By Sam Winston

Philip Roth in his Pulitzer Prize winning book American Pastoral described Thanksgiving as the quintessential American day. Where the battle of life halts and “just one colossal turkey for two hundred and fifty million people- one colossal turkey feeds all… A moratorium on all the grievances and resentments for everyone in America who is suspicious of everyone else. It is the American pastoral par excellence and it lasts twenty-four hours.”

It is certainly going to be weird to not have a Turkey Day but it will be even stranger to not even have the idea of Thanksgiving here in Germany. Roth was onto something when he said that it is truly “American.”

My first realization that there would be no Turkey Day for me was Read the rest of this entry »

In an alternate reality, The Wendall Baker Story, written and directed by Luke Wilson (with brother Andrew) would be quirky, clever and a charming homage to the lazy Texas lads of the 70’s. In reality the film tries too hard to be quirky, charming and clever, and barely achieves even “lazy”.

The story is cliché…Ex-con goes straight to win the girl and ultimately saves the day. Luke plays the Texan, Wendall Baker, with his “aw shucks” demeanor and barely invites a second glance into the depth which needs to be shown by this character. When your hero is a slacker by nature, he should show us more than smirks and shallow one-liners. This does not happen with Luke Wilson. Unfortunately, I am not sure that is in his acting capabilities. Do not totally dismiss The Wendall Baker Story. There are some amazing cameos by Will Ferrell as the Read the rest of this entry »