Wish I'd Thought of This

I'm still not sure how I feel about knowing the end of the story first. 

If you don't mind starting with the happy ending,  I recommend this very engaging
Thanksgiving Day Live Blog I came across on the New York Times Web site.

 I have nothing but respect for a person who can make Thanksgiving Dinner and blog about it at the same time. Did he plan an approach to the assignment before starting or was it all spontaneous? Did he do any prep work, like gathering links that he thought might be useful?

  There is so much more going on than just the words. There are photos with captions, multiple links -- including a related article with a guy who phoned while the writer was cooking. There's even a brief appearance by a guest blogger helping out in the kitchen. The piece has plenty of personality and recipes.

Live blogging is a great format for covering breaking new. What makes this piece so intriguing to me is that it's a feature -- in the food section -- and a fun read. Maybe it's the universal theme -- everybody has had something go wrong with Thanksgiving Dinner -- that makes it interesting.

I did not see this on Thanksgiving Day (I was too busy in the kitchen to log on). I wonder, if I had seen it live, if  this guy's Thanksgiving would have been compelling enough to draw me away from my own drama. I don't think so, but that's just me.

With installments running for nearly 12 hours, it was a clever way for NYTimes.Com  to entice viewers to come back for more on a holiday when traffic may have been lighter than usual.
From a labor standpoint, I wonder whether the writer was paid double-time for working on a holiday.