• As you settle down for Thanksgiving dinner, think of Malinda Russell, who wrote the oldest-known cookbook by a black author in 1866. Incidentally, she didn't include any recipes for fried chicken. [NYT]

• If you're black and Hispanic and even thinking about majoring in computer science, do it. Bill Gates wants you to. [IW]

• New Orleans shifting racial population plays out in the new, majority-white City Council. [NYT]

• Ian Smith, the last white ruler of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), is dead. [LAT]

• Critics are saying that Barry Bonds should have an askerisk next to his home run record because of his steroid use. But where are all the asterisks on the records won by the white old-timers when blacks were surpassing them in the Negro Leagues? [USAT]