Thursday, November 26, 2020
A rabbit hole of turkey proportions
I'm searching Youtube for the “WKRP in Cincinnati” turkey clip when I fell into this rabbit hole I was never expecting. The bit from “WKRP in Cincinnati” (one of the funniest bits on television) was inspried by an embellshed story of a real event decades prior. But I was completely gobsmacked by this 2016 news report of an actual, real life, “live turkey drop,” in Arkansas.
…
WHAT?
My mind is blown. Comedy and satire just can't compete with real life anymore.
So I start down this particular rabbit hole, and while the Yellville, Arkansas Chamber of Commerce no longer sponsors the festival, it's still unclear if the turkey drop has actually stopped?
…
WHAT?
The FAA apparently can't stop it:
“FAA regulations do not specifically prohibit dropping live animals from aircraft, possibly because the authors of the regulation never anticipated that an explicit prohibition would be necessary,” an FAA spokesman told HuffPost in an email. “This does not mean we endorse the practice.”
The FAA Can't Stop People From Throwing Live Turkeys Out Of Planes | HuffPost
…
WHAT?
Well, yeah, that makes a weird type of sense, but still …
… “The Federal Air Administration has deemed it legal for this act to occur at our festival as long as it is performed within the parameters that they have set forth.”
“The phantom pilot is named as such for a reason. There is no airstrip in Yellville and therefore we do not have any authority in terms of flight control,” it added. “Furthermore, Chamber board members, Turkey Trot sponsors, and Chamber members have absolutely no affiliation, jurisdiction, or control over what any individual does in his or her private plane in the air.”
…
The FAA said Monday it was aware of Saturday’s drop. The agency hasn’t intervened in past years because the birds aren’t considered projectiles.
FAA looking into Arkansas festival's turkey drop
…
WHAT?
All the articles I can find on this date from 2015 to 2018. I can't find anything that has said definitively that the turkey drop has actually stopped for good, but it may appear to have stopped. I don't know.
But this is not something I was expecting to find—an actual turkey drop.
Sheesh.
