It’s Thanksgiving in the U.S., so everyone (with a few exceptions I won’t name) is off work today, and most will consume mass quantities of turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, and pumpkin pie, later falling asleep on the couch in front of a football game on t.v. Although there’s no Thanksgiving holiday in Poland, I asked Malgorzata if we might have a special Thanksgiving Hili, and she and Andrzej kindly complied. Here’s the Princess watching President Obama pardoning a Thanksgiving turkey, a strange but annual Presidential rite that you can read about here. I always thought the pardoned turkeys lived a happy life rather than being slaughtered, but the truth is more complicated—they’re factory birds and so are unhealthy:
What happens to the turkey afterward?
This is where the story turns very sad. They are sent to a farm in Virginia, where a former governor raised his own turkeys, but they do not live very long. In fact, every pardoned turkey is dead except for two — “Cheese,” the second half of last year’s duo (“Mac” died in July of this year), and “Courage,” pardoned in 2009.
These birds, though, are bred to be eaten. Many industrially grown turkeys are fattened up with a protein-rich diet of corn and soybeans. They can’t fly, because they are too big; their bone structures can’t hold up all that weight for very long; and their organs fail if they’re kept alive too long.
Oh dear; that takes some of the sheen off turkey-pardoning. But Hili aped Obama this year:
A: Why are you so pleased with yourself?
Hili: I pardoned the neighbor’s turkey.
A: And?
Hili: And I ate a sparrow.
Ja: Czemu jesteś taka z siebie zadowolona?
Hili: Ułaskawiłam indyka sąsiadów.
Ja: I co?
Hili: Zjadłam wróbla.
Top cat smile
Just wait one moment. It will become Chishiresque.
In Polish, Thanksgiving Day is literally “święto Dziękczynienia”. But most Poles refer to it as “święto indyka” – literally the turkey holiday. I will be having an exquisitely prepared meal after slaving over a hot steering wheel. We are having it catered.
http://www.nichegeneva.com/thanksgiving-to-go/
The turkey is great. Cooking a whole turkey is a fool’s errand. You just cannot do it. As Niche describes it:
“For our turkey orders we will be using organic, free range, Amish turkeys. When you pick up your turkey order you will notice that we have broken it down for you, to minimize your Thanksgiving stress. We also feel that certain parts of the turkey should be cooked at different temperatures to maximize flavor and tenderness. In order to accomplish this, the breasts will be tied, roasted, and ready for you to carve. The legs and thighs will be slow-cooked for optimal tenderness. Therefore, keeping the white meat super moist, perfectly cooked dark meat and a turkey people will be raving about!”
If you are ever in the far western suburbs of Chicago – say visiting Fermilab – I heartily recommend Niche, a marvelous restaurant. Fermilab is great to visit and has arts and culture programs –
http://www.fnal.gov/culture/NewArts/index.shtml
Great way to spend a day – Fermilab in Batavia and Niche in Geneva.
Nothing traditional around here so no turkey or football either. I believe it will be Reuben Sandwiches at the non-religious table today. That would be corn beef, swiss, sauerkraut, russian dressing on rye and hot.
I see it may be possible that this sandwich was begun in Omaha but who knows. The Deli’s are in New York and everyone knows that.
I’m thankful Hili enjoyed her Thanksgiving sparrow.
b&
That’s a cool photo!
Sad story about the pardoned turkeys and about factor-farming generally. I do hope we usher ourselves towards a more humane treatment of the birds we eat. Anecdotally, I had a close connection to a cockatiel once. Not that empathy should be used as the only meter of decision-making here (I feel more empathy for birds than cows!), but if we knew the minds of birds better, I proffer that it would be harder to treat them thoughtlessly as means to a culinary end. I’m still going to have turkey later. But I’m value-conflicted on this matter and periodically resolve the inner dissonance by adopting a vegetarian diet that lasts until I’m willing tolerate the dissonance again. Today I’m a hypocrite. Well, I’m a hypocrite most of the time, even when I’m a vegetarian, for then I pretend I don’t want meat when I can tell my body does.
I think many of us here–perhaps a majority?–are hypocrites.
(And cockatiels are very sweet birds.)
@Diane G.,
Hypocrisy and decision-making interest me. Last night, post turkey, I spent about an hour typing and passing my phone to a woman who is deaf. We were getting to know each other via typing, as I only know the alphabet in ASL. She told me about how her baby died from Canavan disease. His father also died, I presume from some other condition, though it is conceivable that he had the milder form of Canavan disease that allowed him to live into adulthood. So, this woman suffered the death of her child and his father! She has now devoted her life to raising awareness about the need for genetic screening. No doubt she would not be on such a mission had her life not been so devastatingly fated by being a carrier and marrying a carrier of Canavan disease. This made me think again about personal decision-making and what drives us to action. I would not eat turkeys if I had a pet turkey that loved me like my sweet cockatiel. As for my new friend, I suppose if she were my sister, I would be more motivated to devote more of my life to Canavan advocacy but do not feel enough empathy to propel me towards a career change as it is, despite knowing that she has a point about the need for more awareness. The personal sphere is relevant to decisions, but what constitutes ethical choice?
I know exactly what you mean, charleen (as I’m sure most of us here do). It fries my butt no end to read about people who champion a cause only after it personally happens to them (such as the Cheneys and homosexuality), but there’s no possible way for everyone to support all worthy causes.
It’s occurred to me in the past that the next best course of action is to support politically those people and any proposed legislation (and to lobby for such when necessary) that appear most likely to support policies that will benefit all.
It would make more sense for the victims (and/or their relatives) of orphan diseases to lobby for federal aid to big Pharma to make it worthwhile for them to address such outliers, for instance. Of course I understand the personal immediacy of the afflicted and how uhhelpful that approach seems in the moment, but if the rest of us take a somewhat longer view we’re more likely to reach our common goals than if we give up or vote selfishly.
As to the hypocrisy of eating certain animals but not others…that’s a toughie. I will say, though, that I’ve had pet chickens in the past while I continued to eat chicken…just not those particular chickens!
I wonder what the tipping points are for causes or moral campaigns for which there is cognitive dissonance. Factory farming is out of sight, out of mind for most of us most of the time. What we get is the visually pleasant and benignly normal convenience of supermarket meat. What if it weren’t so? Feels ridiculous to ask, as I suspect the mass sterility of packaged meat represents social cognition that allows us to underplay the moral dilemma.
Maybe a similar process for death. Hospitals take care of that…And the elderly? Nursing homes take care of them…Out of sight.
The removal of the personal/visual seems to permit underplaying and the ability to favor choosing something that has value-confliction.
But what tips the decision back to what’s being ignored?
Orphan diseases may be good example as they are hidden for the most part. I suspect that we would let people die if understanding the functions of rare diseases didn’t have wider application to more common diseases. Medicine is like that, after all. So, do we even care about each other if there isn’t a broad application to most? I think we do, but this gets ignored until it’s personal.