Thanksgiving Turkey Rides, and Tryptophanbusters

It's Thanksgiving, eaters! Time for a ride on a huge Victorian-era turkey and some debunking of the tryptophan myth. Here's the turkey ride part. See?

"And I thought these things smelled bad on my insides!"

I paid six friggin' bucks for this stupid card at an antique store, but the picture was so weird, I couldn't let it just sit there. George Lucas probably thinks he invented the image of Luke and Han riding tauntauns around Hoth, but like everything else in the Star Wars movies, he got the idea from a really old holiday card. FYI: the Death Star started out as William Howard Taft.

This puppet will later have his giblets spilled, without gravy. Luke is the stuffing.

Today, you'll probably hear a few relatives joke about being sleepy after gorging themselves on turkey. Too bad people don't gorge themselves on science with as much gusto. Science, up, you! Yes, turkey has tryptophan, but not as much as chicken, and no more than milk, yogurt, fish, tomatoes, or a hundred other things you eat pretty much every day. The real answer is disappointingly simple. You get sleepy because you overeat. This is not a judgement. I plan to make a pig of myself later on today. It's thanksgiving. It's fine. Here are some links heroically trying to shout down the misconception that turkey makes you sleepy:

http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/turkey.asp

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/the-truth-about-tryptophan?page=2

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/26/tryptophan-sleepy_n_4296378.html

http://www.eatingwell.com/nutrition_health/nutrition_news_information/5_nutrition_myths_busted

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/prefrontal-nudity/201111/the-turkey-tryptophan-myth