Gratitude is a funny thing. If you try to force it, it just feels unearned and cheap. Separating the fake kind from the real kind is worth the extra mental flex. 

This week, as we take off for the Thanksgiving holiday, I’m feeling grateful for the people who read this newsletter and contribute to it. 

This week, state and federal leaders celebrated the holiday by continuing a 36-year tradition of “pardoning” turkeys. On Nov. 21, Gov. Josh Stein gave a reprieve to a pair of turkeys named “Krispy” and “Kreme,” after the iconic doughnut chain founded in Winston-Salem. 

Fun fact: While President Harry Truman received a live turkey in 1947, we cannot confirm that people at the White House didn’t eat it. The tradition of actually not eating the turkey, or giving it a pardon, began with President George H. W. Bush in 1989. 

For more on this year’s lucky turkeys in North Carolina, click below. 

Gov. Josh Stein pardoned two turkeys named “Krispy” and “Kreme.” (USA Today via Reuters)

Cardinal & Pine will be off Thursday and Friday. We hope it’s a restful and pleasant Thanksgiving for you.

Here’s what’s in today’s Cardinal & Pine newsletter: 

Cardinal & Pine reader Randy Coy is responsible for this sparkling view of the Moore Cove Falls in Pisgah Forest. 

Don’t forget to send us your views from NC, folks. 

 (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

From Nov. 27 through Dec. 1—a time typically associated with the kickoff of the holiday shopping season—grassroots groups are planning a big boycott.

As Cardinal & Pine’s Dylan Rhoney reported, the effort—targeting Amazon, Home Depot, and Target—is urging consumers to avoid buying anything from these companies from Thanksgiving on Nov. 27 through Cyber Monday on Dec. 1.

They see these companies as collaborating with or capitulating to the Trump administration. 

“This action is taking direct aim at Target, for caving to this administration’s biased attacks on DEI; Home Depot, for allowing and colluding with ICE to kidnap our neighbors on their properties; and Amazon, for funding this administration to secure their own corporate tax cuts,” the campaign’s website reads. 

Indivisible Charlotte founder and Executive Director Carolyn Erberly told Cardinal & Pine that her organization is encouraging people to support small businesses as part of a local corporate boycott.

“When you’re talking about the big box and the corporation, that removes yourself from your community. And you see directly, when you have the small businesses, how you support each other,” Erberly said. “It’s really important that we spend our dollars there so these businesses can stay afloat, so that we have those options and that we have built that community.” 

For more on this story, click below.

1. Something to actually, really be grateful for in the South. The Living South

“The people standing up to and defending their neighbors from Border Patrol and ICE join a long and proud history in the South—of people who stood up to unjust laws and put themselves in jeopardy to do it.”

2. Activists boycott Rep. Chuck Edwards’ McDonald’s over his support of SNAP cuts. Hendersonville Times News

“A NC civil rights group says it is asking people to boycott US Rep. Chuck Edwards’ fast food restaurants, including McDonald’s, because of his vote to cut food benefits for poor people.”

3. Opinion: Reports reveal shady dealings by N.C.’s legislators and its top judge, but no action has followed. News & Observer

“Two recent reports reveal the scope of corruption infecting the General Assembly and N.C. Supreme Court. They are disturbing, detailed and deserve serious action.”

(Sam Dean/Visit NC)

The word of 2025 is “affordability.” Consumer confidence in the economy is—how should we put this—shaky. A lot of that has to do with the volatile nature of food and energy costs.

Cardinal & Pine has got your back. 

Our contributor, Tyler Francischine, has written a guide to NC holiday trips on the cheap. We’ve got a modestly priced ski resort in Transylvania County, a trip through history in Old Salem, and an off-season romp at the Crystal Coast.

Check it out by clicking below. 

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Thanks for reading. This newsletter was written by Billy Ball. I’m an NC native and journalist. I tend to lean left on opinion, but I lean no way on facts. Today’s edition includes stories from USA Today via Reuters, Dylan Rhoney, and Tyler Francischine. It was edited by Paula Solis.

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