Happy Thanksgiving everyone! As you work your way through the (somewhat mythical) tryptophans, here’s a nugget to chew from the History News Network: Why Is Our Thanksgiving Bird Called a Turkey? (Answer: Because, of course, it came from Turkey). A taste (it’s wafer thin!):

But if the turkey is as American as motherhood and apple pie, why for god’s sake is the name of this bird the same as the name of a vast and important country in the Middle East? Not just any country, mind you. Turkey — the proud nation we know today — was the seat of the Ottoman Empire, the largest and most powerful political realm the western world has known since the decline and fall of Rome . . . .

How the American bird we know as turkey got the moniker “turkey” and not huexoloti (Aztec) or guajolote (Mexican) — authentic early American names for American turkeys — has much to do with the fact that Turkey was the center of the world at the time Christian Europeans began taking a few baby steps toward finding an alternative route to India . . . .

I had never noticed that our local airport has labeled the post-security-checkpoint area the “recombobulation area.”   I hope any of you traveling through airports over the holiday are discombobulated as little as possible, and recombobulated easily and peacefully.  Indeed, I wish everyone safe travels in general.  And, come to think of it, peaceful recombobulations in general; sometimes the holidays can be a bit discombobulating whether or not you are traveling.