Do you suppose that young turkeys know that when they grow up, they're going to be delicious? 🤔

Turkey Kindergarten:

Turkey chick #1: I'm gonna be a fireman!
Turkey chick #2: I'm gonna be a pilot!
Turkey chick #3: I'm gonna be a fireman!
Turkey chick #1: Hey, that's what I'm gonna be!

Turkey teacher: 😭

(I'm definitely the villain in this story.)

I wonder why I haven't heard of turkey pizza... 🤔

I'm guessing there's some kind of turkey/pizza treaty involved.

Fun Fact: This movie was originally supposed to be about turkeys, but the MPAA decided that it would have to be rated R for horror, so they made it about chickens instead.

🥚🐣☀️🌱🦃🔪🩸🚚🔥🍗

It's close enough to the event that I am now daydreaming about the logistics of acquiring a frozen turkey that's probably dead, ruthlessly removing its spine, giving it its last bath ever, subjecting it to what it surely regards as the fires of hell and then gleefully consuming it with friends and loved ones.

A family member has requested the spine.

This would be disconcerting if he wasn't the man responsible for this year's gravy.

I guess I am just assuming that he's going to use a raw turkey spine to make epic gravy, but how well do I know the guy, really?

He could have a shed of full of turkey spines, hanging from the ceiling on thumbtacked twine, a pair of googley eyes affixed to each of them. He could have given them names and spends every Thursday evening from 8 to 10pm having wacky conversations with them.

But nah. He's probably just making gravy.

Reading that again, and I am suddenly thinking that this thread might not be the best introduction to CounterSocial for the newcomers... 🙃

"So I join and the first thing I see is some Asshat dressed like a first-grader's idea of a turkey, and he's posting all of this crazy shit about turkey spines hanging from ceilings with googley eyes attached to them and I just don't know what the hell we're even doing on the internet anymore."

^^ It's pretty funny if you've been here for a while though. #sadbuttrue

There's an eagle outside screaming. Is it yelling at me for totally bullying an as yet unacquired frozen bird?

Oof. I sure hope they never become allied with turkeys because if you really think about it, eagles are basically flying razor blades of doom. #PNWlife

Alfred says that eagles eat turkeys too, so that's one less thing for me to worry about.

At some point here I will share my brining process, which is the secret to a seriously delicious formerly happy giant dead bird.

Without brining, roasted turkey is just meh.

The hardest part of brining is finding a suitable container that can hold both the bird and enough liquid to keep it completely submerged and chilled for 48 hours.

I have a giant stock pot that just barely fits in the fridge. I've used a cooler in the past. Even a bucket with a foodsafe plastic liner can work. If the outside temp stays below 40°, you can even park it on a porch if it's securely closed.

It's 100% worth the effort.

^^ Turkeys become remarkably flexible when you remove their spine, which gives you more options when it comes to finding a container for the brine.

Sharing this now so you can gather the necessary supplies, you know, if cooking up a giant bird is also in your future.

Speaking of supplies, this thing is also a must-have. It'll go off when your bird is cooked to perfection.

We use ours year-round.

https://a.co/d/4m8oPk1

As for the bird, I'll likely pick mine up in the next few days. It'll start thawing on Monday to be ready for brine Thursday to be cooked Saturday.

If you're cooking yours for Thanksgiving, you want that thaw to start this coming Saturday, brine to start Tuesday for cooking Thursday. Thaw time might be less depending on bird size.

Brine time is 48 hours. It can be done in less, but this has worked out best in my experience.

Turkey prices right now are very low. 👀

It's probably a good thing that I don't have the means to store more than one. I'm positive that the turkey gods would absolutely put a stop to me if I started hoarding the things.

I bet turkeys go to therapy... 🤔

I asked #ChatGPT to draw me an image depicting a trio of turkey gods, and it's both terrifying and would potentially make for a righteous tattoo.

I can't decide if the turkey gods would love me or hate me.

On the one hand, I definitely play a part in their murder and consumption. On the other, I do make a big deal about it and do their demise a fair bit of justice. Their kind are not dying in vain with me.

However, I also make the murder and consumption of turkey much more popular in the process so I guess it's pretty complicated.

I'm not that worried about it, tbh.

I've seen what happens to some of the other birds, and it isn't pretty.

If you're dunking your turkey in gravy just to be able to enjoy it next week, you'll see what I mean.

There is no turkey erotica in this thread.

It would probably be obligatory if this was #RIPTwitter, but thankfully it's not.

I think that turkeys are probably extremely gullible.

I don't think it took much to load them up for their last field trip ever. The farmer probably just told them that they were going to the zoo or something.

I'm guessing they were even pretty excited about it. I mean, the zoo would be a pretty exciting place for a turkey.

They thought they were going to see flamingoes, which are legendary among turkey communities, but instead all they saw was death.

It's pretty horrific, if you really think about it. But they say that death is merely the beginning of a delicious journey, so it'll probably be alright.

Also, I totally had a dream that I was getting a tattoo of the turkey gods to appease the turkey gods.

I was pretty drunk in this dream, which is probably fair warning. You know, from the turkey gods.

I'll bet that in this dream, I was drinking...

...Wild Turkey.

I'm pretty sure the contents of my CounterSocial timeline are going to be an exhibit in a future proceeding to have me committed or something. 🤪

I believe tomorrow is the day that I finally meet this year's honoree.

It's Ten's turn to name it this year. She assures me that she has to meet it first. It's like that, you know. It really takes a meeting to understand the personality and give it a suitable name.

Also, I will not be specifying the grocer from which I will be acquiring this year's bird. You know, for security purposes.

You probably think it's unlikely, but I think that if I share the market from which I will be selecting this year's bird, there's a much greater chance that it will hatch up a zany escape plan and there won't be any turkeys left when I arrive.

So I'm declaring that detail to be classified in the interests of fictional security.

[REDACTED] has a good selection of turkeys that allegedly lived very joyous lives on an open pasture.

It's a sad story for them if you really think about it, but at least it's a mediocre story for us.

This year's turkey has been acquired.

I stood there staring at the selection for what seemed like an inordinate amount of time. Which one of these birds deserved a good home? That one there looks like an asshole. This other one looks stubborn. Yet others I'm sure would have been passable, but I knew the moment I saw it which one was mine.

It was sitting in a corner of the freezer bay, untouched by the others and looking quite rejected.

I'm sure I saw it smile when I added it to the cart.

I drove home like I was leaving the hospital with a newborn, my typical quick turns and prompt acceleration reduced to the measured calm of a man transporting delicate cargo. I could tell the bird was nervous. It shifted almost imperceptibly with each pothole and variation in the imperfect road surface, riding into what it surely must consider the great unknown. I played chill indie to ease the transition, carried it gingerly inside, and gently placed it in a place of honor in the freezer.

I'm going to give it a few hours to unwind. It's pretty dark in there, so I'm guessing it'll fall asleep.

Ten will meet it soon, and then we will know what it's called. Probably. She might just call it Turkey McTurkeyFace though, so I guess we should all be ready for that.

@kel - I was honestly hoping Ten would be the one to select the magnificent beast.