The Return of the Wild Turkey

Jill Lepore considers the Thanksgiving bird. Plus: Bill Buford’s French Thanksgiving dinner. View in browser | Update your preferences Thursday, November 24, 2022 In today’s newsletter, fowl play, and tales from the archive: • Bill Buford’s French Thanksgiving dinner • An ode to Friendsgiving • A brief history of Tofurky The Return of the Wild Turkey In New England, the birds were once hunted nearly to extinction; now they’re swarming the streets like they own the place. Sometimes turnabout is fowl play. Illustration by João Fazenda Rats should take notice, pigeons ponder their options: wild turkeys have returned to New England. They’re strutting on city sidewalks, nesting under park benches, roosting in back yards—whole flocks flapping, waggling their drooping, bubblegum-pink snoods at passing traffic, as if they owned the place. You meet them at cafés and bus stops alike, the brindled hens clucking and cackling, calling their hatchlings, their jakes and their jennies, the big, blue-headed toms gurgling and gobble-gobbling. They look like Pilgrims, grave and gray-black, drab-daubed, their tail feathers edged in white, Puritan divines in ruffled cuffs. —Jill Lepore, from “The Return of the Wild Turkey” Read the story Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » From the Archive Kitchen Notes A Thanksgiving Dinner That Longs for France Recipes for a small but still lavish holiday meal. By Bill Buford Recollections Magical Dinners An immigrant Thanksgiving. By Chang-rae Lee Personal History Pilgrim’s Progress Thanksgiving without borders. By Jane Kramer Shouts & Murmurs Wonton Lust A Thanksgiving tradition. By Calvin Trillin Kitchen Notes The Perfect Thanksgiving Cocktail Is the Boulevardier At this time of year, when what you’re most thankful for is a cocktail that’s nice and easy, all you need to do is find whiskey, Campari, and vermouth. By Helen Rosner Kitchen Notes Friendsgiving Will Set You Free What Friendsgiving looks like, in practice—or what it means, in theory—is really up to you. That’s what makes it beautiful. By Bryan Washington Annals of Gastronomy Where Does Your Tofurky Come From? Featuring a tofu roast and tempeh “drumsticks,” the first frozen Tofurky meal, twenty-two years ago, was a hard sell with retailers and a mad success with the customers who managed to find it. By Jonathan Kauffman Kitchen Notes Win Thanksgiving (and Post-Thanksgiving) with Double Stock A true double stock is a culinary showpiece, an investment of time and ingredients that is worthy of its own spotlight. By Helen Rosner A Sale at The New Yorker Store: This week only, enjoy holiday-season discounts of up to thirty per cent on apparel and home goods for yourself and your loved ones. Fun & Games Dept. Sketchpad Thanksgiving Getting Stale? Try These Alternatives! You may have considered Friendsgiving, but what about Thankstaking, to finally get your due from all the ungrateful people in your life? By Emily Flake Name Drop Play Today’s Quiz Can you guess the notable person in six clues or fewer? By Will Nediger Crossword A Beginner-Friendly Puzzle Drink made with spiced tea and steamed milk: nine letters. By Elizabeth C. Gorski Daily Shouts What the Turkey Is Getting Pardoned For Obscene pecking, gobbling under the influence, and a conspiracy to make all eyes in the world beady, among other crimes of nature. By Colin Stokes Blitt’s Kvetchbook Once a Year, We Gather and Blame Those Most Deserving Wait, what am I talking about? Not once a year—every day! By Barry Blitt P.S. For a meditation on gratitude, read Raymond Carver’s “Gravy”: No other word will do. For that’s what it was. Gravy. Gravy these past ten years. Alive, sober, working, loving and being loved by a good woman. Eleven years ago he was told he had six months to live at the rate he was going. And he was going nowhere but down. So he changed his ways somehow. He quit drinking! And the rest? After that it was all gravy, every minute of it . . . Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up for The Daily. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for The Daily from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2022. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.