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Thanksgiving is a week away. But it’s never too early to start stockpiling stories to share over turkey and stuffing next Thursday. Which president pardoned the first turkey? Is Big Bird’s costume made of turkey feathers? Kara Kovalchik has all the details.
1. Butterball turkeys have been a holiday tradition for the past 50 years. While the name “Butterball” implies that the bird is injected with butter (which it is not), it actually refers to a specific breed of turkey. Butterball turkeys have all-white feathers (birds with colored feathers often have dark spots on their meat, which is not aesthetically pleasing) and have extra-broad breasts. Butterball turkeys are also the best-selling brand in the U.K. at Christmas, since the British obviously don’t celebrate Thanksgiving.
2. Caruncle, wattle and snood might sound like a law firm, but they are actually words that describe the various bits of red fleshy stuff that grows on a turkey’s head. The snood is the flap that hangs over its beak, the caruncles are colored growths on the throat, and the wattle is the skin hanging under the turkey’s beak. When all three turn bright red the turkey is either in a mating mood or is very angry. In either case, you’ll want to stay out of its way.
3. Unlike chicken and duck feathers, turkey feathers are too stiff for use as pillow and duvet stuffing. Some of the larger, more colorful feathers are sold for decorative purposes or craft projects, but the majority of turkey feathers are ground up and composted.
4. The classic “Turkeys Away” episode of WKRP in Cincinnati was based on a very unsettling real event. WKRP creator Hugh Wilson had a friend who worked for an Atlanta radio station that decided to toss live turkeys out of a helicopter for a Thanksgiving promotion. Just like the TV episode revealed, none of the folks involved with the stunt knew that domestic turkeys couldn’t fly, and a local shopping center was bombarded with turkeys hitting the ground “like bags of wet cement.” (“As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!”)
5. Big Bird of Sesame Street fame is clad in a costume made of turkey feathers. Feathers plucked from the hind end of the bird, to be more specific. A company called American Plume and Fancy Feather selects the feathers for the Children’s Television Workshop to inspect (nine out of 10 feathers are rejected), and then the white feathers are dyed yellow and incorporated into the Bird’s costume.
6. The classic folk melody called “Turkey in the Straw” first gained popularity via minstrel shows in the mid-1800s. There is no copyright information available regarding the song, so the author of the tune remains a mystery. However, the song has earned at least one unusual place in pop history: in the United States, it is the most common melody used by ice cream trucks to attract customers.
7. It is now a Thanksgiving tradition for a live turkey to be presented by the National Turkey Federation to the U.S. President, and for him to official grant it a pardon. The bird that had been earmarked for Thanksgiving dinner was then relegated to a farm or petting zoo to live out its life. Many reports state that Harry S Truman was the first President to grant the bird a pardon, but it was actually John F. Kennedy who first declared that the gift gobbler would not appear on the White House dinner table.
8. Even though domestic turkeys can’t fly, their by-products are well-traveled. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin tore into their first meal on the Moon, those foil packets contained freeze-dried roast turkey with all the trimmings.
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Comments (13)
Comment
Growing up in Oklahoma, we had turkeys on our property…and I definitely remember one flying down (and back up) to a branch on a tree…
posted by Dawn on 11-20-2008 at 8:14 pm
@Dawn – Wild turkeys can fly, and quite well I might add. Domesticated turkeys, for the most part, cannot.
Either way, the WKRP episode is one of the best TV moments of all time. I still laugh out loud just thinking about it!
WKRP would make a great post for “Confessions of a TV-Holic”. Maybe a good idea for a lunchtime quiz as well…
posted by bzzyb on 11-20-2008 at 11:17 pm
Haha, I should have looked here before making my WKRP reference on the “Traditions” post.
posted by Tdave on 11-21-2008 at 8:24 am
The word my family used for wild turkey flight was “levitate.” They were like feathery hovercraft, and could launch nearly straight up into the air onto a tree branch to get away from our dog.
posted by Stephanie on 11-21-2008 at 10:05 am
We always get confirmation that Thanksgiving is coming by seeing wild turkeys in our backyard. Just saw three of them last week, quite big too. We’ve seen them fly up into tree branches.
posted by Stew on 11-21-2008 at 10:54 am
Why would NASA give the Apollo 11 crew turkey dinners if they landed on the moon in the middle of July? I do recall that the crew of Apollo 8 got a turkey dinner on their way to the moon because it was Christmas.
I’ve come across a message board that provides a quote from a now dead NASA link:
“During Apollo 11, the astronauts ate two meals. Meal A was bacon squares, peaches, sugar cookie cubes, coffee, and pineapple-grapefruit drink. Meal B included beef stew, cream of chicken soup, date fruitcake, grape punch, and orange drink.”
posted by Jim on 11-21-2008 at 11:06 am
From what I always understood, the reason domesticated turkeys cannot fly is because they have been bred to provide more meat than a wild turkey, and thus are too heavy to fly.
posted by Jason! on 11-21-2008 at 11:12 am
On the show Dirty Jobs they went to a turkey farm in Minnesota once to collect semen and inseminate turkeys. The turkey farmers said that they’ve bred them to the point where the breasts are so large they physically cannot mate on their own.
posted by danonymous on 11-21-2008 at 12:11 pm
@danonymous – That’s AWESOME. Great comment!! I love Dirty Jobs and I find it quite educational as well.
Wow, breasts so large it has made breeding impossible. Goes to show that bigger breasts aren’t necessarily better…
posted by bzzyb on 11-21-2008 at 1:51 pm
My mom’s relative’s used to own a turkey farm in Pennsylvania. She would always tell us about tales from the turkey farm from when she visted as a kid, but just recently told us about how the head male turkey used to be their guard dog! They would keep him in the front yard as he was more agressive than the dogs to keep unwanted visitors away!
Also, my cousin was playing basketball outside of his house one day when a flock of wild turkeys landed and literally chased him in the house!
posted by Mavis on 11-21-2008 at 2:37 pm
Strange, in humans, bigger breasts usually encourage mating…
posted by Jim on 11-21-2008 at 3:04 pm
@ mavis, I have heard that as well about the male turkeys being used for guarding the area but have not really seen anything to verify that. That would be an interesting post, about unusual guard animals and how they would guard their owners or property.
posted by jmd on 11-22-2008 at 7:43 am
Lincoln was the first US president ot pardon a turkey. IT won’t let me post a link but a quick Google for “Abraham Lincoln turkey” will lead to
sources.
posted by little gator on 11-22-2008 at 1:10 pm