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Ahhh, November in Vermont, so much to enjoy. An early winter dusting coats the mountains like sugar. The whir of freshly balanced snow tires accompanies every drive. The crisp scent of wood smoke hangs in the air. And lest we forget, the impending bacchanalia of poultry-based family feasts: Thanksgiving. This year we are having our third Thanksgiving at home, just the three of us. It was originally our son Carlos’ idea, and though part of it is that we are a tight little trio of a family, it is also that we will be guaranteed the finest feast imaginable (not to mention leftovers to enjoy). You see, my husband is a wonderful cook. I am the envy of my friends as he does all the cooking, and takes great joy in nurturing us with his elaborate but classic meals. It is from the reaction of my friends that I know this is not a common trait amongst husbands, stereotypes aside. Though I am grateful for this as it speaks to the quality of our partnership—each labor divided by our gifts not our gender—the most wonderful part is the influence it is having on our son, Carlos. It all started three years ago…

That Saturday afternoon I came home from a trip to Burlington, put down my things and went to find the guys to kiss them hello. I walked in to the living room and found them sitting on the couch, side-by-side, eating chips and watching the food network. They were arguing about which show a certain recipe for braised pork tenderloin had been on.

“It was on the bobble-head show last week!” my son said (they have their own names for the individual shows—it seems they think a particular female chef’s head is too big for her body).

“No, it was the Southern woman who puts her fingers in the food!” was my husband’s retort.

Now, it was confusing enough that I felt I had stepped in to an alternate universe—there was usually cartoons or sports on at that time of day—but I also gleaned from the conversation that there was a history of cooking show watching between them.

The following week Carlos asked me to take him to the grocery store. “I want to make you guys lunch” he announced. After a long stint at the Price Chopper, we returned home and he promptly threw us out of the kitchen. When he called us in a half an hour later, he set before us a meal of tortellini en brodo, with baked croquettes made from fresh parmesan cheese and spices which you floated on top of the soup. My husband and I just stared at each other across the table. As I relished the delicious meal I asked Carlos, “Where did you learn this?” To which he replied, “On a cooking show I watched at Donna’s.” It seems he was also watching the shows at his caregivers in the afternoon.

Now those of you who know have read my earlier columns already know that Carlos is an athletic, linebacker-sized guy who—as most boys his age are—is very concerned about his reputation as a masculine manly man. Luckily, however, he has managed to escape the stereotypical perception of the kitchen being a woman’s domain and is heading towards a possible career as a chef (or at least a very happy future spouse). Yes, I am concerned about the amount of time they spend watching those damn shows—they really are addictive, my friend Lisa calls them “food porn”—but it seems I am to reap the benefits as well.

So as we approach this season of giving thanks, I find myself grateful that my son has inherited his father’s joy in the nurturing of family and friends. Perhaps some of you enjoy cooking and see it as a way to show your love and affection to those you care about too. But if you are gastronomically-challenged but fortunate enough, as I am, to have a culinary-nurturer hosting your Thanksgiving celebration, you can certainly return the favor by enjoying their gifts and praising them eloquently in between mouthfuls. That is, in fact, a form of nurturing, is it not? As for me, I’m sure as always, this third Thanksgiving at home will be one to remember as it will be lovingly prepared by my two chefs, and it will give me much to be thankful for.

I am also thankful for you, gentle La Bloga readers, and may you all be nurtured this holiday season.

So five days after getting back to the US, I am caught up on my RSS feeds. This is mostly because I prioritized things like getting pictures on Flickr, going food shopping, getting to the pool, arguing about Twitter, and making this little YouTube movie. Here are some things I read that I think you might like to read.

• Chris over at Libraryola does some actual investigating into the hubub surrounding the WaPo article about the library’s weeding policy. He gets a much more well-rounded answer from Sam Clay, the system director, than what the newspaper published.
• Walt asks if SecondLife and social software networks are where our patrons really are. I love the idea of SL, and the immediate potential as a place for geographically spread out people to come together is great (free teleconferencing!) but not a single person I’ve talked to out here uses it… yet. So, for me there’s a difference between going where my users are and trying to make them go someplace I like. I’ll evangelize about the usefulness of the Internet generally, especially for poor rural populations who can use it to save money and save gas, but I’ll wait a little before diving whole hog into SL. The comments seemed to have turned into a Walt vs. Jenny debate, we’ll see if they stay that way.
• Casey (that’s Mad Scientist Mover and Shaker Casey) has reprinted the Ten Commandments of Egoless Programming with a caveat about copyright. My favorite: Treat people who know less than you with respect, deference, and patience, that’s gotten me further than most of what I learned in library school.
• Jenny points to a cool opportunity to be a virtual scholar for the Urban Libraries Council. It’s a little outside my usual interest areas of services to rural populations, but it might be just perfect for someone.
• Rachel at LISJobs ruminates on why online publications still charge for classified ads by the word, and uses the opportunity to mention how LISjobs is still free as in beer.