Happy Thanksgiving from Lucy van Pelt

As is our custom, we are wishing everyone a Happy holiday from a cartoon character, though at times, we've used obscure celebrities or politicians (I think we said "Merry Christmas from Bob Dole" once).

Today in New York, an estimated 3.5 million people watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from the streets alone. Among the balloons were Snoopy, who debuted at the parade in 1968.

As for Lucy van Pelt, we found out while researching that not only is Linus her younger brother, but so is Rerun, an infrequent "Peanuts" character. Lucy is a nemesis to Charlie Brown, and we're not sure if Snoopy and Woodstock like her either.

Lucy, who is known for pulling the football and her five cents psychiatry booths, actually made her "Peanuts" debut a year and a half after Charlie Brown and Snoopy on March 3, 1952. But, she joined them in the final original strip for "Peanuts" on Feb. 13, 2000, which was published right away the series' cretor Charles Schultz
(1922-2000) had died.

Amazingly enough, Lucy actually liked Charlie Brown at first!

SIDEDISH: I wanted to wish a special congratulations to the Radford University women's volleyball team. The squad, which represents my alma mater, won the Big South tournament over top-seed Liberty University in Charleston, SC, on Sunday. the Highlanders scored the victory in straight sets (25-20, 25-23, 25-22). They will now head to the NCAA tournament. Seedings will be announced this Sunday.

SIDEDISH TWO: We are happy to report that my friend Chris Knight in North Carolina did not get injured when deep-frying his turkeys today, as is his annual Thanksgiving tradition. Because of the high potential risk for deep-frying turkeys, many celebrities, including William Shatner, have spoken out against it. But, that didn't prevented Knight from engaging in his holiday ritual.

Quote of the Week- Elizabeth Manley

As we continue to quote famous Canadians this month, we turn our focus to women's figure skating legend Elizabeth Manley, 46, who won silver at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

Manley, who hails from Trenton, Ontario, is the Canadian spokesperson for Ovarian Cancer Awareness as the illness claimed her mother's life.

Here is her quote, despite efforts to find out who 'she' is, we were unable to pinpoint it, but this seems like a nifty quote as it is:

"If she keeps her nerves under control....she could easily be the one to upset the apple cart."

SIDEBAR: My friend Chris Knight in North Carolina has promised to once again take part in his annual Thanksgiving tradition of deep-frying, which he will almost certainly discuss on his blog "The Knight Shift" (http://www.theknightshift.blogspot.com); while I am very interested how things turn out for Knight, I would not try this myself.

I recall reading a story from a Kansas City news source via Twitter that many people in the metro area were injured from turkey deep-frying efforts over Thanksgiving last year. But, we wish Chris well!

SIDEBAR 2: We were surprised to find out that the Greek Cypriot team APOEL Nicosia became the first team from their country to qualify for the knock-out round of the UEFA Cup tournament by tying the Russian team Zenit St.Petersburg 0-0. Though, we try to avoid putting ethnic politics into sports, I was amused to read (I am a Turkish-American) that APOEL was suspended from UEFA play back in 1986 because the government in Nicosia refused to let the team play the Turkish soccer power Besiktas (Istanbul) in UEFA play. Turkey and Greece tragically went to war over Cyprus in July of 1974.

It was also a good day for the Greek team Olympiakos FC from Piraeus as they defeated the French team Marseilles 1-0 thanks to a goal in the 81st minute from Ioannis Fetfazidis, aka 'the Greek Messi' in the 81st minute of play.

In other soccer games today, the Spanish team Valencia decked the Belgian squad Genk 7-0, and the Portuguese team FC Porto beat out the Ukrainian champs Shakhtar Donetsk 2-0.