just as it is about to start, so nothing gets done. And then it starts up again when it is supposed to have finished, so no one wants to do anything. Can anyone think of single thing the world has accomplished during a mid-week holiday week? Maybe we've created material for the next Woody Allen movie. But that's about it. 

Tuesday, of course, creates a whole other set of problems. Tuesday is sort of a backwards Thursday. You get the four day weekend but everything goes in reverse. No one really likes eating a huge turkey with all the trimmings on the last day of a four day weekend. And no one can get to work the next day when they do so. 

So Thursday it is. And this year Christmas falls on a Thursday too. It's 2008's version of a double mitzvah, as some of my ecumenically inclined friends would say. Two long weekends. Month to month. Holiday synchronicity at its best. 

And the truth is, this year, we really need them. Let's face it. Though Thanksgiving is a time for giving thanks, we just do not have time this year for the requisite thank yous. The "to do" list is way too long. Wars to win. Credit markets to unfreeze. 401k's to cry over. A stock market to revive. A few banks to take over. 

Washington DC itself is awash in job applications . . . and applicants. Apparently there are in the neighborhood of 35,000 plus jobs that can change hands now that a new Administration is coming to power. And at least 200,000 people who want them. In fact, there are now so many applicants that the Obama transition team may not even be able to take Thanksgiving off. And they can certainly forget about sleepin' in on the Friday after. That is a work day, which more or less refutes the notion that there is anything French about this crowd. 

Of course, it must be said that the folks applying for these DC jobs clearly do not have houses to sell. Because, if they did, my real estate broker friend tells me there are no mortgages to be had and thus no buyers to beguile. So, the Washington political job pool this time around is comprised of the really rich . . . and the really young. In other words, pretty much like what it was the last time we changed Presidents. 

How does a transition operation process 200,000 applicants? Not very well, it appears. The Obama team has a web site which tells anyone interested that they should send their application in on line, and that this is the best way to "insure" a response. This is not very encouraging. The President-elect is promising to get to you. But he's not giving you any deadline. Sort of like W's Iraq policy for the last five years. 

My own view is that the whole process should be outsourced . . . to the nation's colleges and universities. Year in and year out, these institutions deal with millions of kids who apply for admission to their schools. Within a period of no more than six months, and as early as one if you want, they review the submissions, interview the candidates, and make the decisions. They are also pros at saying no, which the Government generally is not. 

I will not be among the 200,000 applicants. Because I have a mortgage. And two children about to be in college at the same time. That, however, does not mean I will not be sending in an application. The way I see it, Barack may get to it mid-way through his second term. 

By which time, my kids will be out of college . . . 

And houses may again be selling. 

Happy Thanksgiving.