When he returned to the United States in January after his surgery and recuperation at the Karolinska University Hospital near Stockholm, Mr. Lyles had said he was feeling well and "thankful for a second chance on life".
With the intense glare of the media spotlight relentlessly beaming down upon Sunderland throughout the past week, Newcastle manager Alan Pardew may well be thankful to Paolo Di Canio and the Black Cats for shifting the local focus away from his side's Premier League struggles.
From a profitability perspective, artists whose records sell but don't stream may well be thankful.
Well, be thankful for radio silence I guess when other candidates for VP are getting phone calls saying "Sorry....but we look forward to working with you in many other ways in the coming years".
But I guess for now, I should be proud about how incredibly committed my partner is to this family, as well as thankful to all my friends and family that have taken turns visiting us and helping with the babies.
And Minnesota's Christian Ponder — well, Christian Ponder is thankful to have Adrian Peterson.
Yet if this is, as St. Aubyn's publisher claims, the "culmination" of the Melrose cycle, we can only wish Patrick well and be thankful that his travails have furnished the material for some of the most perceptive, elegantly written and hilarious novels of our era.
"To me it happened when I was about 30," he says, "and then I thought, oh my God, everything I've done before…Well, I'm thankful I wasn't in front of the world's best orchestras before that change happened".
But before I go, given that today's celebrations began with some Brits moving to the USA and giving thanks for its awesomeness, I thought it might be appropriate to share five things – technological and otherwise – that make me… well.. thankful that a few months ago I too decided to make America my new home.
Well, I was thankful after I figured out how to get down.
Everyone else -- well, just be thankful for the table scraps (or that "prime movers," a la Roark, don't blow up their beautiful creations because society hasn't pay sufficient fealty to their greatness).
