Thanks for Thanksgiving

Well, folks, Thanksgiving is fast approaching. In my family, through the years, we have had a tradition where we’d each share something that we were grateful for. I am a big fan of gratitude and appreciation. I’ve been blessed almost as much as I’ve been cursed so I figured now would be a good time to thank some of the people in my life who’ve made an excruciatingly difficult year bearable and sometimes even joyful. 

First up, I’d like to thank the readers and patrons of Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place. I feel so unbelievably blessed to have a home online where I can write about things that are important to me for a respectful and appreciative audience. If I’d known it was this much fun and this rewarding to do your own thing, I would have taken the plunge ages ago but I was terrified that if I struck out on my own, I would fail. 

That fear is not unfounded. When I was a boy, my dreamer of a dad quit his solid, if soul-crushing government job to chase his entrepreneurial eighties dreams of being a real estate agent and ended up being more or less permanently unemployed. After my experiences at The Dissolve, it’s hard to de-program the part of my brain that is convinced, again, not without cause, that if you leave something solid and successful to try to do something new and personal you will fail, and then you will be fucked. 

So thank you, Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place tolerators, for making me feel like a not-so-secret success. I’d also like to thank my sister-in-law Romy for designing the site, and the logo, and building the foundation for this whole crazy enterprise. I would also like to thank Clint Worthington for agreeing to do Nathan Rabin’s Happy Cast with me. You’ve already changed the site for the better and brought about features like Scalding Hot Takes, the Cast and Control Nathan and Clint. I could not be more excited about the road ahead. 

I’d also like to thank my editors at Rotten Tomatoes, TCM Backlot, Splitsider and sometimes Vanity Fair and High Times for the work and the support, and also for protecting the world from my grammar and spelling and errors. You are doing God’s work and I would not be able to continue to make a living as a pop culture writer if it were not for you. 

I’d like to thank “Weird Al” Yankovic for the inspiration and anybody who has ever shared or liked or tweeted anything from Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place. We’re David in a pop-culture realm of multi-national Goliaths. Everything helps. Every pledge is a godsend. Every supportive comments makes me feel like maybe the world isn’t against me after all. 

Thank you Brock for being so patient. I cannot wait to hold the Postal book in my hand. 

Finally, on the personal front, I want to thank my wife for being so understanding about the insane hours I spend on Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place, and for making my life complete. I’d also like to thank my son Declan and my dog Ghostface for filling my life with so much joy. And thank you, Decatur, for making a disgruntled former Midwesterner feel like he has a place in the sun. 

It’s a rough world out there. Especially right now. So hug the people in your life. Let them know that you love them and that they matter to you. 

Happy Thanksgiving! We made it to another one. Maybe the future will be brighter than the uncertain present. If nothing else, I'm pretty sure that Donald Trump cannot be President forever. 

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