Kickstart: A twist on traditions

By this time tomorrow, most of us in the U.S. will be on our Thanksgiving holiday break. But of course, this will be a very unusual Thanksgiving, with people told to stay home and limit contact with people outside their own households.

Many traditions will continue, but with a twist. New York will still have a parade, but one that will cover just one block, with no crowds and pre-taped performances.

Utility vehicles are pulling balloons, rather than hundreds of volunteers, and those balloons are being filmed in advance and dropped into the official TV coverage.

In Detroit, there are still new floats making their debut in the Thanksgiving parade. Up until early November, you could even visit The Parade Co. to see artists sculpting figures out of expanded polystyrene. But the parade itself will be limited to just a few blocks, and with no crowds allowed to view it. Just TV cameras.

One thing that will probably still be true this year? The Detroit Lions will be a disappointment.


I’m going to need someone from a film company to confirm that this actually works, but it seems that people using the social media platform TikTok are claiming that you should store food cling film wrap in the freezer.

The idea, as written up on the website Mashed, is that when it’s stored in the freezer, film is easier to work with. It doesn’t cling to itself, so you’re less frustrated when wrapping up those Thanksgiving leftovers.

A quick Google search points out that this is not new. It shows up every few years as new people turn to freezer storage. Mashed quotes another publication as claiming: “The reason this hack works is because the cold helps get rid of static, which in turn makes it a lot easier for you to get your hands on the sheet and use.”


The American Mold Builders Association says workers in the tooling industry are taking home more money in 2020, with a 7 percent increase in wages and salary seen across multiple jobs in the industry.

The AMBA’s Wage and Salary Report, released Nov. 24, says inspectors, purchasing agents/buyers, press operators and quality managers are seeing the biggest boost.

Those numbers could increase, though, with 17 percent of people responding to the study saying they are currently on a salary freeze due to the current economic conditions.

Participants in the new study came from 95 U.S. mold builders.

The full report is available at amba.org.


This post appeared first on Plastics News.