🦃✨How to fix your Turkey Day food coma

It’s Wednesday, Boston.

🦃 It’s also just about Thanksgiving! For those of you who are sticking around Mass., the Globe put together a very helpful list of what’s closed on Thanksgiving this year, including which grocery stores are open and the MBTA’s holiday schedule.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• COVID numbers are ticking … down

• A local marching band makes it big

• Your “Dancing with the Stars” winner

Up first…

THINGS TO DO

Holiday markets, hot dogs, and horns

Happy early Thanksgiving, B-Siders! We hope you get some time to log off, relax, and recharge this week. But if you thought we’d let you go without a hearty list of things to do before you do … you’re wrong!

Let’s dive in:

⛸️ Lace up your skates. The Boston Common Frog Pond — arguably the most iconic skating spot — just dropped its opening date for ice skating season: Friday, Nov. 30 at 10 a.m. Admission is $10, and you can rent skates for $15. 

🎁 Skip the big-box store Black Friday buzz and shop local. We’ll shout-out the SoWa Winter Fest market, starting Nov. 29, and Merriest Month at Bow Market, starting Nov. 30; but find a more complete list of holiday markets here.

🎺 Ring in the holiday season … with tubas. If you haven’t heard of Tuba Christmas, just imagine all your fave holiday tunes if they were literally only horns. Head to Downtown Crossing on Nov. 30 at noon to hear ‘em.

🌭 Guzzle a gourmet glizzy. (And try to say that five times fast.) Cambridge’s Little Donkey recently kicked off a new promotion called “Donkey hour.” Every Friday from 4 to 5 p.m., expect not-so-average hot dog specials and $2 oysters. 

🏓 Cure your holiday hangover. With ping pong, of course! From Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, SPIN is offering a special $10 hourly rate on their tables, and a slew of $10 and under bites and sips.

❤️ Remember the reason for the season. Namely: Giving back. This fab calendar by Boston Cares makes it easy to find places and events to volunteer around the city.

🏒 Mark your calenders for this year’s Beanpot. Tickets to the Women’s Beanpot (a.k.a. the longstanding hockey tourney between BU, BC, Northeastern, and Harvard) go on sale Nov. 29 at 10 a.m. Grab tickets here, and find info about the Men’s Beanpot here.

🚲 Sweat it out at a midnight workout sesh. Yes, we said midnight. Rev’d Indoor Cycling is offering midnight classes at its studios on Friday, Nov. 29. These 45-minute rides are the perfect way to wake up from your Turkey Day coma.

🦃 Hang with your (chosen) family. Whether you want to escape your fam or just hang out with some queer pals, our faves at Drawdown Brewing in JP have got you covered with a “Queersgiving” hang on Nov. 29.

🎤 Feed your soul (sans turkey). We’re talking about “Soul Food,” a performance by local R&B singer Miranda Rae at The Rockwell in Somerville on Nov. 30. Make sure your soul comes hungry.

📺 Cozy up with a Thanksgiving flick. If you’re looking for recs, the Globe has a great list of Thanksgiving TV episodes. And this list by People is full of fab movie options, including “Thanksgiving,” a horror flick set in Mass. 

QUICK QUESTION

🦃 What’s the ultimate Thanksgiving dish?

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

😷 Boston COVID numbers are ticking … down. Yup, it’s true. Compared to 2020-2023, the area is seeing “remarkably” low levels of COVID-19 in this month’s waste water tests — 63 percent lower than in the same period last year. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re not going to see a spike later in the season (especially after all of our Thanksgiving indoor mingling) since COVID doesn’t follow a strict seasonal pattern. But even so, some local doctors are feeling pretty optimistic about the numbers.

🗳️ Mass. voter data from the November election is IN. And our total voter turnout is *drumroll* … 3,512,866 voters! That’s our second highest voter turnout ever, trailing No. 1 2020 by about 150,000 voters. That might sound like a pretty insignificant change, but according to the Secretary of State’s office, the turnout reflects a major national trend: A participation drop in cities with larger minority populations (think: Chelsea, Everett and Malden) and a rise in turnout from rural and suburban areas.

🏃🏾‍♀️ Eight years later, this Boston Marathon winner is getting her bread. Buzunesh Deba is one of about 89 B.A.A. race finishers who will benefit from the org’s new initiative to send proper prize money to athletes whose results were impacted by competitors’ doping. Prior to now, the B.A.A. was waiting on payouts until cheating runners … gave the prizes back. Needless to say, this will be a lot quicker. In Deba’s case, it’ll finally get her a long awaited $100,000 — the program’s biggest payout.

👀 You might see some local faces in the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. This year, UMass Amherst’s marching band is shipping down to NYC to perform in the iconic parade, a role they were selected for out of over 100 bands across the country. The band first learned about their inclusion last year, and over the past few weeks, they’ve been rehearsing a ton for their performance on a makeshift red Macy’s star on an intramural field. But as for the song they’ll play? It’s still under wraps.

ONE LAST THING

Your “Dancing with the Stars” winner is …

… Joey Graziadei! A.k.a last season’s “Bachelor.”

Out of the five finalists in the DWTS finale, three had New England ties. But unfortunately, none of them managed to nab the mirrorball.

That said, our local faves did slay. Former Pats wide receiver Danny Amendola officially placed fifth, but unofficially won the night with a truly iconic performance as Ken from “Barbie.” Stephen Nedoroscik, a.k.a. “pommel horse guy,” came in fourth, and continued to impress with his wild acrobatic skills. And our girl Ilona Maher was robb— we mean, came in second, with a fabulous jive and a powerful last dance to “Femininomenon.”

But at the end of the day, we can’t deny Graziadei did a seriously impressive job, between a spicy cha-cha and a very fun, tennis-themed freestyle. He keeps proving that he is the ultimate “Bachelor.” Lucky Kelsey.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🪩 Thanks for reading! No matter who has the mirrorball, Danny Amendola as Ken wins in my heart.

👋 Quick programming note: B-Side is now officially on Thanksgiving break! Gia and Emily will be back with the regular newsletter on Monday, but don’t be surprised if our team drops a few treats in your inbox in the meantime.

🚗 The results are in: 43% of B-Siders say that they’re traveling by car this Thanksgiving, with another 36% not traveling at all. One reader said: “I'm spending Thanksgiving with my husband's ex-wife's family, hosted by his ex-MIL. Wish me luck!” OMG. Good luck.

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