1 National Bird

Benjamin Franklin admired turkeys, and argued eloquently to have the turkey selected as our official national bird. He explained that wild turkeys are peaceful yet fierce in defense, loyal to their families, and difficult to deceive — a much better example to our innocent young country than another bloodthirsty eagle, like so many of the European countries used. He was particularly unimpressed by the bald eagle, which he considered hardly more than a white-headed fish vulture. Alas for poor Franklin, he was outvoted and the bald eagle won.

2 How much turkey is eaten?

USDA statistics show that 244 million turkeys were produced in the United States last year. Some were exported, but most were consumed domestically, resulting in a per capita turkey meat consumption of 46.5 pounds. This is slightly greater than the 44.1 pounds per capita of pork consumed, but less than the 58.4 pounds per capita of beef consumed. Chicken meat beat ‘em all, though, at 108.4 pounds per capita.

3 Gamma Gobblers

Manoranjan Misra, of the University of Nevada at Reno, is researching the use of waste poultry feathers as high efficiency water filters. Activated carbon works well for this purpose, but Misra has found that specially treated feather fibers are even better. Before packing the feather fibers into a filter, Misra activates them with high-energy ultrasound to open up microscopic pores in the fiber microstructure. These activated pores readily trap hard-to-remove contaminants such as uranium, strontium, cesium, and other heavy metals such as mercury and lead.
The primary use of these feather filters will be in the purification of drinking water, but Misra is also consulting with Oak Ridge National Laboratory about use of his feather-fiber materials to absorb, transport, and store nuclear waste.

4 Quit yer fussin’, Ma! I know what I’m doin’.

Deep-frying a turkey on Thanksgiving Day is growing in popularity, but it can be risky. According to the National Fire Protection Association, deep-fryer fires are responsible for an average of five deaths, 60 injuries, over a thousand house fires, and more than $15 million in property damage each year. For the last seven years, Texas has led the country in most grease- and cooking-related insurance claims on Thanksgiving Day.