Thanksgiving Guest of Honor Trivia

Who's the guest of honor at the Thanksgiving table? Why, the turkey, that's who!

Here are some facts I bet you didn't know about Thanksgiving and that plump, pretty poultry:

Thanksgiving facts:

• Turkeys were first domesticated in Mexico and Central America.
• The Wampanoag tribe shared the first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims in 1621.
• Abraham Lincoln specified the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving in 1863.

Turkey facts:

• Need help cooking your turkey? Call the Turkey Talk-Line at 1-800-BUTTERBALL. Or, check out the TurkeyTalk Podcast here.
  
• Do you know what country eats the most turkey each year, per capita? Israel!
• A female turkey is a hen; the male is known as the tom.
• The female turkey clucks; the male gobbles.
• Minnesota is the state that produces the most domestic turkeys.
  
• Every year, The President 'pardons' a turkey. That lucky bird retires to a historical farm, and lives out the rest of his life in leisure.
• Benjamin Franklin wanted the wild turkey to be designated as the National bird.
  
• Approximately 92% of all American households eat turkey on Thanksgiving. Maybe turkey should be added to the phrase 'as American as Mom and apple pie'.
• Fifty percent (50%) of all turkeys served this Thursday will be stuffed.
• The average size of the main dish we'll be roasting, deep-frying or smoking is 15 pounds. To figure out what size turkey to cook, figure two pounds per adult (you will have leftovers).
• Turkeys can drown if they look up when it's raining.
• Wild turkeys can fly. They can burst into flight approaching speeds between 50-55 mph in a matter of seconds. They can run at speeds up to 20 miles per hour.
• A full-grown turkey has 3,500 feathers; domestic turkeys can't fly.
  

I bet none of the turkeys appearing looked like this one:


Glitter is all the rage in Kindergarten, but not down on the farm.

The First Thanksgiving Was Easier to Plan than This

Imagine, Fall, 1621. Difficult physical surroundings. Hardship. The language barrier. A first harvest. Gratitude. It looked something like this:

Plymouth. In winter. Outside...brrr.

Ok, 2009. The Midwest. Modern conveniences. Supermarkets. Central heating. We don't even have to kill what we eat.

Yet, we don't yet know who is hosting/cooking Thanksgiving this year.

Past hurts. Bad feelings. Unkind words said in anger and in haste. We're in limbo. Neither side wants to give. There's enough blame to go around, when we should be worrying if there's enough pumpkin pie.

I don't have a dog in this fight. I am Switzerland; I am Rodney King - can't we all just get along?

A day when we should be expressing gratitude for our blessings and each other...those heartfelt messages may be expressed in separate houses this year.

The two people responsible for the impasse are still not speaking...so we wait.

Our turkey is thawing, the ingredients for stuffing and side dishes alike have been purchased.

The big question? Guess who's coming for dinner?

Rebuilding the Pyramids...One Butternut Squash at a Time

I thought that the Pyramids were sturdy, timeless pieces of ancient architecture. For thousands of years, they have stood to honor and shelter the remains of Egyptian pharoahs and kings.

But we're not in Egypt anymore. Here, it seems the Pyramid changed and I didn't even know about it. Why didn't one of you call and let me know?

You don't have my number? Well, yeah, there IS that.

Old nutritional Pyramid? Here 'tis:


New Pyramid (new to me, at least. It's been around since 2005):




All I can say is, WTH? I was just getting used to the OLD pyramid schema. Hey, I'm old school, I thought the old-fashioned food group propaganda was good enough.

Now I'm gonna have to wrap my brain around color-coordinated percentages and stuff.

Maybe this is the brain exercise part of the fitness plan.