How was your Thanksgiving?  No matter what you did, there are over a thousand transgender Latin Americans in Italy who can top you – and who wouldn’t enjoy that?  What if I told you they had lunch with Pope Francis?  Oh, did I mention that many of them were prostitutes?  A Pope hanging out with hookers – nothing unusual about that!  After all, if it was good enough for Jesus…  As we previously reported, Francis recently signed an edict for trans people to have more rights within the church.  It’s all about baby steps.  The Pope broke bread with the group on the Catholic Church’s World Day of the Poor – proving that the Catholic Church thinks about the poor precisely one day a year!  The large luncheon was held in the papal audience hall.  While perusing the photos of Franny and the hookers eating, I couldn’t help but notice that the tables were laden with large bottles of Coca-Cola.  Product placement?  Well, someone had to pay for that lunch, which included cannelloni filled with spinach and ricotta, meatballs, and tiramisu.  If there’s one thing I’m sure of, hookers enjoy something sweet after their meatballs!

Meanwhile Stateside, the 96^th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade telecast delivered the largest ratings EVER – and that’s also counting when people had only 2 channels to choose from!  Believe it or not, 28.5 million people tuned into NBC, Peacock, and a few other platforms.  But why?  To see Bell Biv DeVoe?  Brandy?  Miss America?  My pal Sheryl Lee Ralph?  Or Cher?  My money’s on Cher.  She “performed” her latest single, “DJ Play a Christmas Song”, and she almost knew enough lyrics to make the lipsynching look authentic.  But I don’t say that disparagingly.  To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever performed live at the parade throughout these 96 years…and Cher should know!

More fascinating to me was watching Dolly Parton at the Cowboys-Commanders halftime show dressed as a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.  While her entire body was encased in a flesh-colored sequin compression garment, she still looked pretty good.  Of course, she too was lipsynching, which amusingly included her patter between songs.  What really concerned me was that she was holding onto the set for dear life whenever she took a step.  Then again, she is 77 – the same age as Cher.  The last thing we need on Thanksgiving is for one of our divas to break a hip!