"Even turkeys can fly" (1992)

[Wilson Gray]

On Sep 17, 2004, at 2:50 PM, Mullins, Bill wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: "Even turkeys can fly" (1992)
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> Wilson -- This episode was the sum total of my knowledge of the flight
> status of turkeys, wild or otherwise, until two years ago when I was
> hiking
> by myself a couple miles back into the woods in the Smokey Mountains
> Natl
> Park.  I heard a gobble from one overhead, and it scared the living
> crap out
> of me.  It was a good thirty feet up.  Since then I've seen a couple
> more up
> in trees, and I presume it's not because they are skilled in the Alpine
> arts.
>
> Bill

You're way ahead of me on this one, Bill. I've only read about wild
turkeys, though my experience with domestic ones predates the
development of the current plastic variety. My grandfather used to buy
a live turkey to fatten up for Thanksgiving. It still looked like a
wild turkey, plumage-wise. He'd keep it in the backyard with the
chickens, with which it seemed to fit right in. So, I guess poultry
farmers had already succeeded in dumbing turkeys down.

-Wilson

>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Wilson Gray [mailto:wilson.gray at RCN.COM]
>> Sent: Friday, September 17, 2004 1:45 PM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Re: "Even turkeys can fly" (1992)
>>
>>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: "Even turkeys can fly" (1992)
>> --------------------------------------------------------------
>> -----------------
>>
>> On Sep 17, 2004, at 2:31 PM, Mullins, Bill wrote:
>>
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
>>> Subject:      Re: "Even turkeys can fly" (1992)
>>>
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>>> -
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>>>
>>> Arthur Carlson, station manager of WKRP radio in Cincinnati, OH:
>>>
>>> "As God is my witness . . . I thought turkeys could fly."
>> 30 Oct 78
>>>
>>
>> FWIW, real, i.e. wild turkeys can and do fly. It's only the
>> synthetic, Butterball-type of turkey that can't fly.
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>>
>