By JOE DANA
joe@newsroom.byu.edu
It was a turkey that assisted Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin when they were the first to land on the moon -- they ate it from foiled packets for their first meal.
And it's a turkey that supplies the costume feathers for America's favorite over-stuffed bird on Sesame Street every morning.
But you can thank them later. They're a little busy this time of year.
Forty-three-year-old Dorothy Jones of Downers Grove, Ill., is a turkey expert who works for Butterball during the holiday season. She said about 67 million of the giddy gobblers are eaten during the months of November and December and over 300 million are consumed each year in America.
That's a lot of Big Birds.
However, it's Israel that consumes the most. Butterball reports last year average Israeli consumed an average of 37 pounds of turkey per capita.
Geographically, the turkey suffers from an identity crisis. Though its origin is believed to come from Mexico, the French call it a 'dinde,' reflecting the belief that it came from the East Indies. However in India, the word for turkey is 'Peru,' the country they believe it to originate from.
The turkey actually was first known to originate from Mexico, according to the Butterball web page. It was venerated by the natives for sacrificial offerings.
Americans call the bird 'turkey,' as do the British, because it came to England from the New World with the help of merchants from Turkey.
Another misunderstood fact about turkeys, Jones said, is that they are unusually unintelligent.
'There not as dumb as people think them to be,' Jones said. 'It's a myth that has gone around that they're dumber than other birds or animals.'
They also preserve well.
Last year a man called one of Jones' colleagues, after having just cleaned out his freezer.
'He found a turkey that had been in there for 30 years,' Jones said. 'It was still edible, but it probably was a little dry.'
At the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Mass., in 1621, the turkey was one of many birds gracing the tables. It wasn't until 1863 that Thanksgiving was officially made a holiday, and the turkey became destined to decorate tables across the United States.
Other known facts about America's symbol of Thanksgiving:
The largest turkey ever raised may have been a 75-pound turkey raised on a turkey farming company in 1967.
A male turkey, known as a 'Tom turkey,' makes the gobbling noise while the female turkey actually makes a clicking noise.
'Well, they know the difference between a gobble and a click,' Jones said. Therefore, Jones said, reproduction isn't a problem.
The reason why people feel tired after eating a big turkey is because they are suffering from a tryptophan hangover. Stimulated by the carbohydrates in the Thanksgiving trimmings, the tryptophan in the turkey causes an overload of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain, which makes the turkey lover sleepy.
The greatest producers of turkeys in the United States are North Carolina, Minnesota and Arkansas.