It's Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November the 27th, 2025, and this is Denison Forum's

Daily Article podcast. We're glad you've joined us. Dr. Jim Denison, our CEO and co-founder,

authored today's article. I'm Chris Elkins, narrator. Note, two National Guard members are in critical condition this morning after being shot

near the White House yesterday.

I will respond in tomorrow's Daily article after more is known.

Please join me in praying for them and for all involved in this tragedy.

Thanksgiving today is nearly as late in the year as it can be. Since Congress decreed in

1941 that the holiday be observed on the fourth Thursday in November, it can fall as late as the

28th, but no later. If it seems that the day is too late this year, you could have celebrated

Thanksgiving instead. In 1939, during the Great Depression,

President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday to the third Thursday in November to extend the

Christmas shopping season. Half the states observe the new date, some calling it Franksgiving,

while those in the other half stuck to the traditional

fourth Thursday of the month. Residents of Texas, Colorado, and Mississippi celebrated on both

dates, so there's that option as well. The news is filled with other Thanksgiving trivia

from today's average gathering size, which is seven, and caloric intake, which is

3,150 to 4,500 calories, to holiday travel statistics, to facts about the Macy's Thanksgiving

Day parade, along with the eight infamous balloon incidents, to 61 hot takes to fight about at Thanksgiving. The English word think and

thank are both derived from an ancient Indo-European root, tongue, meaning to feel or think. As I think

about my life and the world, I find abundant reasons for thanks. I'd like to share three of them with you,

each a simple fact inspired by a story in the news. According to astronomers, the universe is cooling

down. Star formation peaked billions of years ago, so the universe is, quote, past its prime,

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