November hasn't had a day in the top 35 most-traveled in years, according to DOT figures, which track the daily number of flights, not passengers.

Isn't passenger load (fraction of seats filled) higher around Thanksgiving?

Yeah right. Like I'm going to trust government statistics from people who went to government schools. I get my statistics from trade groups. They don't have a hidden agenda to downplay turkey consumption like Obama's bureaucrats do.

Next thing, you'll all be telling me that businesses DON'T lose $895 trillion in productivity during the first two days of the NCAA tournament. Poppycock, I say.

I thought July 4th weekend was the busiest for travel.

David Harvey, a poultry and fish-farming analyst with the USDA's Economic Research Service, says it would be difficult to come up with a precise Thanksgiving turkey tally. "I'd prefer to say we eat a lot of turkey in the fourth quarter." -- Good Day!

As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly coach.

Of course, you could combine the two - turkeys with air travel....

"...as God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

FunkOut 2009-11-25 11:10:14 AM
As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly coach.

/shakes tiny fist
//my first almost-simulpost

Norman Greenbaum: FunkOut 2009-11-25 11:10:14 AM
As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly coach.

/shakes tiny fist
//my first almost-simulpost

Awwwww, it's okay.

/pats tiny fist in a comforting manner

I suggest that government statistics are not accurate.

I'm sure the increase in work for Roto-Rooter is for clogged *drains*.

/Riiiiiiiiiiiight.

If BOTH statistics were true, then the roads would be filled with sleeping drivers.

ZAZ: Isn't passenger load (fraction of seats filled) higher around Thanksgiving?

Perhaps if they cut down on the number of flights.

Remember airports and airlines have staff who want the time off as well. Less staff means longer lines, less planes, etc. Which contributes to the illusion that it's so busy.

And those who work holidays are normally the "B Team", and perhaps disgruntled.

Why do we have government statistics on how many turkeys are eaten on Thanksgiving?

Newspapers haven't done much real reporting in the past 35 years either so it all works out in the end.

Care for some more turkey you sheeple?

someone/book/media

lets run down the obvious so the news can hammer it out all in one report

turkeys are eaten. a lot died
its a busy travel day so the roads will be full.
same for air travel, expect delays.
Your grandma still disapproves of your gf.
creepy uncle is creepy
football is on tv. the games will be awful.
its almost christmas some asshat wil want to play christmas music at your place of work starting monday.

And I heard the day after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day of the year!*

*also not true, it's the Saturday before Christmas.

hej: Why do we have government statistics on how many turkeys are eaten on Thanksgiving?

For some reason the United States Department of Agriculture tracks the production of various agricultural products. Apparently, you can review these metrics and make assumptions about when these products were consumed.

Typical government wastefulness.

ZAZ: November hasn't had a day in the top 35 most-traveled in years, according to DOT figures, which track the daily number of flights, not passengers.

Isn't passenger load (fraction of seats filled) higher around Thanksgiving?

And of course no one drives, takes the bus, or rides the train...

pelzar: I suggest that government statistics are not accurate.

Private sector statistics would be far more accurate, because the free market would ensure that only the most accurate statistics were produced and publicized. These "government" statistics are really just more socialism from Chairman Maobama.

I wonder if people deliberately refrain from eating turkey during November, knowing that Thanksgiving is approaching. The purchase date means nothing- My turkey was bought and paid for two weeks ago, to allow time for my butcher to smoke it. I just took possession of the bird this morning, in fact. It smells heavenly and I fear a Bumpus's dogs scenario.

As God is my witness, I thought tourists would fly.

/Canadian, already had Thanksgiving
/will still watch that WKRP episode tomorrow

I've been eating a turkey and cheese sandwich for lunch an average of 3.5 times a week, and have been doing so for about 5 years.

Suck it, statisticals.

We get all our information about everything from one of two sources: corporations and government. Both have glaring ulterior motives to subvert the truth and long track records of doing so.

For anyone discerning enough not to swallow shiate by the cartload on a daily basis, there simply is no such thing as reliable data in the mainstream media. It's all a big craptastic entertainment/propaganda show, and you have to be pretty dim to take any of it seriously.

If those numbers were accurate, Americans would be eating almost no turkey on other days from October through December. According to the turkey federation, 69.7 million turkeys were consumed in the fourth quarter of last year. That would mean only 1.7 million turkeys total were consumed on all other days of the quarter -- an amount that normally is consumed in just three days at other times of the year, U.S. Department of Agriculture figures suggest.

Wow, this guy cannot write and confuses himself with his own logic

The article is in the WSJ?

Must be completely bogus.

hej: Why do we have government statistics on how many turkeys are eaten on Thanksgiving?

I was wondering why there is a Turkey Federation

hej: Why do we have government statistics on how many turkeys are eaten on Thanksgiving?


Because otherwise-unemployable cousins and brothers-in-law need jobs too.

Statistics are like bikinis: What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.

/Aaron Levenstein

TurkeyGate! A conspiracy of turkey scientists have been working to fool us all.

Rapmaster2000: Yeah right. Like I'm going to trust government statistics from people who went to government schools. I get my statistics from trade groups. They don't have a hidden agenda to downplay turkey consumption like Obama's bureaucrats do.

Like imma listen to this guy.

Earl of Chives: Care for some more turkey you sheeple?

Ah yes, Sheeple, that favorite buzzword of phony, intellectuals, conspiracy moonbats, and Fark Independents™, who would like to believe they are smarter than everybody else.

boobsrgood: We get all our information about everything from one of two sources: corporations and government. Both have glaring ulterior motives to subvert the truth and long track records of doing so.

For anyone discerning enough not to swallow shiate by the cartload on a daily basis, there simply is no such thing as reliable data in the mainstream media. It's all a big craptastic entertainment/propaganda show, and you have to be pretty dim to take any of it seriously.

And university research is always funded either by the government or corporations, which means that science is inherently compromised and most likely false. We'd be much better off if we didn't let all of these greedy, controlling institutions try to manipulate our lives and thoughts. If only there was a way to preserve individual liberty and intellect... no one's going to tell me what to think about anything damnit!

Tad_Waxpole: Ah yes, Sheeple, that favorite buzzword of phony, intellectuals, conspiracy moonbats, and Fark Independents™, who would like to believe they are smarter than everybody else.

You need to remove two commas.

Wait a minute, I thought the WSJ didn't trust government statistics, and preferred to get its information from more bootstrappy sources that love our freedoms.

Oh, and total threadjack, but thank God for Adblock Plus. I've been farking on another computer for the last few days, and this shiat is b-a-n-a-n-a-s.

Gee, bullshiat just like climate change science.

/now established FACT

RockIsDead: Gee, bullshiat just like climate change science.

See? They just come out of the woodwork.

ZAZ: November hasn't had a day in the top 35 most-traveled in years, according to DOT figures, which track the daily number of flights, not passengers.

Isn't passenger load (fraction of seats filled) higher around Thanksgiving?

Don't know (don't have any tangible data) but my anecdotal hearsay tells me that passenger load has been trending up with more full flights, even at the cost of less flights per day.

Tad_Waxpole: Earl of Chives: Care for some more turkey you sheeple?

Ah yes, Sheeple, that favorite buzzword of phony, intellectuals, conspiracy moonbats, and Fark Independents™, who would like to believe they are smarter than everybody else.

Well, if you are 16 yo and starting to learn about the effects of peer pressure, tradition and societal norms and have come upon that term and have a use for it as you form your first baby words as person starting to recognize the need for independent thought, it's ok. But if you are over 20 and still use that word your socio-political development might be arrested.

Yessssss!......And I will kill 45,999,999 of them or so.

ZAZ: November hasn't had a day in the top 35 most-traveled in years, according to DOT figures, which track the daily number of flights, not passengers.

Isn't passenger load (fraction of seats filled) higher around Thanksgiving?

I would say that the fraction of seats filled by folks that are generally clueless about air travel (and therefore likely to clog up the security checkpoint lines, ticket counters, etc.) and/or traveling with unruly children and way too much stuff is much higher around Thanksgiving.

Then again, some professional business travelers do like to carry on what looks like a week's worth of wardrobe, so they don't completely escape my grousing. At least their luggage tends to be in overhead-bin-shaped wheelies rather than overflowing, oddly shaped duffel bags.

Walker: And I heard the day after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day of the year!*

*also not true, it's the Saturday before Christmas.

I can see that being true for say the year 2007, where that Saturday was the 22nd. This year, when Saturday is a whole 6 days before Christmas? Not so much.

It would also depend on what figure you are counting. Total sales? I would imagine most of the people shopping on that Friday are just going for the cheap purchases and not doing full Christmas shopping (unless they are insane).

So this says that we don't eat that many turkeys on thanksgiving, and it's not the busiest travel day.

They provide statistics on this, and the statistics refer to the number of pounds of turkey purchased per month, and the average flights per day in the summer vs. average flights per day in November.

Now i'm no big-city statistician, but... well, I am a small town statistician, and it seems to me that:
1) some people buy turkeys in advance and freeze them
2) it's not entirely valid to compare summer averages to thanksgiving.

1) if we pick just when turkey purchase start to climb, let's assume that the turkeys purchased in October and november are for thanksgiving. That's a billion pounds of turkey. Average turkey weighs 15 lbs or so, so 66,666,670 million turkeys purchased, perhaps to eat on thanksgiving. If we just take what's in excess over the average in October and November, that's about 300,000,000 pounds of turkey. Again pull the average of 15 lbs / turkey, and we have 22.2 million turkeys eaten on thanksgiving. So somewhere between 22.2 and 66.6 million turkeys are eaten on thanksgiving. Like, I dunno... 45 million?

2) Air travel. Summer time, holidays, lots of travel to various places. More flights to get you there. Also more chartered flights. Their stats don't say anything about how full each flight is. Presumably airlines don't give a fark about families traveling during thanksgiving, because the families have to travel and probably do so infrequently. Cram those flights as full as possible. Also, how big are the planes? No comparison of that either.

in short, WSJ lies.

Suddenly the WSJ is citing government statistics? Did I just fall through the spacetime infundibulum into Bizarro Earth?

Happy Thanksgiving, ya turkeys! (new window)

As long as the Turkeys haven't been dropped: Link (new window)

Ham > Turkey

I prefer my meal not having enough drugs to put me to sleep.

/glares at turkey
//is Canadian anyways, so, thanksgiving is old news.