InterRogerTory:
Dear Roger,
My favorite part of Thanksgiving is pumpkin pie. We have had pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving every year that I have been alive. My uncle is hosting our family this year, and he said there will be no orange foods. How can he do this? Is there some sort of law about family traditions?
Love,
Give Me Pumpkin Pie
Response:
Dear Pumpkin,
Oh my dear Pumpkin. Pumpkin pie is a requirement of Thanksgiving. Not for dessert on the day, but for breakfast on the following day. Unfortunately, I was not able to find any law supporting this assertion.
Family traditions are important! If you spend money in reliance on a family tradition (for example, if you buy non-refundable plane tickets because your dad and step mom have hosted Thanksgiving at their home in Missouri every year for the last decade and then your dad tells you that he and his wife are going to Italy instead of celebrating Thanksgiving), you get to be really disappointed and pretty annoyed, and if you don’t mind blowing up your family relations, there is a legal concept of promissory estoppel that you could theoretically use–though I won’t speak to your likelihood of success–in a suit against your dad. Still, you probably shouldn’t have bought tickets before confirming that they were hosting.
But we’re not talking about money here; we’re talking about a very important part of the Thanksgiving meal. And while I couldn’t find any support for a claim that family traditions are enforceable, I did want to figure out a way for you to have pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. You said that your uncle’s prohibition is against orange foods, not against pumpkin pie. And everyone knows that the combination of the delicious spices in pumpkin pie and the heat of the oven means that PUMPKIN PIE IS BROWN. Lawyered. Well, law librarianed.
Happy Thanksgiving, and enjoy your pie!
Love,
Roger