Comments & Curiosities:

Seriously? Thursday is Thanksgiving? I don’t see how that’s possible. But it is, apparently, and you and I and just about everyone will have to deal with it. Checking the T-Day folder, we find that in years past we have done the history of Thanksgiving; how to prepare a traditional Thanksgiving dinner; how not to; how to prepare a traditional Italian Thanksgiving dinner; and what to do with T-Day leftovers. This year, given everything that’s going on in the nation and the world, it is time to examine what Thanksgiving really means, why it matters, and what we need to keep in mind as we approach another annual day of thanks.

I believe it all comes down to three issues: Are turkeys really dumb? What is the difference between sweet potatoes and yams, and which is which? When you feel like you’re going to do a face-plant in the mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving dinner, is it the turkey that causes that?

On the dumbness issue, no one has ever claimed that turkeys are the brightest bulbs on the tree, but generally they get a bad rap. When someone is dissing turkeys, the two most common “turkeys are so dumb” punch lines are that just a loud noise on a turkey ranch will panic them into a stampede and they will crush each other to death, and that turkeys will stare straight up in a heavy rain and stay that way until they drown. Fact or fiction? The first is mostly fiction but has a grain of truth in it. The second is pure fiction.

No question that ranch-bred turkeys are skittish. Their wiring is not good and they are nervous, tightly wound creatures. If they made Valium for turkeys, the chubby little things would pop them like birdseed. They are also very prone to seizures and heart attacks, believe it or not. Yes, a loud noise can cause them to stampede, but the casualties left behind don’t die in the crush — they drop dead of a heart attack. Happens often during a violent thunderstorm or beneath a sonic boom. They are very stressed out birds.