Thanksgiving is one of those times of year that inspires reflection. For some, it is a moment to think about the meaning of family. But for me, there is a simpler message to take away: We should all have more pie in our lives.

What’s refreshing about Thanksgiving is that, for all the travel delays and the potential for family arguments, the focus is on cooking for once. At Christmas, the feast easily gets overshadowed by the mountain of gifts. At thanksgiving, by contrast, everyone recognizes that the food is what matters. Will the mashed potatoes be smooth enough? And crucially, is there enough pie?

Too many of us spend our lives in a state of pie deprivation (缺少), judging from the hunger with which the pies are greeted on a Thanksgiving table. Few things ins till more of a sense of comfort than the sight of a golden topped fruit pie.

There have been times and places when eating pie was a daily occurrence for American families. Thanksgiving aside, I don’t know anyone who regularly eats pie. This is a bit sad. Think of all that joy we are abandoning.

Thanksgiving pies have a way of living on in memory long after the other dishes are forgotten. Years ago, I made an apple pie for my nieces for Thanksgiving. The following year, I planned to make a cardamom tart instead. But my sister said I had to make the pie exactly the same as the previous year, because the girls had been talking about it for months. I can’t pretend I wasn’t pleased by this.

A pie isn’t just any dessert. It is a sign that care has been taken. I suspect that the single biggest reason we don’t make pies more often is that we don’t have time. Yet there is something about the process of fitting pie into a dish that can actually make you less rushed. “Rest for at least an hour”, reads the instruction in most pie recipes. It’s referring to the pastry, but what if it also means you?

For thousands of years, the most important two buildings in any British village have been the church and the pub. In fact, until a place has a church and a pub, it isn’t really considered a community worthy of a name. Traditionally, the church and the pub are at the heart of any village or town, since it is where people gather to give and receive news. In fact, the word ‘pub' is short for public house.   

That’s how it used to be, but things are beginning to change. It is said that the credit decline is causing 39 British pubs a week to go out of business. People don’t have lots of spare money to spend on beer. Recently, the UK government banned smoking in all pubs, and that may also have affected the number of customers going to pubs.

This decline is happening despite the fact that in recent years the UK government has started to allow pubs to stay open after 11 p. m. Previously, with 11 p. m. as closing time, customers would have to drink quite quickly, meaning they sometimes got more drunk than they would if allowed to drink slowly. The British habit of drinking a lot very quickly is known as “binge drinking”, and it causes some long-term health problems for people and problems with violent crime for communities. The UK government is changing the law to discourage binge drinking, and regularly spends money on television advertisements to warn people of the problems of drinking too much.

In order to save their businesses, pubs are trying to change with the market. Now, there are a number of different types of pubs.

As you can see, British pubs now offer something for everyone. A lot of pubs used to be

working men’s clubs, meaning that women could not usually enter. Today, however, women can freely enter 99% of pubs without experiencing any problems. Perhaps things are changing for the better after all.

Last - Minute Father’s Day gift ideas

Okay, it’s officially last minute for deciding and choosing Father’s Day gifts. Here are some last-minute ideas.

Sunday will be here before we know it. Don’t put it off another day!