 Horror/Scary: November 25, 2020 Issue [#10478] |
This week: Off With Their Heads Edited by: W.D.Wilcox  
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“A turkey is more occult and awful than all the angels and archangels. In so far as God has partly revealed to us an angelic world, he has partly told us what an angel means. But God has never told us what a turkey means. And if you go and stare at a live turkey for an hour or two, you will find by the end of it that the enigma has rather increased than diminished.”
-G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)
“A cook she certainly was, in the very bone and centre of her soul. Not a....turkey....in the barn-yard but looked grave when they saw her approaching, and seemed evidently to be reflecting on their latter end; and certain it was that she was always meditating on trussing, stuffing and roasting, to a degree that was calculated to inspire terror in any reflecting fowl living.”
-A description of Aunt Chloe in 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852)
"I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country.....The turkey is a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America."
-Benjamin Franklin
“TURKEY, n. A large bird whose flesh when eaten on certain religious anniversaries has the peculiar property of attesting piety and gratitude. Incidentally, it is pretty good eating.”
-Ambrose Bierce, ‘The Devil's Dictionary’ (1911)
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The Sacrifice
Ring around the rosies
Chasing turkeys through the posies
Ashes, ashes, the axe comes down
People have been sacrificing birds long before Thanksgiving ever came around. Analysis of bird remains excavated in Jerusalem confirmed that specific species of birds – pigeons, doves – were indeed sacrificed in the Temple as the biblical text suggests, a new study published in the May issue of the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) showed.
“[Noah] again sent out the dove from the ark. The dove came back to him toward evening, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the waters had decreased on the earth,” (Genesis 8, 10-11, translation Sefaria.org).
From the story of Noah and the dove in the Book of Genesis to the issues of ritual sacrifices and dietary restrictions, birds play a very important role in the biblical text.
Pigeons and doves often appear in the Bible as animals fit to be offered to God. For example, as described in Leviticus, they were one of the options for an atoning sacrifice for those who committed several types of sin or who had become impure. Moreover, a mother was required to bring a turtledove after completing her purification period following childbirth.
However, as Spiciarich pointed out, some scholars were skeptical.
“All the animals that are defined as sacrificial in the Bible are domesticated species, while pigeons and doves are not what people think as domesticated. Therefore, some biblical scholars stated that people back then did not sacrifice pigeons or doves but rather chickens, which were domesticated,” she explained. Chickens?! Why not turkeys?
Animal sacrifice is the ritual killing and offering of an animal, usually as part of a religious ritual or to appease or maintain favor with a deity. Animal sacrifices were common throughout Europe and the Ancient Near East until the spread of Christianity in Late Antiquity, and continue in some cultures or religions today. Human sacrifice, where it existed, was always much more rare.
All or only part of a sacrificial animal may be offered; some cultures, like the ancient and modern Greeks, eat most of the edible parts of the sacrifice in a feast, and burnt the rest as an offering. Others burnt the whole animal offering, called a holocaust. Usually the best animal or best share of the animal is the one presented for offering.
Animal sacrifice should generally be distinguished from the religiously-prescribed methods of ritual slaughter of animals for normal consumption as food.
Enter the turkey: although not domesticated, it has become the sacrificial bird for the Thanksgiving Holiday. So, don't feel bad for this bird, chop off its head and give thanks for its creation.
Until next we meet,
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Pluck 'Em (erm...I mean Pick 'Em)
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DEAD LETTERS
When someone knocks, are you hesitant to open your front door?
s 
Knock? Door? Like... visitors?
You mean, they got past the bear trap, the tiger trap and the trained killer gerbils?
Wow. I'm impressed. The last person to do that was my ex's lawyer, but that's because even death is afraid of lawyers.
And those skeletons in the front yard? Yeah... they're fake. Honestly.
~SilverMoonCranberry~ 
Hmm. Well, I use to just open the door to see who was there, but if I was expecting someone I know personally I'd yell to just come on in.
I do kind of think anyone wanting to do me harn might not knock on the door but would come inside using other methods. If they aren't quite discreet I might have time to grab a frying pan big enough for thier head.
I can see how this could go wrong though .I remember my oldest son who lives about seven hours away calling me one day. He called asking what I was doing and we just did usual chit chat.
After we hung up I went about doing stuff in my kitchen. What I didn't know is my front door happened to be unlocked and he'd somehow managed to discreetly get in the house.
It was still daylight so because I didn't hear any unusual noises I was not alarmed.
Had it been night time I might have freaked out when he suddenly appeared before me and I was armed with a frying pan.
Crow
I am always on high alert when there is a knock at the door. If I have my pistol, I will hold it close to my side and carefully open. This is no joke, for I trust very few people. I have blinds on the door, so I can just make out who is on the other side. I am not afraid of my own shadow, but I understand how our society is. I also carry a gun in my car. If someone plans to take me down, they should be ready to finish the job.
bryanmchunter
Kind of. Especially if it's one of those door-to-door salesmen or people trying to get you to convert to their religion (apologies to religious people everywhere).
Ned
I have a morbid fear of people knocking on my door. Luckily, people I know tend to just walk in. Soon, it will be snowing and icy all the time and no one will want to knock on my door enough to battle the elements.
Paul 
For the last 20 years or so, absolutely. This craziness did not exist when I was a kid and through a great deal of my adult life, I’m 78.
Ẃeβ࿚ẂỉԎḈĥ 
No, because I have my .357 with me at all times. Well, not in the shower but within quick reach. I remember Psycho!
I just L-O-V-E this time of year!!! 
Lynn Nichole 
Increasingly, no. I make a point of opening the door for a couple of reasons, one being that the person knocking on my door may be in need of something (this happened to me about a week ago; a neighbor who I don't know hardly at all couldn't get anyone else to answer their doors, and they had a legitimate problem they need help resolving, so they were very thankful that I answered the door).
The other reason is that the women in my family are generally terrified of the world around them, and I've come close to becoming one of them. I don't want this, so I increase my self-confidence by doing exactly what my relative females are so afraid to do: open the door for strangers. For me, it's a matter of survival because mental illness runs in my family, and this is the only way I know to combat my own genetic predisposition to suffer the same illnesses I have to watch cripple other members of my family.
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