THANKSGIVING REDUX

Instead of writing a traditional holiday editorial, the LAT decided to publish highlights from its Thanksgiving editorials of the last 125 years. Some are humorous (from 1912: "pumpkin pie is the one thing that a French chef cannot cook. The pastry part is all right, but "de pumpkin" is flabby and flat, and resembles sweetened sawdust more than anything else."), while others are quite serious (from 1943: "For years before 1941… peace was a standing item on our Thanksgiving agenda. But if we had known then what we know now — that the enemies of civilization had long been plotting our destruction and were ready to strike — would we have called it peace?) but they're all an interesting glimpse into what the country's mood may have been like on the fourth thursday of November throughout the years.