This Weekend: Pick Up a New Thanksgiving Tradition

Feel like this year has melted your brain? Rather than struggling with the mini crossword, pull out this guessing game next time you’re looking for a way to pass a family evening. The twist here is that only monosyllabic words are allowed to help clue in your team — in fact, you get to whack any wordy-pants who gets sesquipedalian in the head with the game’s inflatable “No Stick.” Sound dumb? That’s half the fun.

Channel the irritability you may be feeling this holiday season into pointless arguments — and not the usual kind over who ruined the mashed potatoes or America. Instead, this card game (which can be played by 10 people at a time, though you’d need a really big table to social distance), asks you to create fighters by choosing from a random hand and squaring off against another player to explain why your Sasquatch armed with dynamite would beat their George W. Bush with long metal claws. You can also play online.

Holiday gifting starts now with something for you. ButcherBox is treating you to 2 grass-fed, grass-finished New York strips and 4 top sirloins when you place your first order.

Your ButcherBox subscription is a customizable selection of high-quality meat and seafood delivered right to your door on your schedule. Plus, at less than $6 a meal, it's an amazing value. Need another reason to celebrate? ButcherBox believes in doing better for their customers, farmers, animals and the planet. And they’re giving you free steak! What’s better than that?

As anyone who’s ever tried to eat the inside of their jack o’ lantern knows, the key to pumpkin is the flavors with which you pair it. Here, it’s fantastically savory and buttery, mixed with garlic, cream, paprika, nutmeg and shallots. The finishing touch is a little fried rosemary, which makes this 15-minute dish feel like something special.

2. Mashed Pumpkin

OK, nothing is ever going to knock mashed potatoes out of our pantheon of comfort foods. But this mashed pumpkin recipe is a pretty close second, with parmesan and garlic adding some sizzle to the dish. As a bonus, this orange mash looks more beautiful than plain old beige taters.

3. Pumpkin Nachos

As Dr. Ian Malcolm says in Jurassic Park: “[They] were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” Did the world need pumpkin nachos ? Sure, why not. If anyone complains that it’s not authentic Mexican food, you can tell them people in Mesoamerica have been eating pumpkins since the days of the Olmecs. This recipe is a filling (and colorful) veggie take on nachos that features little cubes of pumpkin amid all the chips and melted cheese.

4. Pumpkin Wontons

Sure, you could make a pumpkin pie like a normal person. But it’s a weird year, so why not try these individual pumpkin wontons instead? These little fried pockets of heaven spice up canned pumpkin with vanilla, cinnamon and ginger, as well as a butterscotch sauce that takes your squash up a notch.

The coolest new streaming platform is finally here. With CuriosityStream you can dive into history and explore nonfiction films and series. Interested in something else? They have thousands of documentaries on topics ranging from food to space exploration to animals. Best of all, for a limited time, OZY readers can spark their curiosity and get a full year of access for only $1.25 per month with an annual plan using code OZY.

To celebrate the return of The Carlos Watson Show, OZY’s partnering with Hulu to bring you a dose of reality with some of the most important cultural figures of our time telling the untold struggle behind their success. Find out why the LA Times calls Defining Moments With OZY “ the most important show of 2020.” Out today — the story of talent, ambition, suffering and luck that made John Legend. Watch now on Hulu.

What do Cuban and Arab cultures have in common? Well, for starters, a song. “Ya Habibi Ta’ala” (or in English, “Come, My Darling”) is a classic Middle Eastern love ballad that actually has its roots in Cuban folk music. Through the lens of music, the filmmakers explore how cultures borrow from and build on each other. You can watch the movie’s premiere online at the 2020 Havana Habibi Festival Saturday.

3. Fireball

We prefer reality when it’s narrated by maverick German filmmaker Werner Herzog, so hopefully, he’ll keep making movies forever. His latest, Fireball, dives into the fiery world of meteorites. He’s fascinated by how meteorites have caused cataclysms, how they brought the molecules that make up human beings … and how the heck we deal with the uncontrollable possibility of death from above.

While staying inside is what’s best, at some point you’ll probably be stir crazy enough to brave an outdoor winter run. Watch your step in rain or snow, and definitely don’t venture out without a mask — we like this UnderArmour one, or this easily adjustable KEEN model, which comes in a few different colors and patterns.

2. Under $100 Gym

It’s probably time to start taking your home workouts seriously, given that outdoor exercise is about to get a lot less feasible in some climates. We like to stick to the basics, but also give ourselves variety to keep everything from getting too tedious — try tricking out your home set-up with a few different options, like this $30 ProsourceFit Doorway pull-up bar, a pair of these $30 dumbbells with a $30 yoga mat to cover your bases of a) flexibility and b) gettin’ swole.