Thanksgiving Host Hats

Somebody has to host. Somebody has to brine the bird at six in the morning, find eleven matching chairs, referee the stuffing-versus-dressing question for the thirtieth year running, and stand between the mashed potatoes and chaos. That person deserves more than a thank-you on the way out the door. This year the job got harder. The midterms land on November 3 and Thanksgiving dinner lands on November 26, which gives the country twenty-three days to cool off before everyone sits down at the same table. NO POLITICS AT THE TABLE stopped being a joke somewhere around the second week of October. It is a house rule now, and this collection gives you three ways to wear it before anyone takes their coat off. The rest is the honest comedy of hosting: the gravy that is emphatically homemade, the second stuffing that is not being made, the turkey resting under foil while the cook does the same, and the thirty-four-year-old with a mortgage who is still seated at the kids table. Set in Archivo Black, Alfa Slab One and PT Serif across cranberry, spruce, khaki and stone, with a couple arched like varsity letters nobody ever awarded them.