On Sat, Jun 13, 2009 at 10:33:26AM -0400, P. J. Alling scripsit: > Graydon wrote: >> Domestic turkeys are descended from the severe mental defectives of >> the wild turkey population, because those are the only ones the >> Pilgrim Fathers could catch or keep. > Domestic Turkeys were re-imported into the Americas bu the pilgrim > fathers,
Sure. Where they met up with their wild brethren who encouraged them to form a resistance. (Well, OK; wild toms will steal domestic hens if they can, and they did.) So I am leaving out a whole lot of steps up there for humorous emphasis. > the originals were brought to Europe by the Spanish who stole > them from the Aztecs, the birds got to England and the Netherlands by > way of the Ottoman Empire thus the name, or did you think it was > simply a slur on the Turks? I've certainly heard it suggested that the name has an element of onomatopoeia in it, rather than being specifically national. And that there's some confusion about "turkey" versus "guinea fowl" in some of the 16th and 17th century sources, in the sense of not making a distinction. -- Graydon, who figures getting to decapitate a peacock was a highlight of the medieval cook's apprentice's day. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
