☀️ Happy (early) Thanksgiving!

Good morning! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, which means Americans will be eating ourselves into short-term food comas as Mariah Carey fires up her annual money printer (“All I Want for Christmas Is You” nets her $3 million each year). Due to the holiday, the next issue of The Elective will hit your inbox Monday morning.

Some scheduling notes for tomorrow:

• The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade runs from 8:30 a.m. to noon in all U.S. time zones.

• The Packers play the Lions at 12:30 p.m. Eastern.

• The Commanders play the Cowboys at 4:30 p.m. Eastern.

• The 49ers play the Seahawks at 8:20 p.m. Eastern.

• Your grandma wants you there earlier than you think she does.

Instead of the news, we’ve got a special Thanksgiving-themed trivia email for you today. Answers appear at the bottom of each section. So don’t scroll too far!

PS: We’d be disappointed if we didn’t at least cover something political today. So here you go: Republican Celeste Maloy won a special election for Congress in Utah last night. No surprise there! Her district votes 11% more Republican than the country overall.

 FOOTBALL 

Football and Thanksgiving go together like your uncle and bizarre political opinions. So here are a few questions on the marriage of America’s two favorite pastimes: eating too much and watching other people exercise.

1. In what year did the NFL first play a game on Thanksgiving Day?

2. Which two NFL teams host two of the three games every Thanksgiving? The third rotates between the league’s other 30 teams.

3. In what year did the first known Thanksgiving football game take place?

4. Which two colleges played in that game? (Hint: they’re in the same state)

Answers:

1) 1920 — 12 of 14 teams played a game that day. Think sports teams names are stupid now? Two teams that season were named the “Pros.” Other bangers include the Triangles, the Pandhandles, and the Boosters. Not a single team nickname from that season survives. Thankfully, we’ve moved on to much cooler names like Browns and Bills.

2) The Detroit Lions (since 1934) and the Dallas Cowboys (since 1966)

3) 1869 — that’s just weeks after the what is widely considered to be the first ever American football game.

4) Rutgers and Princeton (both in New Jersey)

 FOOD 

1. Which U.S. states grow the most of the following food items?

1. Turkeys (by head, not weight)

2. Sweet potatoes

3. Apples

4. Pumpkins

5. Cranberries

6. Potatoes

7. Pecans

2. How many turkeys will Americans eat tomorrow?

3. Which of the following meats was likely served at the first Thanksgiving?

A) Bear

B) Turkey

C) Goose

D) Ham

4. In which five U.S. metropolitan areas is the typical Thanksgiving dinner most expensive?

Answers:

1. 1) Minnesota — 2) North Carolina — 3) Washington — 4) Illinois — 5) Wisconsin — 6) Idaho — 7) Georgia

2. 46 million (According to the US Poultry and Egg Association)

3. C) Goose

4. Seattle, WA — Honolulu, HI — Portland, OR — Philadelphia, PA — San Francisco, CA

 HISTORY 

1. Which U.S. president began the annual tradition of issuing a “pardon” to a turkey ahead of the big meal?

A) Richard Nixon

B) Jimmy Carter

C) Harry Truman

D) George H.W. Bush

2. On which day do Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving, eh?

3. In which years did the following events take place?

• The (alleged) first thanksgiving celebration between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag.

• President George Washington issues a proclamation declaring a national day of thanksgiving.

• Thanksgiving was made a federal holiday.

Answers:

1. George H.W. Bush — The National Turkey Federation began presenting the president with a turkey in 1947 during the Harry S. Truman years. From then on, some birds were spared and sent to turkey retirement villages while others…met a different fate. The unbroken annual tradition of pardoning a turkey began in 1989 with Bush.

2. The second Monday in October. How do they know when Christmas begins if Thanksgiving is so early?

3. 1) 1621 — 2) 1789 — 3) 1941

 PARADES 

Normal people watch a parade on Thanksgiving morning while their psychotic friends compete in “fun” runs. Because who doesn’t love watching an obscenely large SpongeBob balloon float down the street behind a high school marching band from Iowa?

Three Thanksgiving Day parades are older than any others (obviously).

1. Which three U.S. cities host these parades?

2. In what year did each parade begin?

3. Which three department stores initially sponsored them?

Answers:

Philadelphia — 1920 — Gimbel’s (aka the competition in Miracle on 34th Street)

New York — 1924 — Macy’s (aka the parade company that also sells suits, bedding, makeup, and dishes)

Detroit — 1924 — Hudson’s (aka the corporate grandparent of Target)

 QUOTE