Coming closer to the big turkey day, a common misconception is that the turkey could have been our national bird instead of the bald eagle. Some people believe that Benjamin Franklin himself argued to make the turkey our national bird. This is simply not true.
After the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin was one of several people tasked with coming up for an idea for the seal of the United States of America. A few ideas floated around, just not the idea of using a turkey.
It is true that Franklin talked about a turkey, but this was in a letter that he wrote to his daughter, Sarah. He praised the turkey, calling it "a much more respectable bird" and "a true original native of America." In contrast, he called the bald eagle "a bird of bad moral character" and "too lazy to fish for himself" because it tends to steal fish from hawks.
The revelation of the existence of this letter later hit newspapers a century later, long after Franklin and his daughter had passed. Franklin's disdain for the bald eagle being on the seal was never publicly revealed until then, as was his respect for the turkey.
Over the years, just as the subject can change when people play the "telephone game," the story of Franklin and the turkey developed into the false notion that he wanted gobblers to be the national bird.
He did not.
The turkey was never considered to be the national bird, thus never putting the status of a turkey in jeopardy from not being the main course for a Thanksgiving dinner.
Turkey and avocado sandwiches...safe.
Those large drumsticks that you enjoy at county fairs...safe.
Your ability to stay awake after a big Thanksgiving dinner...well, that's still in jeopardy because of the tryptophan.
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