Happy Thanksgiving and Holiday Trivia To Ponder
Here’s a little holiday trivia to make tomorrow more fun. Did you know?
Canned cranberry jelly is the least popular traditional Thanksgiving dish. Detractors say when it’s served right out of the can, it reminds them of dog food. Bow wow.
Green bean casserole made with mushroom soup and canned onion rings is the second least popular.
Instead of the bald eagle Benjamin Franklin wanted the noble turkey to be our national bird.
In 1947 Harry Truman was the first president to pardon a turkey.
President Franklin Roosevelt tried to change the date of Thanksgiving, setting it earlier by one week in order to encourage more holiday shopping during the Depression. Good intentions don’t always work out. The date change didn’t last.
The original Thanksgiving celebration was meant to be a fast, but changed to a three day feast once members of the Wampanoag tribe arrived to explained how to really say thank you. (And you think an hour at the table with relatives is hard to take.)
736 million pounds of turkey are consumed each Thanksgiving. 50 million pumpkin pies are also consumed. Many of the latter are consumed by people like the author of this blog who doesn’t like pumpkin pie.
Think and its tryptophan is why you feel sleepy after the meal? Apparently not. Tryptophan doesn’t really take effect because there are other amino acids in the meal to balance it out. Maybe you’re tired from conversation, preparation, and all those glasses of wine and beer lifted in toast!
And finally, not holiday trivia but a poem: A Funny Ode to Thanksgiving. I couldn’t find out who to attribute this prayer/poem to, but we thank the author. With a little editing here t’is:
May your stuffing be tasty
May your turkey be plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off of your thighs!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks for the poem. It gave me a fit of the giggles.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
Awesome! Wishing you and the Proman a blessed Thanksgiving!
I am sitting on the sofa, while my husband of 37 years is expelling deep pitiful whiney sighs. About every 30 seconds. I cooked…you know the deal. I am frankly just sitting and snickering because he thinks he got stuck. However, Ladies….I am the one sitting, relaxing, digesting….for the first time….
Ever! Hmmmm. Nice!
Happy and Thankful….
Loved the trivia — and especially the poem. I hope that everyone had a wonderful day with family and/or friends. We were missing two people, one a granddaughter’s boyfriend and the second our granddaughter who is a junior at Ohio State. She is spending the fall semester in London (yes, she loves it). We talked to her and viewed her via skype — she was in Milan spending the long weekend with the exchange student the family had had about 5 years ago.
It’s so wonderful that you can Skype a granddaughter in Milan to wish her a happy Thanksgiving. So glad you were able to share that with her. And thanks to everyone for the good wishes. We had a quiet day, but talked to all our children. And Christmas is coming…