A gratitude list, from Thanksgiving football to flush toilets

I've been writing newspaper columns for nearly 40 years. I've been writing this column (not this specific one, but the Sunday Daily Republic column in general) for nearly 25 years. For nearly a half-century, I've been able to do one thing: Read a calendar.

There are 52 Sundays per year and it's difficult to come up with 52 good column ideas (which won't surprise anyone who regularly reads what I write). There are, however, some obvious choices: Holidays.

Some are better than others. It's hard (but not impossible) to find a clever topic related to Arbor Day or even Valentine's Day (I've written the "I hate Valentine's Day" column and the "Mrs. Brad loves those awful chalky heart candies" columns).

The next holiday on the schedule? Fairly simple. Thanksgiving is not only one of the greatest holidays in America (ranked No. 2 by your intrepid author in yet another column, 10 years ago), it's a great time to express gratitude. And the Sunday before Thanksgiving is a great time for a columnist to reflect on gratitude and offer up some things for which we should be thankful.

So, here goes. Here are 15 sometimes-overlooked things for which we should be thankful in 2025:

• NFL games on Thanksgiving. We're now in the three-game era, but for most of our lives, Thanksgiving featured two games: A morning game in Detroit, and afternoon game in Dallas. How many other holiday sports traditions are there? Maybe NBA games at Christmas. Maybe the final round of the U.S. Open men's golf tournament on Father's Day. Thanksgiving is better. When I was 10, the Lions hosted a Thanksgiving morning game, the Cowboys hosted the afternoon game. When I was 60, same thing. A great tradition.
• We can stream music and podcasts on our phones  A music service gives us access to a library of songs that is 10,000 times greater than any of us – even the most devoted musicophile – could collect. I often take this modern miracle for granted.
• We still listen to the same 100 or so songs, because as much as we'd like to say we have diverse tastes, most of us have narrow tastes. That's fine. Enjoy what you enjoy.
• Grocery stores have virtually every food you need. Fresh vegetables. Good meat. Canned foods, boxed foods, snacks, healthy food. They also have paper plates, pens, shampoo. And we can put all those things in carts with wheels that we dutifully return to their corrals after using. We may (and do) complain about costs, but think how life would be without a grocery store nearby.
• Even when we have something wrong with us medically, the other 99.99% of our body  functions correctly. How does my leg know how to step onto a sidewalk without me thinking about it? How does my kidney know how to function correctly? How does my skin repair itself when I get a cut? It's amazing.
• Cars last decades now, not just 100,000 miles. I expect my cars to go 300,000 miles, which was unfathomable even a generation ago.
• Showers.
• Egg cartons haven't really been improved. They work perfectly.
• Winter and summer last just long enough that many of us are ready for a change when it comes.
• Flush toilets exist.
• We can wave our credit card by a machine and it somehow works.
• Our body sleeps daily and keeps functioning when we're unconscious. Isn't that amazing?
• We can communicate with medical professionals by our computers. There's still plenty wrong with medicine, but being able to ask our doctor a basic, non-emergency question via a website is a tremendous step.
• Top Ramen, the most reliable food ever.
• When I need a column idea for the Sunday before the fourth Thursday in November, I can write about gratitude.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.