It is a long standing tradition for the president to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey. I understand the humor in the tradition, but have always thought it to be a little silly since being eaten is typically what domesticated turkeys have been bred and raised for.
In the last few years, many city mayors have started doing this on a local level and sending a turkey to go live the rest of its years on a farm somewhere with the turkeys pardoned in previous years. However, this past Thanksgiving, the mayor of Seattle decided to show of the eccentricity of his city by pardoning two tofurkeys. Not just one, but two. Read the story here.
For those of you who may not know, a tofurkey is a turkey-shaped hunk of tofu and wheat protein which has never and will never be alive. This makes the 'pardoning' kind of…well, pointless. If you disagree with me about the validity of this strangeness, consider this. The tofurkeys were then donated to a food bank to be fed to the homeless at a local shelter. This means they were never even actually pardoned to begin with. They are still going to be eaten!
On the upside, if for any reason I was ever in a position where the only way I could have a Thanksgiving dinner would be from a shelter or a community food drive and they served me tofurkey, it just might be the jolt I needed to get my life back on track.
