The editors of Slate asked their readers how Thanksgiving cooking traditions get passed from one generation to the next. They collected stories and posted them. It seems that in many families, the one who cooks every year has a hard time giving that position up to anyone else. Some even refuse help from those who should be learning how to do it.

My mom doesn't accept much help in the kitchen, holidays or Mondays—not because she doesn't trust others to get it right, but because she just doesn't know how to slow down. Never did. And accept help? She's as likely to do that as she is to ask for it; i.e., not at all. She reminds me of the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, who systematically gets his appendages hacked off in battle but still won't call it a day. Make no mistake, having grown up as one of five girls in an inner-city, working-class home, I'm no stranger to hard work. But there was never a time when we did more work than she did. Ever. Even at 83, I'm not sure it's even possible to outwork my mom. As she's aged, all we can manage is guerrilla warfare.

My mother and grandmother helped me learn the family recipes as soon as I was old enough to be interested, and I've been hosting the family feast for quite a few years now. Now if I could only get my children interested... How about your family? Link

You can enter a picture in National Geographic's annual photo contest until November 30th, but the competition is stiff. See 47 of the most awesome entries so far presented in large size on one page at The Big Picture blog. Link -via Fark

(Image credit: Jay Fine)

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Many people compared this reaction to a television laugh track. My children, who obviously haven't watched enough BBC TV, asked why anyone would eat Brussells sprouts and Christmas crackers for a holiday meal. -via Boing Boing

I live in a bright yellow house in a mostly brown or brick neighborhood, so I am drawn to these colorful neighborhoods around the world. This picture is from Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, South Africa. See all 20 colorful cities at Buzzfeed. Link

Tungo the penguin was found on a beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil unable to eat because his beak had been shattered, probably by a boat propeller. Veterinarians at the local zoo made him a new acrylic beak, fashioned in the shape of the broken pieces of his old beak. Tungo is recovering nicely and is able to eat. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Strange-News/Penguin-Tungo-In-Brazil-Given-Prosthetic-Beak-To-Allow-Him-To-Feed-Properly/Article/201011315820534 (with video) -via Arbroath

Of all the trolls, the worst is the Choles-troll. He is the central character of this illustrated "bedtime story for adults" at The Museum Of Modern Fiction. Link -Thanks, josef lee!

New York City artist Camomile Hixon added some interest to the many missing pet posters she saw by hanging one requesting help with a missing unicorn. Actually, friends helped her post 2,000 of the missing unicorn posters.

“I was travelling back and forth in the subways, and I just noticed the dejection. I’m a pop artist, and I thought –- if I could just make one person smile. I was thinking about ways to do that," she said.

“A unicorn is beyond race, beyond religion. I wanted something that could reach anyone at any age. I thought, if I could just make a handful of businessmen on Wall Street think about unicorns, I will be successful.”

Hixon received 350 phone calls in the first day. She went on to install a hotline and a website for people to report their unicorn sightings. Link to story. Link to website. -via Fortean Times

English Russia has pictures of the offices at the Russian LEGO headquarters. Look who greets you upon entering! They have whimsical LEGO creations in almost every room. I think my favorite may be the monkey. Link -Thanks, fraulein m!

Brian Boyko admired the one-man four-part harmonies of YouTube member trudbol and the four-part one-woman harmonies of gwenatav. They both performed the song "Baby on Board" from the TV show The Simpsons. So in true geeky fashion, he mashed up the two versions of the song and created an eight-part duet.

As it turned out, it wasn’t quite so easy. There were slight differences in timing and tempo which meant I had to alter Gwenatav’s part slightly, cutting out moments of silence so the two would sync up. Since choppy video would be unacceptable, I had to do my best to match up what I could – compounded by the fact that Gwen’s video was recorded in 25fps and Julien’s at 30fps. That said, I’m happy with the results...

Which you can hear at Geeks Are Sexy. Link

In this interactive puzzle from The New York Times, you are presented with the US budget deficits for 2015 and 2030. You are also given a lot of ideas for cutting the budget or raising funds, from which you can pick and choose ways to fix the deficits. Make your choices and watch the savings add up -but remember that someone somewhere pays for every idea. You might not solve the country's financial problems, but you'll learn a lot about where the money goes. Link -via TYWKIWDBI

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David Balboa put together a supercut of movie introductions, 250 in all. No, not the introduction to the movie, but people pointing out who is who and what is what. This becomes hypnotizing as you watch it! How many do you recognize? A complete list is available at Exophrine. Link -via The Litter Box

Oh no! The family will be here anytime and you forgot to cook the turkey! What to do? I don't think the Butterball hotline has the solution you're looking for. What heats up faster than a microwave? Thermite! No, we don't advocate trying this, but you can watch the magic of thermite cook a turkey in under thirty seconds in this video. And yes, they eat it. Link

Skyscrapers are a huge investment to build, are placed on pricey urban real estate, and contain lots of rental space, so you might be surprised that any are completely unused. Some are victims of poor planning; others are abandoned when the area suffers financial decline. Some of the older towers are unsafe due to age or toxic materials. The building shown here is Michigan Central Station in Detroit, built in 1913. See twelve such empty buildings at Web Urbanist. Link -via Rue the Day

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The world's greatest dad (Steve Moseley) installed a marble run all around his son's bedroom. See how he did it at Instructables. Link -via NeatoBambino

CakeWrecks is celebrating the release of the new Harry Potter movie with two posts: one is a collection of terrible Harry Potter cakes, the other a celebration of awesome Harry Potter cakes. If you've never seen a Harry Potter cake at all, you're in for a treat! Link to the wrecks. Link to the best.