IHT: Meanwhile: The dinde is dandy, so let's give thanks: "Le Jour de Merci Donnant was started by a group of pilgrims (P�lerins) who fled from l'Angleterre before the McCarran Act to found a colony in the New World (le Nouveau Monde) where they could shoot Indians (les Peaux-Rouges) and eat turkey (dinde) to their hearts' content. They landed at a place called Plymouth (subsequently a voiture Americaine) in a wooden sailing ship named the Mayflower, or Fleur de Mai, in 1620. But while the P�lerins were killing the dindes, the Peaux-Rouges were killing the P�lerins, and there were several hard winters ahead for both of them.
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The only way the Peaux-Rouges helped the P�lerins was when they taught them how to grow corn (mais). The reason they did this was because they liked corn with their P�lerins.
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In 1623, after another harsh year, the P�lerins' crops were so good that they decided to have a celebration and give thanks because more mais was raised by the P�lerins than P�lerins were killed by the Peaux-Rouges.
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Every year on le Jour de Merci Donnant, parents tell their children an amusing story about the first celebration.
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It concerns a brave capitaine named Miles Standish (known in France as Kilom�tres Deboutish) and a shy young lieutenant named Jean Alden. Both of them were in love with a flower of Plymouth named Priscilla Mullens (no translation). The vieux capitaine said to the jeune lieutenant:
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'Go to the damsel Priscilla (Allez tr�s vite chez Priscilla), the loveliest maiden of Plymouth (la plus jolie demoiselle de Plymouth). Say that a blunt old captain, a man not of words but of action (un vieux Fanfan la Tulipe), offers his hand and his heart - the hand and heart of a soldier. Not in these words, you understand, but this, in short, is my meaning."