When I got a Thanksgiving email from an American friend (I do still have some ) who despite my assurances, does not believe we don't celebrate it, it started me thinking and investigating.

Wikipedia told me the first Thanksgiving ceremonies in North America were conducted by Spanish settlers. The first in the Virginia colony were held in December to thank God for bringing their ships safely to shore.

Fine, all nice. But the burning question for me was - the turkey. I always wondered what the bird was called in Turkey itself (the country). Some years back I asked the wife of one of Orly's Turkish friends (she's Italian herself I think), and she said the Turks call them "Indians". Fine, I thought, because all those big feathers resembled a head-dress (war bonnet?), that makes sense. But nothing is as simple as it seems.

I found a rather nice essay on the topic at Young Turk's Ramble: talking turkey on my blog

In summary, the story runs like this. The bird known to Americans and indeed most of us as the turkey has various names around the world.

In Turkish, it's hindi ("Indian"). Clearly not American Indian, but Indian Indian. Bang went my simple explanation. To the Portuguese it's a "Peru". In France, a "dinde" (loosely, "from India"). In Arabic the name means "Ethiopian bird". And in Greece it's a Gallapoula ("French girl"). Ya, rly.

Before America was colonised, there was a bird in Turkey called the culluk. Apparently the culluk tastes better than the Turkey. It was exported to England and known there as the "Turkey bird".

To American colonists, the nearest comparison they could think of for the big birds they ate in the Americas was "the Turkey bird", so they called them that. And back then, a lot of European and Arabian countries referred to the New World as India, Peru or Ethiopia (remember, Columbus thought he found India?) so they called them, "Indians", "Perus" and "Ethiopian birds". Not sure about the "French Girl" though, maybe they were also considered by Greeks as loud and overdressed, or maybe it's sorta like we say "chick"...)

All quite simple really ...

And now I know all that, I don't know what to do with it except post it here.

Fair enough!

Do you get a warm fuzzy feeling when you shove your hand up a turkey's backside with a fist full of sage and onion stuffing?

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Depends if the turkey smiles...

Reminds me of an Aussie joke, but it wouldn't work here unless you know that in Australia, a "boundary rider" is a kind of cowboy or "ranch hand" who spends weeks on end riding alone, just going around the fences of huge outback cattle stations making sure they are in good repair.

It's a shaggy dog story, but the punchline involves two country hicks visiting town, and their taxi breaks down. They see a sign saying "taxidermist" and ask if he can get the taxi running. He explains that he doesn't fix taxis, he stuffs animals. After checking if he stuffs sheep, cattle, or kangaroos, they conclude "taxidermist" is a posh city name for a boundary rider.

Turkey trot! (link)

Nowadays, "Turkey Trot" most often refers to short distance (4 to 8K) community "runs" or races that take place around Thanksgiving.

I understand that back when the US was first founded, they were trying to decide what the national bird was going to be. Among those suggested were the turkey and the bald eagle. The eagle won. Makes you think, though, doesn't it? Somehow, seeing the turkey instead of the eagle on the Great Seal of the US (national emblem) somehow just wouldn't be quite the same.

In Googling this, I discovered that Oregon (the area where I live) just changed their official state bird to be the wild turkey. I didn't know that . Apparently it's also the official state game bird of Massachusetts (not surprising, since that's where the Mayflower landed), Oklahoma and South Carolina. Link to list of official state birds in the US.

Rule number one in roasting a whole turkey: remember to remove the little package containing the giblets from the body cavity before you put it into the oven.

This Thanksgiving, since I'm not cooking for a crowd, I probably will either bake a Cornish hen (just the right size for one person to eat) or buy some turkey already cooked from the deli in the local grocery store. For some reason I've been craving cornbread dressing (stuffing) lately, so I'll make some of that, from scratch. And maybe some green beans. Not sure about dessert yet.

"Set a new course. There's coffee in that nebula." -- Capt. Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager

Alaska won't be happy they missed out...

Oh, they didn't miss out at all. They have a very well-known "turkey" there.

And let us not forget the honorable turducken (link). A deboned turkey stuffed with a deboned duck stuffed with a deboned chicken.

"Set a new course. There's coffee in that nebula." -- Capt. Janeway, Star Trek: Voyager

Wow, the link says you can get one at Marks, how decadent!