A Hilarious Holiday Question That Will Make History

In 1897 the New York Sun published an answer to an 8 year old girl's question about the existence of Santa Claus. The editor Francis B. Church gave a response that would go down in history. This story was reprinted annually for 52 years as a heartwarming testament of belief.

Maybe not as groundbreaking, but who can say? A graduate of Sunset Elementary in St. George, Utah posed a question to this writer. A question that stopped me in my tracks wondering about the depth of our holiday traditions.

His question hung in the air after it was asked,

"Are there turkeys in Turkey?"

I thought long and hard in the time it took me to reach for my phone and search the internet.

I found the answer, but how to deliver it? I felt like Anton Ego in the movie Ratatouille. I sat at my typewriter, er, keyboard struck by the magnitude of this question and finally after much soul searching here is my answer:

No Virginia, I mean Taylor, there are no natural turkeys in turkey. In fact, the history of the name is unclear, but it seems likely that the pilgrims were familiar with Turk merchants who would trade in wild birds that they hunted. So when they hunted turkeys on the North American continent our forebears gave them the country's monicker.

In a twisted turn in Turkey, they assumed that the birds came from India so they named the turkey Hindis.

Are you confused yet Taylor. Suffice it to say that as long as people have appetites and naming comes from limited information turkeys will be available,

frozen,

on aisle 7.