DEBORAH SIMMONS: Thanksgiving leftovers, other still tasty tidbits

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

So you ate too much of the turkey and the trimmings, and none of your NFL teams won on Thursday. Don’t hold it in.

Loosen your belt a notch, and don’t feel the least bit guilty about snagging the last slice sweet potato pie topped with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream and washing that down with a glass of cold milk — not 2 percent or low-fat milk. I mean whole, Grade A, homogenized milk. After all, we’ve been schooled that the Native Americans and Pilgrims shared a feast on the first Thanksgiving.

Now come, the leftovers — the news bits missed while engaged in tummy (and family) delights.

Colt vs. the Colts

Robert Lee Griffin III has been benched for Sunday’s Washington Redskins game in Indianapolis. So it’s going to be backup QB Colt McCoy leading the charge.

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While you gridiron followers probably knew that was bound to happen, the fact that it has holds a beacon of hope, and that is that the Redskins will at least prove a thing of two to the New York Giants come Dec. 14. and make a similar (winning) performance against another NFC East rival, the Philadelphia Eagles, later in December.

As for RG3, his wife needs to take a cue from Lauren Holly’s character, Cindy, in the 1999 film “Any Given Sunday.” Cindy is married to veteran QB Cap Rooney (Dennis Quaid), and she is relentlessly unsympathetic about his physical and mental situation. When Cap mentions retiring to Cindy, she smacks him across the face. It was a stunner.

RG3 needs a wake-up call if he wants to p-l-a-y in the NFL.

The Obamas’ pie throw down

Want to know what the first family gobbled on for Thanksgiving?

Turkey, ham, two kinds of stuffing, sweet and regular potatoes, and six different kinds of pie, The Associated Press reported.

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Six. Different. Kinds. Of. Pie.

Give me Simmons Sweet Potato Pie, my Great-Grandma Eula’s recipe, and I am a happy sister.

But six different kinds of pie on a table where Michelle Obama is the Lady of the House?

Have mercy!

You can imagine what Mrs. Obama is going to be saying over the course of the next week or so because of the Obama Family Pie Eating Contest.

“I Like to Move it, Move it” — and with her seemingly unyielding healthy food/fitness regimen, Barack and the girls had better follow her instructions.

I hope her mom, grandma in chief Marian Robinson, who is 77 years old, gets a pass, however.

Give thanks to yourself

This time of year, giving to aid the last, the least and the lost is front and center.

Volunteering in soup kitchens and handing out foodstuffs are opportune times for students who have to fulfill community service requirements, and celebs and politicians get a kick out of the photo ops, and parents can teach by example.

We also start thinking about donations to nonprofits, faith-based groups and other organizations, sometimes thinking of our own personal tax-cut bottom lines before the clock strikes 12 on Jan. 1.

And that’s all OK.

It’s also OK to thank yourself.

Everyday.

A few words from a wise man, a Native American leader of the Shawnee named Tecumseh who died in 1813: “When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.”

• Deborah Simmons can be reached at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.