EDITORIAL: One-week ban on criticism starts today

The holiday season is upon us.

In honor of the advent of the best time of the year, this week’s Press editorials will be calorie-free of criticism, political commentary and other deterrents to good digestion.

Many of you will be hopping into planes, trains and automobiles (RIP, John Candy) to reunite with loved ones. Others — the most lucky — will play host to family and friends.

As long as we’re talking turkey today, let’s lean into some juicy Thanksgiving tidbits presented by the financial website WalletHub.com.

$321 — Average person’s spending over the five-day Thanksgiving period.

10 hours — Length of time the average American male would need to spend on the treadmill to burn the 4,500 calories consumed at the average Thanksgiving meal.

$1.2 billion — Estimated amount Americans spend on Thanksgiving turkeys each year, with 46 million turkeys killed for the holiday. (Sorry; the turkey slaughter factoid isn’t in strict abidance with the promise stated earlier in this editorial.)

$26 million — Amount of property loss caused by residential building fires each Thanksgiving. (OK, our promise is kind of going up in smoke, like the young couple’s first attempt at roasting a massive bird for a gathering of 18 people.)

61% — Share of people celebrating Thanksgiving who try to avoid having to talk politics at the dinner table. (That’s more like it.)

Of perhaps more usefulness is a bit of financial advice accompanying WalletHub’s interesting Thanksgiving stats. This comes from Indiana University-Kokomo assistant professor Lalatendu Acharya. 

“Food is the biggest money wasting category, but it is an integral part of the TG celebration,” Dr. Acharya writes. “Sources estimate that more than 300 million pounds of food gets wasted during Thanksgiving. This contains nearly 200 million pounds of turkey, 40 million pounds of mashed potatoes and 30 million pounds of stuffing that go to waste. 

“Second big one is spending money on unnecessary décor and arrangements which are relegated to the basement or pack boxes. 

“Thirdly, indiscriminate buying of stuff without comparing prices and sticking to a budget. Most times, people suffer from buyers’ remorse post-thanksgiving holiday when looking at the credit card bills.”

Conclusion?

Don’t eat too much, don’t spend too much, and most important of all…

…don’t bring up politics at the dinner table!