THE LAMB TURNED OUT WELL this year — most people thought it was the best ever. I think that’s because I was really careful with the meat thermometer (ignore those little popup things!) to be sure it didn’t get even slightly overdone. That’s really important.

Meanwhile, here’s the InstaWife with the turkey cake.

ED DRISCOLL goes inside the childhood-industrial complex with James Lileks.

SANCTIONS on the Mugabe regime? Sanctions tend not to do much good, but at least it’s something.

MARINES IN ACTION IN SYRIA? I wouldn’t be surprised, but I don’t trust Debka as a source.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH OSM PAJAMAS MEDIA and what to do about it — it’s the topic of a real-time BlogJam among some members of the editorial advisory board. My first post is up, a bit early.

IT’S ANOTHER Giuliani-Rice blowout over at Hugh Hewitt’s GOP 2008 straw poll.

“A PARTY GIRL LEADS CHINA’S online revolution.”

IT’S NOT JUST THE STOCK MARKET THAT’S UP:

Online retailers are expected to have a cheerful holiday season thanks to legions of new shoppers buying gifts over the Internet, say two new forecasts.

Sales will grow 18 percent over last year to $26 billion, according to a report released Monday by JupiterResearch. . . .

The forecasts show that the e-commerce is still strong 10 years after the founding of industry giants Amazon.com and eBay. Shoppers continue to migrate online, lured by convenience, a proliferation of free shipping offers and the prospect of saving money by driving less — given the current high gasoline prices.

Yes, and there’s also the traffic, which I hate: I was at the mall yesterday morning and it was surprisingly uncrowded, but I figured that was the last day it would be tolerable for a couple of months. That’s why I’m going to do as much shopping as I can over at old reliable!

JIM LINDGREN REMEMBERS the first Thanksgiving, and its recreations.

IT’S LIKE MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000, only with giant inflatable Underdog blimps: Jeff Goldstein and Hillary Johnson will be liveblogging the Macy’s parade at the Pajamas Media site starting in about half an hour.

And I just noticed that there’s an Underdog Boxed DVD Set. (Purists, however, seem miffed at the way it was put together). But I had thought that show was lost in the mist of time; I can’t remember ever seeing it on TV in reruns. Still no Addams Family on DVD, though, which means the Insta-Daughter’s TV education remains sadly incomplete.

AN ORANGE REVOLUTION brewing in Kenya?

UPDATE: More on Kenya from Austin Bay.

STOCK MARKETS hit 4 1/2 year high. Good news, I guess.

DONALD SENSING has thoughts on the Democrats’ strategy:

So, knowing that the plan was to redeploy troops beginning next year, the Democrats decided to get in front of the wave: Demand the troops be sent home NOW and then when the Pentagon announces the plan to redeploy, take credit for it.

It’s the Ralph Nader strategy, I guess.

N.Z. BEAR has set up a Thanksgiving topic page collecting Thanksgiving posts from all over.

IT’S A THANKSGIVING STRAW POLL for the Republicans over at Hugh Hewitt’s.

MARK STEYN was on Hugh Hewitt’s show, talking about Iraqi and American politics. Here’s a transcript.

FIRST IT WAS JEFF JARVIS, now Eugene Volokh reports “appalling service from Dell.” As I’ve noted before, my own experiences have been good, but they were less recent. Somebody at Dell needs to get to work on these problems.

TAMMY BRUCE posts a recipe for cranberry sauce. Rod Dreher posts a recipe for the “world’s best” cornbread dressing. And here’s my recipe for roast Thanksgiving lamb.

1 semi-boneless leg of lamb (about 8 pounds)
2 cups merlot
1 cup each worcestershire and teriyaki
2 cloves garlic, crushed (more is better!)
1tbsp sugar
2 oz. olive oil
rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper to taste
Disposable aluminum roasting pan.

Mix merlot, worcestershire, and teriyaki, plus sugar, and marinate, preferably overnight. Heat a covered gas grill to high temperature on one side, low on the other.

Rub the lamb with olive oil, garlic and other spices. Place the roasting pan on the “low heat” side. Place the lamb on the “high heat” side of the grill and sear; rotate until all sides are browned. Move to the roasting pan, and turn the “high” side down to low as well. Close the grill cover and cook. If the lamb seems to be browning too much, cover with aluminum foil.

Cook until a meat thermometer inserted all the way to the center reads 140-145 degrees. (Don’t overcook, or the lamb will be dry and tasteless; the outside can be pretty crispy, but the inside should be rare). Remove, let cool for a few minutes, and serve. Juices will make an excellent lamb gravy, especially if you add more merlot.

UPDATE: More recipes from Sensible Mom and (via an emailed link) Michael Graham. And from Rand Simberg. It’s like a mini-carnival here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s a recipe for pumpkin chocolate crunch pie from Michelle Malkin.

MORE: SKBubba takes exception to the “world’s best cornbread dressing” claims. He writes: “That recipe sounds pretty good, but it can’t possibly be the ‘world’s best.’ It only has 1/4 lb. of bacon. That’s just not right. Proper cornbread dressing has at least 1 lb. of bacon. That’s how the Mrs. makes it and hers is indeed the ‘world’s best.’ The bourbon is a nice touch, though.”

It usually is!

STILL MORE: Reader Barry Pike emails that he tried the Lamb and Guinness Stew recipe I posted a while back:

Made it yesterday for Thanksgiving Eve for the first time. It was excellent and wildly applauded by the clan. At the onset I was trepidatious about the combination of Guinness, turmeric, and paprika, but it was really superb. Thanks, and a happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

Likewise! And I agree with Nigella Lawson that turmeric is an underappreciated spice.

OMAR AT IRAQ THE MODEL has thoughts on an Iraqi proposal for a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops. All I can say is that I think that an agreement to withdraw as a democratically elected Iraqi government wants, and in a fashion that ensures it can handle the insurgents, is very different from an immediate unilateral withdrawal at the behest of U.S. politicians who say the war is “unwinnable.”

Before it’s over, of course, I suspect it’ll be the Sunnis who want us to stay longer, for fear that without us they’ll face rather severe action on the part of the Shia and Kurds.

JOBS, LAYOFFS, EUROPE AND AMERICA: Will Franklin has some thoughts.

UPDATE: Reader Jim Uren notes that Europe is in the same boat as GM, being forced to cut health care spending or go bankrupt.

I’M PRETTY SURE that the whole CNN “X” thing is just a technical glitch, but Bill Quick has been doing actual reporting on the subject.

HEH.

MICKEY KAUS:

Warren Beatty and Rob Reiner aren’t nearly as popular as their backers thought they were, according to the latest Field Poll. Beatty’s rating is 40% unfavorable/27% favorable–among Democrats! Yikes. .. Reiner is at least more popular than unpopular within his own party, but overall his unfavorables outweigh his favorables among independents (34/24) and overall (41/25). … Prediction: The eye-opening poll will get little coverage in the LAT. Too interesting!

It’s not that surprising.

HERE’S A REPORT that Nicolas Sarkozy is posting comments on blogs. That’s cool, if true, though his time might be better spent dealing with domestic insurrections.

OOPS: Demand for biofuels is destroying rainforests.