I just learned something really weird. I'm not entirely certain of all the facts, so if I'm wrong please correct me.
Sometime around Thanksgiving, there's a National Thanksgiving Turkey presentation in the Rose Garden at the White House. (This has aparrently been going on since Lincoln was president.) Some farmer named Lynn Nutt raises a bunch of big, fancy turkeys and then brings them to the White House where they run around for awhile. (That part's a little sketchy.) He raises them by hand so they're tame.
He picks two special ones ahead of time and one is presented to the President as the National Thanksgiving Turkey. He then "pardons" the turkey. (The other one is the alternate. In case one pecks the President and he decides not to pardon him?)
Aparrently this year, the President's dog Barney chased one of the turkeys around for awhile and made it all nervous. I bet that was pretty awesome to watch.
This year's turkeys were named Flyer and Fryer. Flyer was the National Turkey and Fryer was the alternate. They were both flown to California where they were honorary grand marshals of Disneyland's Thanksgiving Day parade.
Is that a strange national custom or what; National Thanksgiving Turkeys? Pardons?! Uff dah.
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