REVIEW OF THANKSGIVING DINNER AT THE ISCC (2023)

Thanksgiving is over for this year - thankfully. While it was once one of my favorite holidays, these days it just brings to mind minimum expectations of the quality and quantity of holiday fare of days gone by. As is the norm of late, I was not disappointed in my significantly lowered expectations - and this year it came with a twist...

The ISCC Thanksgiving meal menu consisted of:

Turkey slice
Stuffing
Mashed potatoes and gravy
Green beans
Cranberry sauce
Pumpkin pie w/whipped cream(?)
(2) Slices white bread

Absolutely nothing wrong with the Turkey, mashed potatoes/gravy cranberry sauce - except maybe there wasn't as much as a typical American would expect (then again, we do eat a lot on Thanksgiving). On the other hand, the stuffing had the consistency of drywall mud, and tasted little better. It was almost as if the ingredients weren't mixed completely, and it wasn't baked completely through. Couldn't stomach that at all.

Next - how in the world does someone screw up canned green beans? They tasted almost toxic, like wet paint would taste. Finally, while the pumpkin pie tasted as it normally does in prison (synthetic, with a cardboard crust), the so-called whipped cream had the look and consistency of - well, let's just say that it was off color and the consistency was... organic.

To make matters worse, ISCC Food Service staff failed to send food trays to some prisoners who were to receive "in-house" meals (on their housing unit) due to medical/mobility issues (including me). While unit (F Block) staff - supervised by Corporal Pearson - did make a number of attempts to have food service deliver the meals over a period of several hours, it finally took a telephone call to (my) family - who then contacted the ISCC Shift Commander - to 'motivate' food service staff to send the trays to the unit. Thank you to both Cpl. Pearson and the shift commander for your work on this issue.

All in all, this Thanksgiving wasn't as bad as I had expected, and as always, I do recognize there are others who have it far much worse than do I. There is much to be thankful for - including (but certainly not limited to) the fact that I received an email from someone I consider a friend - a vegetarian - who I hadn't heard from in months. She doesn't eat turkey on Thanksgiving and despite that, she is a very intelligent, centered and happy person. How that is possible I have no idea.

Maybe vegetarianism is something I should look into before next Thanksgiving... probably not.

Merry Christmas ya'll!