« Body Brag | Main | the equivalent of no fun...i.e. pity me »
July 10, 2004
turkey time!
So I've started a new job...filling in for a woman who is out having triplets! That poor girl. I just can't imagine. She won't sleep for a year.
It's a six month stint, but the pay is good and I needed a change from what I had been doing before. The old job wasn't challenging and it was a strange strange place.
So far so good! The new job is EXACTLY what I have been looking for...crossing my fingers that it turns into something permanent. But the people are nice and normal (WOOHOOO NORMAL PEOPLE!), the work is challenging and it's perfect for my skillset. It's 20 min from home, decent hours, did I say normal people?
But the abnormal bit about it is that there are lots of turkeys around. It's a very rural area in one of the most historic towns in the country. I usually see a couple turkeys each day, out the window that looks toward the woods. Coming from the West coast, I never saw wild turkeys till I moved to New England. Truth be told, I think I thought that there weren't any left, that, like chickens, they were mostly domesticated for good eating. The first time I heard a turkey gobble in the woods I was amazed. Then when I saw one! Wow, very different than the squatty types that I was used to seeing in books or that I assumed I was eating. They are huge birds, with really long legs, necks and freaky long wattles. Nearly as tall as me, I would bet, if they stood tall with their necks high.
When I met the controller for the company, she told me about how a few years ago a female turkey flew through one of the windows at work. I was incredulous...first of all, we're on the third floor, and second of all, turkeys could fly??!! I guess it had never really occurred to me. In my mind, turkeys still held the status of eating bird, looking a bit like these:
They don't fly.
Wild turkeys look a bit different...taller for one thing. Their legs are much longer and their heads are a bit smaller. Their tallness makes them look much more foreboding when they are walking around.
The other big difference is that wild turkeys do fly.
The woman who was telling me about the turkey that flew through the window says that in the winter you can see the whole flock...about twenty of them, flying. Crazy, huh? How terrifying would that be, to see a whole flock of 30 lb birds darkening the sky?
As for the turkey that shattered the window and freaked out the poor people sitting in the cubes there, it turned out to be alive and okay. Bit banged up but animal control came and took it to a vet where I'm sure they rehabilitated it. Or maybe had Thanksgiving dinner.
Wild turkeys are really freaky, I think. I wouldn't want one coming after me! In a way, I can understand why Ben Franklin wanted to make them the national bird. In a letter to his daughter he wrote...
"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.
"With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country....
"I am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America... He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on."
Interesting...perhaps America has lived up to the image of the Bald Eagle in many ways. Maybe Ben was on to something.
"Don't fuck with Ben Franklin," Joe says.
Incidentally, Joe makes the best turkey gobbling noises.
Posted by crystallyn at July 10, 2004 06:36 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.crystallyn.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/288
Comments
I'm sorry but, "a strange strange place"... HEE! Just be glad you're missing the two (2!) company events coming in the next few weeks.
Posted by: sassy at July 12, 2004 09:35 AM
this is the oddest post i've ever read. I now know more about the various differences in turkeys than I ever thought I'd need to know.
Thank you. ;)
Posted by: sean at July 12, 2004 09:59 AM
I hear wild turkeys can be mean to people, especially if they are nesting near by, very territorial. I heard about a turkey chasing a woman with a baby and a mail carrier in Newton several years ago.
Posted by: Heidi at July 15, 2004 08:20 AM
hello, how are you?
where are you from?
i don´t speak inglish but, tell me
ok?!
kisses
Posted by: dorival at July 29, 2004 10:48 AM
Yikes! All that food flying around? I would be salivating 24/7!
Didn't know 'bout the Franklin thing. interesting read.
Posted by: Timmerfoot at July 31, 2004 11:16 AM