Flying Turkeys of Yesteryear

It’s not every day you get to write a sentence like this:

As Keith Olbermann was making a pumpkin pie with Martha Stewart yesterday, they discussed the video of Sarah Palin cheerfully pardoning a Thanksgiving turkey with others being slaughtered in the background, as he recalled the classic 1978 WKRP sitcom episode of turkeys being dropped from a helicopter on the mistaken assumption that they could fly.

In the context of politicians scrambling around to give Citibank, AIG and other plummeting turkeys a soft landing, there is something symbolic about Palin’s rescue plan for one bird while others are going down.

After all this, the nostalgic may opt for a Thanksgiving dinner of moose chili and watching tapes of Jimmy Carter’s fireside chats about the ailing economy back then.

Cross-posted from my blog.

UPDATE

Actual videos from YouTube are below.

KTUU 2008 Sarah Palin turkey interview:

WKRP turkey drop scene Happy Thanksgiving: