Day 30: Happy day of the turkey, you beautiful people you!

(Illustration courtesy of Hatrobot)

Gobble gobble! It's Thanksgiving! -- a wonderful holiday celebrating that momentous occasion in American history, when the Pilgrims and the Indians sat down at a dinner table and ate stuffing and turkey on a cold, winter evening. A dinner that ushered in an unheralded era of peace and trust between the immigrants and the Native Americans, in which the guys from overseas totally didn't kill all the natives and steal their homeland, wherein they've spent the last century bandying their sports team names with offensive titles like "Redskins." Oh... wait, I guess that is what happened. Uhhhhhhhh.... Happy Thanksgiving!

On that note, I've picked the absolute perfect topic to discuss on this, the day of turkey meat. And that topic is J.D. Salinger.

I've been reading an oral history of him over the past few weeks, and I'm happy to report that it's quite excellent. Admittedly, the main reason I checked out "Salinger" -- written by David Shields and Shane Salerno -- is that Salinger, along with F. Scott Fitzgerald, is one of my favorite authors of the 20th century. Everything he wrote, every line and word and sentence, carried with it a weight that I'd honestly having a hard time describing, other than that everything he wrote seemed purposeful. He never used big, fancy show-offy words, and yet it's possible to read something he wrote and inherently take from it a character's emotions and thought-process.

What I love about Salinger's writing is that it so clearly comes from a man who is deeply, irrevocably depressed and filled with existential grief and anguish, and yet there's never a point in his writing where his characters just come out and say, "I'm doing this because I'm sad." To the untrained reader, The Catcher in the Rye is just some stupid book about an angsty teen who can't get laid. You actually have to be in Holden Caulfield's shoes, to wade yourself in a deep period of misery and depression, to truly understand just how brilliant that book of his is. (And of course, that's why a Catcher in the Rye book could never, ever in a million years work if it was put in the hands of dumbass Hollywood producers, who would no doubt reduce Holden Caulfield to a grunge-listener emo kid who finds true love at the zoo one day, and naturally, Holden would be played by James Franco.)

So yes, I went into this "Salinger" book purely out of curiosity. I wanted to know just how his soul had gotten so tormented in the first place, and to know just what the hell he did with his life in the fifty-plus years after he wrote Catcher. On the second front, I can't really tell you because I'm only a fraction into it. However, I can say that the book does spell out how Salinger became the way he was, which was that he enlisted in the army and fought heavily during World War II. What's really fascinating, though, is that the primary reason Salinger enlisted was because he felt that being in combat would improve the quality of his writing. As hard as it is to believe, J.D. Salinger more or less sought out the thing in his life that made him so sullen and world-weary. He joined a war to improve his craft.

And there were other neat tidbits I learned. For instance, Salinger was indeed heart-broken. But... did you know that the girl he first fell in love with was the daughter of a famous playwright who was once courted by Orson Welles, and that that same girl left Salinger in the middle of World War II for Charlie Chaplin, even though Chaplin was like forty years older than her? I sure as crap didn't know that, and I'm guessing you didn't either. So don't lie and say that you did. I'm on to you...

Anyway, Salinger may not have lived an extraordinarily star-studded life, punctuated with hundreds of encounters with other famous people (like, say, Salman Rushdie). But the major events in his life were legitimately interesting, and he himself was so rarely spotted anywhere that it's always neat to read about people's faint, almost-meetings with the guy. Part of the allure of Salinger is that he carries with him this incredible aura of mystery. After all, we're talking about a guy who the general public knows almost nothing about, other than that he wrote a famous book a very long time ago and died not that long ago.

If you're not a book-dork like me or if you've never connected with Salinger's writing, there's a chance "Salinger" might not interest you. (You may, however, be interested in the recent documentary about him that this book accompanies, which has the same name.) To those who have even a passing fascination in this noted recluse/book-writer, "Salinger" is something I can quite earnestly highly recommend.

So, good job history book! Now, let's see which of these NBA players would and would not be fit to appear in a purely hypothetical short story written by J.D. Salinger. Commence blurbage!

• LeBron James returned to Cleveland to play the Cavaliers on Wednesday. And for their own sake, I really hope the Cavaliers' fans didn't boo LeBron's brains out like they have the previous few times he's played there. (It can't hurt.) Anywho, LeBron is at his best when he's motivated, and that was certainly the case tonight, with King James putting up 28 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists in a Miami win. He's not bad.
• Tobias Harris missed Orlando's game with an ankle injury, which allowed Glen Davis to catapult into the starting lineup, where he promptly scored 19 points and had 5 rebounds. It's pretty hard to pin which of these dudes will have the better fantasy year, as they're both vying -- along with Andrew Nicholson -- for minutes at the four position. Unless a trade opens the door for one or two of those three to excel, Harris, Nicholson and Davis are just okay adds at the moment.
• Brandon Bass had 6 points and 13 rebounds for the Celtics. The unsung veteran power forward is quietly having a solid season in Beantown -- especially for those in rotisserie leagues. He's hardly a must-own player, but there are certainly worse options out there at the big man spots.
• Goran Dragic continued his fantasy rampage on Wednesday, scoring 31 points and handing out 10 assists against the Blazers. Dragic is benefiting greatly from the absence of Eric Bledsoe, who's currently out with a shin injury; he's averaging 23 points and 9 assists a game over his last 5 games. Yeah, his production will tumble when Bledsoe come back, and there's the passing chance he could get traded, but Dragic should be an awesome fantasy commodity so long as he's suiting up for the Phoenix Suns.
• Channing Frye was just awesome, putting up 25 points on 10-12 shooting with 9 rebounds, 3 three's and 2 blocks. This should be the part where I tell you how amazing Frye is and that you should totally pick him up. But... meh. I mean, he is worth picking up. No doubt about it. But Frye, and I say this as someone who likes him, is an incredibly inconsistent player and will, at any given point, completely fail on you when you really need him. So yes, own him, but do so with the asterisk that Reetae here thinks he'll be disappointing 30% of the time you own him.
• Brandon Knight was terrible against the Wizards, going 2-12 from the floor and finishing with 7 point, 5 assists, 4 rebounds and 5 turnovers. I'm a big fan of Brandon Knight, and I do believe that if given the chance and if his health permits, I think he can be a terrific player in Milwaukee. But I'm not going to piss down your back and tell you it's raining, because sweet Jesus has he been awful in his first three games since returning from an injury: 5-27 shooting from the floor with 16 assists and 15 turnovers. And, to top it all off, he apparently aggrivated his hamstring towards the end of last night's game, so he's back to being day-to-day again. After saying all that, Knight is a very hard sell, and for your own good, you might be better off ignoring me and steering clear of him and his numerous faults. But damn it, I believe in this guy, and I do see the light at the end of the tunnel. He's not worth owning now, but he could be and should be by the end of the year... I hope. (Now watch as he misses the next 30 games with an injury.)
• Jeremy Lin bruised his knee in the first quarter of the Rockets' game Wednesday and did not return. Consider him questionable to help you much the rest of the week.
• Even with Kyle Korver out with a rib injury, DeMarre Carroll mustered only 4 points and 2 rebounds for the Hawks. My eyebrows were raised pretty high not that long ago, when Carroll randomly become one of the most added players in fantasy basketball thanks to a couple nice rebounding outings. Hopefully, nights like this will service as a reminder to fantasy owners to stay as far away as possible from DeMarre Carroll.
• Joakim Noah had 13 points and 5 rebounds against the Pistons on Wednesday. That's not an atrocious line, but Noah's numbers are nonetheless way down from where they were a year ago. The most puzzling of his drop-offs is in the blocks department, where Noah isn't even averaging a whole block a game. And for a guy who was supposed to be the defensive shot-blocking anchor of a lot of fantasy teams, that's a big deal. Despite the rough start, Noah is in line to be a much better player from here on out, what with their best player being lost for the season and all.