My new weekend ritual is watching "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" for the thank-you notes - the absurd messages of sarcastic gratitude that the NBC host writes on Fridays.

"Thank you, the gym, for being exactly like my grandpa: Always there for me, even though I only visit you twice a year," joked Fallon in a typical one. Letters have gone out to Pez dispensers (for being little creatures that vomit candy out of their necks) and the fantasy football draft (for letting him know he's bad at sports even in his fantasies).

One of the things I like about Fallon's comedy is that it's never cynical. He can be silly at times, but he's able to make points about items in the news - and completely off-the-wall stuff - without being nasty or overly demeaning. It's an approach that's in tune, I think, with the optimism and tolerance of his Generation Y audience.

I appreciate his brand of humor, so I hope he won't mind me borrowing his thank-you format and giving it a sincere spin for Thanksgiving. Here are some notes I've been meaning to write.

Thank you, Johnny Depp, for being People's Sexiest Man Alive for 2009 and joining George Clooney and Brad Pitt in the elite repeat-winner club. But in fairness, there really should be a constitutional amendment limiting these guys to two terms.

Thank you, New Oxford American Dictionary, for making "unfriend" your word of the year (and sparking a debate over whether it actually should have been "defriend"). Even though I usually uncare about Facebook, the Web deserves credit for the ways it's shaping modern language.

Thank you, USA Network, for being a safe haven for dramas like "White Collar" and "Burn Notice" that emphasize style, not gross-out storylines. Anything that's more like "The Rockford Files" than "Saw VI" is OK by me.

Thank you, Adam Lambert, for your new "For Your Entertainment" album out Monday. It will solve the glam-rock deficit that has plagued the nation for too long.

Thank you, Bruce Springsteen, for briefly forgetting you were in Michigan, not Ohio, during your concert here. Everyone here still loves you, plus the incident earned national headlines for the state that didn't use the words "autos" or "beleaguered."

Thank you, Golden Globes, for choosing Ricky Gervais as host, and you, too, Oscars, for picking Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin as co-hosts. If Neil Patrick Harris returns to host the Tonys and Emmys in 2010, it will be a grand-slam award ceremony year.

Thank you, Sarah Palin, for making Grand Rapids the first stop on your book tour. The bottled water and sandwich sales to the media covering the visit could alone help Michigan's economy.

Thank you, "Fantastic Mr. Fox," for being made with classic stop-motion animation. What's good enough for the Island of Misfit Toys is good enough for today's generation of kids.

Thank you, American Express commercial that uses images of ordinary objects that appear to have glum or cheerful faces. The minute I hear the cello music, I'm as happy as the shopping bag, tugboat and luggage carousel.

Julie Hinds' e-mail address is hinds@freepress.com.