Ben Franklin Wanted the Turkey as the National Bird
+ I join PBS NewsHour to talk SNAP and food insecurity
Dear Friends,
Welcome back to The Crunchwrap, the internet’s most important source of high-calorie takes and disputed holiday trivia.
I’m back in Montreal after playing the role of a young literary ham at book festivals in Texas, New Jersey, and Virginia earlier this month. Thank you to everyone who came out, bought me dinners, drove me to airports and train stations, and laughed at my killer jokes.
In this Crunchwrap, we’re dissecting SNAP misinformation (again) and – because we contain multitudes on this day of all days –talking historic turkey symbolism.
BUT FIRST…If you’re a new subscriber (hey), here’s a bit about me and this newsletter:
I’m Adam Chandler, a journalist (usually) based in New York. I write for a bunch of places about history, culture, work/labor, fast food, business, regular-speed food, Americana, and more. I’m also the author of two books, Drive-Thru Dreams and 99% Perspiration which, in spite of some really bad Edison jokes, came out earlier this year to wide acclaim. (I also do some unwieldy hand-talking on The History Channel’s The Food That Built America and other programs.)
In this newsletter, I cover Critical National Issues like waning social cohesion in America, Taco Bell’s latest gambits, and the cultural endurance of Billy Joel. I welcome your responses and gripes. If you’d like to support me, please check out my new book.
First Crunch
There’s no clever segue to be had here so…on Tuesday, I spoke with William Brangham at PBS NewsHour for a segment about how food banks are struggling to keep up with demand ahead of Thanksgiving. There are many reasons for the strain, but one of them is certainly the delayed effect of the government shutdown and the pause in SNAP benefits.
We talked about how SNAP is misunderstood intentionally mischaracterized for political gain and why new SNAP work requirements from the Big Beautiful Bill will make enrolling or remaining in the program even more difficult for millions. The video here is teed up to start at my interview, but the whole segment, which includes voices from food banks in scattered pockets of America, is worth watching – especially as we contemplate gratitude and/or tap the strategic stuffing reserves at our tables today.
I Hate the Eagles, Man
At this point, I assume that everyone knows this bit of trivia, but as someone who recently watched Saving Private Ryan on TBS in a hotel room in Virginia, lemme say that sometimes it’s just nice to revisit a classic, okay?
Anyhow, the year was 1784 and Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to his daughter that he never actually sent. The subject was mostly him bloviating – as he often did – this time about the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization founded by veterans of the Revolutionary War.
One of Franklin’s gripes was about the irony of members of the Cincinnati passing their membership onto their children, which is the kind of ennobling, aristocratic behavior that led the U.S. to break off from England in the first place. But buried in the letter was a much different rant…about how he wished the bald eagle hadn’t been chosen as the country’s national bird.
And fittingly for a man of Franklin’s restless, industrious character, it was because bald eagles were lazy and thus morally suspect: You may have seen him perched on some dead tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labour of the fishing hawk; and when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle pursues him, and takes it from him.
A better bird of virtue, to Franklin’s mind, was the courageous turkey, which he praised as “a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.” He goes on:
He is besides, (though a little vain and silly tis true, but not the worse emblem for that) a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on.
Now, historians have debated whether all of this was meant as a joke, but since Franklin was, quite literally, a printer and publisher, today we’re gonna print the legend. Have a great Thanksgiving as well as some noble and well-brined turkey.
That’s it for this edition of The Crunchwrap! I owe you several more poutine reports from Montreal before I head back to the States, so please stay tuned. And thanks as always for reading.
Gobble gobble, mofos,
Adam