November 20, 2009

Countdown to turkey! (U.S. meat-eaters)
AND Happy “Happy Inventions” Day


First, the inventions. Two fun things got US patents on the same day—November 20, 1866. One was the rotary-crank bicycle (patented by Pierre Lallemont of Paris, France), and the other was the yo-yo (James L. Haven and Charles Hittrick of Cincinnati, Ohio).

They weren't patented under these familiar names, however. Instead, they were patented under the names velocipede (the name bicycle was also invented in the 1860s) and bandelore (yo-yo was a Filipino term, probably from the Ilokano and Tagalog languages, and was brought to the U.S. by Filipino-American Pedro Flores in 1928).

By the way, that doesn't mean that bikes and yo-yos were entirely invented for the first time on that day in 1866. Bicycles had been invented and reinvented and improved upon since at least 1817—and of course continue to be improved upon today. And yo-yos have been around since at least 500 B.C.!

Now let's talk turkey. In about a week many families in U.S. and its territories will be celebrating Thanksgiving, many by eating traditional meal of roasted, stuffed turkey (or deep-fried turkey, turducken, or some other turkey-based meal). Here's a few turkey activities to get you ready:

Create a pine-cone turkey. Use a twist of paper or a sewn, stuffed bit of cloth to make a head; attach the head to a pine cone “body.” Or draw a turkey head on paper, and glue the “chips” or “petals” of a pine cone in fan shapes behind to make the body and tail.

How's your turkey talk? Fill in the letters to spell out these turkey terms:
LETTER BOX:
A A A A A B B E E E E E H H K L L L M N O O O O R R R S T T T T U W
      1. a male turkey T ___ ___
      2. a female turkey H ___ ___
      3. a young turkey P ___ ___ L ___
      4. a turkey's “speech” G ___ ___ ___ ___ E
      5. a turkey's covering F ___ ___ T ___ ___ ___ ___
      6. a turkey's neck skin W ___ ___ ___ L ___
      7. a turkey's foot C ___ ___ ___
      8. where they're born H ___ ___ C ___ ___ ___ Y
      9. where they're raised F ___ ___ M
      10. a group of turkeys F ___ ___ C ___


Answers:
1.TOM 2.HEN 3.POULT 4.GOBBLE 5. FEATHERS 6.WATTLE 7. CLAW 8.HATCHERY 9.FARM 10.FLOCK

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