DATE: Monday, November 17, 1997             TAG: 9711150318

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CAROL HORTON, PILOT ONLINE 

                                            LENGTH:   75 lines

IT'S VERY EASY TO GOBBLE UP THE NET DURING THE HOLIDAYS

Talkin' turkey's been a popular pastime for hundreds of years, but surfin' turkey is oh so '90s. Well, 'tis the season. Since you can't tell anymore by the decorations in the stores, (merchants evidently believe the holidays begin with Labor Day, and that Santa travels with his team of eight tiny jack-o-lanterns), the Net is here to tell you now's the time for holiday joy.

So go to www.pilotonline.com, click on the business section, and follow along with the online version of this holiday tale.

Barring natural disasters and family feuds (though the latter could arguably be considered the former), the key to a successful Thanksgiving lies in the meal. Here, the Net is your servant. Everywhere you click you find tempting recipes, from traditional to noveau, from simple to haute cuisine.

Thanksgiving At Home Arts is a site put together by Good housekeeping, Redbook, Country Living and Popular Mechanics (really!) magazines. It's a wonderful compilation of holiday recipes, quizzes, photos and chat rooms. There's an etiquette section that informs you it is never proper to eat any part of the turkey with your hands at a formal dinner, but that it is OK to start eating before everyone is served if the group is of six or more.

As you might expect, the star of the show gets lots of face time on Internet sites. Just about every site dealing with Thanksgiving has tips on how to roast the perfect turkey. The grand dame of this is Butterball.com. The originator of turkey mass communications years ago with the Butterball Turkey Talkline, the hotline has gone Online.

Recipes, tips, menus, guides and planning schedules for what hosts should be doing 10 days before the holiday (hey, that's today) are just the beginning. A real highlight is a link to the greatest hits of the Butterball Turkey Hotline, as recounted by the operators who took the calls. It's going to be hard to top the woman who wanted to know how to get her chihuahua out of the turkey cavity. Of course they also have plenty of information on their products, including their new line of pre-cooked and pre-stuffed birds that need only be heated.

Families can find lots of ideas Online for how to encourage quality time together during the holiday. Erol's has produced a site of Thanksgiving Games and Activities for family fun. Arts and crafts include how to make a turkey hand and Thanksgiving placemats. And the party games aren't cyber in nature, they're good old-fashioned live games, like pin the beak on the turkey, and pumpkin toss. The site gives you the instructions you need to entertain the whole crew between courses or during school break.

More arts and crafts for the kids can be found at Aunt Annie's Thanksgiving. The diva of ways to keep the kids busy, Aunt Annie's site was a big hit at Halloween and this one is just as good.

One particularly nice home-grown site is Thanksgiving, an apropos name for a thorough list of links to everything pertaining to the holiday. The categories are well-organized and include lots of history, food, fun and games. There are even some basic recipes for the cook who's not sure how or where to begin. If you're not in the spirit of the holiday yet, a click here should change that. And if you need a refresher course on the meaning of the holiday, The Thanksgiving Story explains the origin of the celebration as proclaimed by President Lincoln.

Keeping the troops entertained before and after dinner can sometimes make you want to stay in the kitchen. But once again, the Web can help. OK it might stray a bit from tradition, but Beavis and Butthead do Thanksgiving is a site dedicated to informing us about the animated duo's upcoming live TV special on Thanksgiving Day.

If you prefer a pastime that requires a few more brain cells, Find A Word has a Thanksgiving puzzle on the Web that you can print out and tackle while you try to stay awake on the couch.

For all your leftover needs, preheat your PC to Disney's Family.Com. This slick site includes innovative leftover ideas like baked turkey chiles rellenos, that could be the death of that turkey soup recipe that's been in your family forever.

For all of your football viewing needs, be sure to check out Click TV. There you'll find which games will be on what channels in your cable system. You can even set it up to e-mail you to remind you to watch the big game. (In case you get hit in the head with a drumstick and forget.)

Throughout the holidays, visit Hampton Roads Holidays for listings of area events and celebrations.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu