What was this year's dinner argument?

Brother in law adopted a young dog a week ago.

Very nice pitbull that got along well with people and the other dogs at the gathering, including ours. It had been adopted and given up two times in its life already for no reason of its own (emergency in adopted family life then an unexpected passing of the next adopter). It emotionally bonded so quickly to my brother in law.

Issue is, my brother in law is a mess himself. Young with a lot of personal issues, barely home, and not able to commit to taking care the pup. He impulse adopted the dog and really realized that this past week.

He decided this morning to give it back to the shelter. We, along with other family members offered to take the dog instead of giving it up. He's a great dog and only needs a bit of training that is expected with any young pup. Brother in law, stubborn as he is, outright refuses any option other than giving it back to the shelter. No care for the realistic hard chance it will have getting adopted again after being given up for a third time. The pup has a real chance for a good life but no, shelter it must go.

The oven also died so no buns.

Edit: We are planning on getting in contact with the shelter he adopted from to see what our options are if he is returned there. We expect to have to fully adopt with everything that entails. We'll be out some money but the pup will be in an active home instead of a 8x4 cell.

Hopefully there is some thinking done tonight and the pup will be rehomed without the shelter step.

Brother in law, stubborn as he is, outright refuses any option other than giving it back to the shelter.

It's hard to admit you've made such a big mistake. The magnitude of the solution directly relates to the magnitude of the mistake. If you got a jacket that you wind up not liking, no one would be put out if you returned it to the store. He's only stubborn because he's trying to convince himself he didn't fuck up that bad.
- A dog isn't a jacket.
People who treat animals like they're objects belong in a shelter. They should not be allowed to care for pets.
I think is safer for everyone involved that he returns the animal to the shelter and then adopt it from there. It's better legally for everyone.

My sister claimed Bill Gates is making Tyson chicken use crushed up crickets in their breading on their chicken nuggets.

That came up on Alex Jones recently. So, uh, sorry, your sister is likely listening to InfoWars or something adjacent. My condolences.
I'm stealing this. That's fucking hilarious.
That sounds like a great idea. More protein, less carbs, and likely a lower carbon footprint.
I could believe it. Not because of weird antisemitic-adjacent conspiracy theories but because Tyson chicken already tastes like my front yard
Considering chickens eat a lot of bugs, that seems like an excellent way to cut out the middleman
- the middleman
  
  The middlechicken

Mom bullshitting about vaccines. In a house where the owners are both scientists.

Cool, so you guys told her how vaccines work and she totally listened and grew that day in both knowledge and as a person right?
- Lolbruh
My brother does this, the other 5 of his immediate family are in the life sciences.
- My aunts so this, and I feel like I studied STEM in vain.
I should get a small-sized copy of my degree, just so I can slap it down on the table and ask "where's yours then?"

None.

I spend Thanksgiving at home, alone, with my dogs. It is the absolute best.

My kid argued with me about what one sixteenth of a pie looked like when he was serving me. He tried to give me one eighth and I was already full!

If that was the biggest argument that happened, your family is doing alright.
- We are, they are good humans!

Had mine last month (Canada), over at a conservative's uncle's place but things turned unexpectedly...

I was going in expecting a left vs. right kind of political shouting match between my cousins and I against my conservative relatives.

What ended up happening was everyone was unified in a shouting match against my dad... who was the only one convinced that the future generations won't be going to shit if we stay the status quo.

At least both sides can agree on something? Not something productive, but it's something!
won't be going to shit if we stay the status quo.

While proven improvements are good, simply changing things because it sucks right now is not a great idea.

There is no problem so bad that it cannot be made worse, and the cons are banking on you not knowing that.
- Well here's the thing. I find these relatives and I come to a similar conclusion, albeit through different paths. My ideas are that the wealthy elite use labour exploitation and obfuscating it through "technology", to keep their wealth and keep us poor, hungry and easily controlled. My conservative family claims that through some strange brew of government regulations, restrictions to freedom, immigrants, woke education, and that kind of stuff that the wealthy elite use to control us. So (my relatives at least) are actually somewhat reasonable and attentive to my rants and I similarly try to show how I understand them to a point when they talk about trade and exploitation. I have to still explain away their misconceptions, like having to say that 400ppm+ of Carbon is a problem for our planet even if air is 20% oxygen.

Well ours didnt last long, but it was about whether or not gummy bears expand in salt water.

Thankfully the science curriculum of British Columbian universities have settled this already.

Don't leave us hanging! What's the verdict?
- They absorb water through osmosis when sugar is added, and shrink when salt is added
- They shrink accordingly to this
  
  Seems to be a big homeschool experiment
Well, do they?

Post-dinner, boys went downstairs and argued about football bets and whether or not the losers of a card game had to take shots.

Girls upstairs, I'm told and overheard, had a passionate discussion with Grandma about gay people.

One more vote for 'better to be male'

Turkey. Fried or Baked. Baked won, as is right.

Whether or not that song "Lil Boo Thang" is sampling "Best of My Love" by The Emotions.

It is, and I think my mom even realized she was in the wrong, but she kept playing dumb. Mostly because she knew how much it was driving my sister and I batty.

Thankfully it wasn't really an argument, just a goofy conversation.

Mostly because she knew how much it was driving my sister and I batty.

We could be related, you and me. My family lives to needle one another when it's not serious.
Wow just looked up that song. You are 100% right.

Relevant XKCD, just yesterday actually.

I think that actually happened last year!

Whether Petbarn is, or should be, open on Xmas day. My stepson is yelling and stamping his feet, absolutely certain that they are, and if not, they should be, on the off chance that someone needs to buy pet stuff.

Whether we should cook the turkey medium or medium rare. Medium rare won, thank God. /S

Almost had me with that. Glad you decided to put that /S at the end.

Almost got to drop the "well, pass the arsenic, that's natural" line, but the conversation got derailed before it reached that.

I personally like "hungry bears are natural too, but I don't keep any of those of in the kitchen either"

There wasnt one. I just had thanksgiving with my mother and we agree on the impprtant things. The only issue is that a lot of students wanted me to tutor them RIGHT NOW. Nope. Not today. You can go find someone else to help you today.

We don't do thanksgiving over here in the Netherlands, but we DID just elect a bunch of super conservative xenofobes as the largest party, so I'll give you one guess.

I did not have a dinner this year. It was to involve Niagara Falls, but then the car explosion occurred yesterday and the fear of terror deterred any activity today except the flurries that surround me.

my conservative relativemanaged to get through the entire thing with the only argument being her insisting that I have more pie. I am extremely thankful this thanksgiving.

Child 1 said their friend did a thing. Child 2 then started they did that too, but better. Said friend was not present, but somehow child 2 was still trying to compete with them. Smh

Kids, am I right?

Despite the quality of the guests, there wasn't one.

Father in law says Gaza should be turned to glass.

Bit of a late reply: My sister got upset with me because I don't watch the news so I can't be angry and scared with her, while she does and also doom-scrolls, which I keep telling her to stop doing because it's bad for her health to be so stressed out, and she has enough to be stressed about with how badly behaved my nephews are.

It was something about whether a reference was from one movie or another. I don't really remember the specifics, but the food was good and I enjoy not having a dysfunctional family!

You only have dinner once a year?

They probably meant thanksgiving dinner, which they have over a month after the real thanksgiving for some reason