Thanksgiving: When Gobblers Thank the Gobbled (20)

Last week, my family and I spent a quiet Thanksgiving at home. A spectacular vegan meal gave me plenty to be thankful for. While scanning the news headlines online after dinner I came across an article featuring the annual presidential pardon of a turkey. For the past 60 years, the U.S. President has granted official pardon to a turkey on Thanksgiving Day, expressing national gratitude for the thousands of turkeys consumed on this holiday.

Navigating to the article I saw a picture of President Bush, with outstretched arm, bestowing the honor upon one of the two large birds that were pardoned. Following the ceremony, the turkeys were flown first-class to Disneyland where they took the place of honored guests in a Thanksgiving Day parade. To borrow the title from a Reader’s Digest column, you’d find something like this “Only in America.”