Turkey

L.C. asks, "What’s the big deal with turkey? Everyone gets all excited about it for Thanksgiving and then again at Christmas. I mean, it’s just glorified chicken. Now ham I can see – I mean, it’s ham."

Ah, turkey. I'll assume we're talking about the bird and not the country (due to the references to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and chicken), though I've heard that the country is actually quite lovely. Maybe next year we should all go there at this time of year and take a little tour or something. It will most likely be warmer than it is in Chicago (with the exception of yesterday), and it could be used as an excuse to get out of all of that silly holiday gift buying stuff you hear so much about on the news. Anyway. Just a thought.

But back to the bird. The poor, poor turkey. Honestly, I think it has to do with sound. And I think it is important here that you mention ham as well, because it is a perfect comparison. My guess is that when you think of ham, you think of something like this, yes? You're probably not thinking of something like this, yet that is where ham comes from. Ham comes from pigs, and as we all know, the pigs who can talk would prefer to not be your holiday dinner, thank you very much. They tell us that. Right there in the films.

Turkeys don't. Unless it's some horror flick or something. Turkeys, in general, say, "Gobble, gobble, gobble." It's what we're all taught in school. Timmy from South Park even named his pet turkey Gobbles, thus reinforcing that turkeys should be gobbled. We don't feel bad about eating something that is telling us to eat it. It's like a free pass. And particularly around the holidays, people like things that are free. Guilt-free is even better (just look at the magazine racks and you'll see millions of "guilt-free" recipes and such).

So why do we eat turkeys at Thanksgiving and at Christmas? Because they told us to, so we don't have to feel bad about it. Unlike those "right-to-life" pigs. Stupid pigs...

Thank you, L.C. for your question! Keep 'em coming, guys! askmisskittyanything@gmail.com