1) What we eat could have been the national symbol! Ben Franklin wanted the turkey, not eagles which he deemed as having “bad moral character”, likely because they often scavenge.

2) TJ and Big Ben did not see drumstick to drumstick. Franklin wanted the turkey. “Tom” Jefferson not so much. So Franklin declared all male turkeys to be called “Toms”. Guess what they are still called today? Score one for Franklin.

3) Unsurprisingly 2 of our greatest Presidents played central roles in the establishment of the Thanksgiving holiday. In 1789, President George Washington became the first president to proclaim a Thanksgiving holiday, when, at the request of Congress, he proclaimed November 26, (a Tuesday!) as a day of national thanksgiving for the U.S. Constitution. Then in 1863 President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving to fall on the last Thursday of November where to this day the modern holiday is celebrated nationally.

4) Thanksgiving leftovers led to the creation of TV dinners. In 1953 a worker at Swanson ordered too many frozen turkeys (260 tons too many to be exact) so a company salesman named Jerry Thomas had the idea to create a packaged dinner on aluminum trays.

5) A “Thanksgiving Lobster” just doesn’t have the same ring. Sorry but there probably was no turkey at the first Thanksgiving. It’s much more likely that deer and quail would have been favored by the Pilgrims and deer and seafood, including lobsters and clams by the Indians. No cranberries either! (sugar not available).

6) Sit down for the Thanksgiving Fast?!” Absent the first Thanksgiving feast in gratitude of a plentiful and life saving harvest celebrations of thanks amongst the Pilgrims and Puritans were often marked by prayer and fasting!

7) Pilgrims sure loved their buckles…..not! Buckles were expensive and the black and white cloths so often depicted were typically reserved for Sundays. In fact they regularly wore colourful and festive clothing.

8) Turkeys don’t cause heart attacks but it appears they have them! We all know that turkeys are an excellent source of lean protein in addition to being tasty and delicious when shoved between two slices of white bread with mayo (OK maybe they do cause heart attacks indirectly). But they apparently can’t stand the pressure. On several occasions when the US Air Force was doing tests that required breaking the sound barrier turkeys in nearby fields would drop dead from cardiac arrest.

9) Wild Turkeys are fast, just not fast enough. They can run 12 miles an hour and are excellent swimmers. Clearly not fast enough however to avoid ending up on our tables or in a pretty decent bourbon.

10) Plumbers always miss Black Friday shopping. It’s their busiest day of the year. That’s a puzzler isn’t it?

Have a Wonderful, Safe, Celebratory and Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s a good life.

Chris