For those of you unlucky enough to be reading this from your workplace today, I applaud you. Many in the workforce are already in Thanksgiving celebration mode, but I felt it was necessary to come in and inform you of some serious and not-so-serious Thanksgiving risks. Whether you like it or not.
- A common mistake during Thanksgiving preparations is people believing they can cook. Regular Joe’s turn into suburban Tom Colicchio’s and many times, this brings about two major risks: fire and more fire. Fire not only from one’s oven or stovetop, but also from the ol’ deep fryer. In recent years deep frying a turkey has spread in popularity from the Southern United States to other regions and with that, the number of calls the fire department responds to and the number of trips to the emergency room has increased exponentially. The following shows a family of geniuses deep frying their turkey on a wooden deck and using water to extinguish a grease fire instead of simply turning off the propane.
- Speaking of turkey, another Thanksgiving risk includes excessive overeating. Some reports even claim that one day of turkey, stuffing and continuous snacking can amount to 3,000 to 4,500 calories. That’s a lot, considering you didn’t jog on over to the festivities at Uncle Gary’s house, 13 miles away.
- And what goes better with overeating than excessive drinking? Let’s not forget to add alcohol calories to those glutinous food calories. Upon researching this, I was horrified to find out that one glass of red wine amounts to approximately 95 calories. Great.
- On a more serious note, alcohol-related accidents soar during the Thanksgiving holiday. According to the National Safety Commission, Thanksgiving is the most traveled holiday period of the year with almost 90% of those traveling doing so by car. During the 2008 Wednesday-through-Sunday holiday time period, 389 occupants of passenger vehicles were killed in car crashes while thousands more were injured.
- Finally, let us not forget the risk of the all-too-popular family feud. When you combine the stress of the holidays with deadly grease fires, aunt Nancy’s loudmouthed boyfriend, your brother’s temper-tantrum-prone three-year-old, 15 other people (half of which you haven’t seen since last Thanksgiving) and enormous amounts of food and alcohol, there’s bound to be an entertaining argument or two. And if you’re lucky enough, grandma will have one too many hot toddy’s and tell you all how she really feels.
Thanksgiving . . . high risk, high reward.