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But this year, the performance feels different. The pardon stands on one end of the cultural table, loud and ceremonial, while the rest of Thanksgiving sits on the other end, quieter and lighter than before. Turkeys are cheaper, appetites are shrinking, and the national feast is no longer quite the binge it once was. Somehow, everything around the ritual has changed, and the ritual itself has stayed exactly the same — which might be the most American thing about it.
