Turkey-Day Trivia & Other Tidbits
Whether you’re making the trip home for a feast and four-day weekend with the family, or staying put and keeping it low-key with friends, frozen pizza, and a steady stream of college football, equip yourself with these feathered factoids, and you’re sure to take the Thanksgiving spotlight with your impressive command of fowl fable and lore.
Or with what is obviously your slightly freaky turkey fetish. Whatever works.
The Turkey Trivia Trove
Did you know that:
- Turkeys can drown if they look up when it’s raining?
- Turkeys have great hearing, but no external ears?
- The fleshy growth from the base of the beak is called the snood?
- Turkeys sometimes spend the night in trees?
- The heaviest turkey ever raised was grown in England and weighed 86 pounds?
- Only male turkeys make the familiar “gobbling” sound? (Females make a clicking noise.)
- The turkey once vied with the bald eagle for the title of national symbol of the United States? Benjamin Franklin argued on behalf of the turkey.
- Wild turkeys can run at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour and fly for short distances at up to 55 miles per hour?
- Turkeys have heart attacks? (When the Air Force conducted test runs with jets that broke the sound barrier, entire fields of nearby turkeys would drop dead.)
For even more turkey “did you knows,” check out these websites:
Test Your Thanksgiving I.Q.
If you’d rather show off your towering turkey know-all by dominating the competition Jeopardy!-style, challenge your small siblings, vegan roommates, and other worthy adversaries with these Thanksgiving-themed quizzes:
465 Ways to Say “Thank You”
You may already know how to say “thank you” in Spanish, French, Italian, or German, but if you’re looking to extend your linguistic borders, try saying it in Welsh, Zulu, Thai, or any one of another 465 languages. Here’s just a small sample:
- Arabic: Shukran
- Chinese (Mandarin): Xie xie
- Dutch: Dank u
- Finnish: Kiitos
- French: Merci
- German: Danke
- Greek: Efcharisto
- Hebrew: Toda
- Hindi: Shukriya
- Hungarian: Köszönöm
- Inuktitut (Alaska): Taikkuu
- Irish Gaelic: Go raibh maith agaibh
- Italian: Grazie
- Japanese: Arigato
- Korean: Komapsumnida
- Lakhota: Pilamaya ye (said by a woman), Pilamaya yelo (said by a man)
- Navajo: Aheéhee’
- Polish: Dziekuje
- Russian: Spasibo
- Scottish Gaelic: Tapadh leat
- Spanish: Gracias
- Swahili: Asante
- Swedish: Tack
- Tagalog: Salamat
- Thai: Khawp khun
- Welsh: Diolch
- Zulu: Ngiyabonga
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