Post #19,173
11/21/01 5:27:10 PM
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Re: Turkey Day (for the US contingent)
Whatever the fuck this Thanksgiving lark is all about - have a good one, y'all.
Peter
Shill For Hire
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
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Post #19,183
11/21/01 6:35:02 PM
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LRPD opines: Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.
and a premature Bilious Boxing Day to you too, mate!
PS - 'twas started when the first invaders thoughtfully celebrated with their impending victims: by throwing a Feast of all the bounties (largely intoduced to them by the aforesaid). Surely a less cynical Thanks! than.. subsequent events make it out, seen from a bit later on.
It's supposed to be about.. noticing for a spell, how Good ya got it - as a break from perenially wanting More. Something like that.
(Alas - it's only One day a year, usually filled with football games of the oblate spheroid type and: planning shopping forays at the Mall, next day :(
HTH.
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Post #19,194
11/21/01 9:33:56 PM
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And turning out to be a very profitable costume day, as well
We've made a bunch of money renting out pilgrim and native american costumes this year. Wish we had made more - we turned people away because we can't sew fast enough.
----
"You don't have to be right - just use bolded upper case" - annon.
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Post #19,196
11/21/01 9:41:54 PM
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Wow! serendipity coup___sore fingers - less typing :)
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Post #19,212
11/22/01 9:03:21 AM
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Gobble gobble
Too many Google links.
Supposedly originated by the pilgrim colony in 1620 or 1621 (accounts vary). (That colony was eventually superceded by the colony established at what is now Boston.) The origins of the "Thanksgiving" celebration arguably comes from the colonists' homeland harvest festivals. Variously celebrated.
Formally established by President Lincoln (probably as part of the post-Gettysburg battle propaganda) in 1863. Take it in both contexts; the original 1620 colony, in which they were all lucky to have survived the boat trip and disease and starvation and everything involved in establishing a colony, and the 1863 context, where the northern states had narrowly averted disaster in the war between the states.
Just a brief background for you non-US'ers.
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."
-- Donald Knuth
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Post #19,286
11/24/01 10:38:05 AM
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umm err the pilgrims were clueless about new world food
growing and hunting, the natives showed them corn, squash and deer. The Pilgrims thanked the with smallpox and syphilis, we celebrate theis every year.
thanx,
bill
tshirt front "born to die before I get old"
thshirt back "fscked another one didnja?"
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Post #19,293
11/24/01 12:10:12 PM
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"Old World" food
It is thought by some historians that the turkeys served by the Pilgrims were actually Mexican turkeys brought over on the boat.
Mexican "bred for eating" turkeys had already completely taken over from the peacock (ostentacious, but not very good eating) as the festival bird throughout Europe. The wild turkeys of the day would have been very hard to hunt, tough and not very meaty. It is descendents of Mexican turkeys that we eat today.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #19,303
11/24/01 4:13:12 PM
11/24/01 4:28:21 PM
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Yep. Wild turkeys are quite "wiley".
Benjamin Franklin (one of US founding fathers, for non-USns) wanted to make them the [link|http://www.geobop.com/Symbols/Animals/Birds/1/Turkey/|national bird.]
Wild turkey are extremely difficult to hunt according to a nature film I once saw.
Alex
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. -- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Edited by a6l6e6x
Nov. 24, 2001, 04:28:21 PM EST
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Post #19,304
11/24/01 4:56:40 PM
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I think they are going downhill too...
For a change, my wife, puppies, and myself had Thanksgiving by ourselves at our cabin on the Ohio/Pennsylvania border(as opposed to 10 guests at home, with another dozen dropping in at irregular intervals.) There was a flock of ~8 wild turkeys wandering in the woods by the side of the road. I could have knocked one over with a rock. I guess they just felt safe near a state park :)
On the other hand, everything was low key there; the whole town closed down and everybody took the day off. They even shut down the McDonalds. Kinda neat... I was seriously impressed.
Hugh
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Post #19,305
11/24/01 5:49:54 PM
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You sure about turkeys?
One story I heard had it that until the settlers started shooting them down, they were fairly tame - used to bows and arrows, maybe, but not muskets.
There's a turkey book whose title escapes me which has a picture of a nesting turkey on the cover. Nesting up in the branches of a tree (which is logical, when you remember wild turkeys aren't the beefed up tubs of meat that domestic turkeys are, and can fly short distances.)
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."
-- Donald Knuth
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