Big, big, big thumbs up to "Shattered Glass," the movie about Stephen Glass, the writer for The New Republic who made stuff up. Along with "Spellbound," it's one of my top two movies of the year, no doubt. If you write -- or even just if you read -- it's a great two hours spent, basically right there in The New Republic's newsroom. Rich, compelling drama. But don't take my word for it. Read any review you want. If I felt more ambitious this evening, I'd write up something longer.

But instead of a movie review, how about a Thanksgiving review? Or at least a Thanksgiving review template. I'd like to propose my very own Thanksgiving Ranking System:

There are four key aspects to any Thanksgiving meal.

1. The Food (subcategories: turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce)
2. The People (subcategories: youth, adult, adult-plus)
3. The Conversation (subcategories: current events, sports, all about you)
4. The Aftermath (subcategories: bathroom, leftovers, personal grudges renewed)

Each of the three subcategories that makes up one of the "Magic Four" gets a score between -10 and +10, inclusive. The scores are then added up and divided appropriately to give a score for each of the four categories and then an overall Thanksgiving Day score.

Again, if I felt more ambitious, I'd rate my own Thanksgiving. But I had a good time, and nothing funny happened, so it wouldn't be a very interesting story. Other people who actually have terribly dysfunctional families where holidays are a chore would be better equipped to wring comic value from their Thanksgivings. Mine was solid. Good food, no problems.

Go see "Shattered Glass." Trust me on this one.