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Thursday, November 26, 2009
Here's to one that got away, happily
A wild turkey crosses the road near the tolls at Exit 14B of the New Jersey Turnpike in Jersey City. "Tammy" was caught and resettled at a zoo in Ocean County.

About 45 million turkeys will be consumed today for the greater good, so let us pause to reflect upon one bird that avoided the usual fate.

Her name is Tammy the Turnpike Turkey. She's an 11-pound wild turkey from New Jersey (no, not all wild turkey in the Garden State comes in a bottle).

Tammy lived at the toll plaza at exit 14B of the New Jersey Turnpike. You know - the exit after Bayonne, but before the Holland Tunnel? It's not your usual wild gobbler habitat.

How she got there, nobody knows. It's not clear why she chose the Jersey City toll plaza. Maybe she heard about a stuffing surplus in Secaucus.

Anyway, the toll collectors grew fond of Tammy. They fed her Cracker Jack and sunflower seeds.

It wasn't a bad life for a turkey. Sure, she had to scurry to avoid the 18-wheelers now and then. But the food was free, and shotgun sightings were extremely rare. There were plenty of telephones nearby in case somebody needed to dial the state's poacher hotline.

Life was so good, in fact, that a turnpike spokesman said the bird showed up at the toll plaza more regularly than some of the employees. Perhaps the turnpike authority should offer free snacks to workers, but that's an issue for another day.

Unfortunately, happy turnpike stories never last. Word spread of Tammy's fame. Motorists would slow down from their usual 85 mph to see her. Spectators would run through traffic to take pictures of her.

Turnpike officials feared the distractions might cause an accident. How would it look in a lawsuit if someone were to claim that turnpike officials knew or should have known there was a turkey in their midst?

Then again, doesn't every government agency shelter at least a few turkeys?

At last, the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife sent out a biologist with a net gun to catch Tammy. Some people say turkeys are stupid, but Tammy knew a biologist with a net gun when she saw one. She evaded capture on the first attempt.

On the second effort, Tammy was caught. She was unharmed, except for a few missing feathers.

She was taken, not to the Acme, but to Popcorn Park Zoo in Forked River. There Tammy will live out her days, showing off her ability to fly, foraging for berries (except cranberries), and trying to resist the distant din of traffic from the Garden State Parkway.

Happy Thanksgiving to Tammy, who's earned it.

Posted by Inquirer Editorial Board @ 1:50 AM  Permalink | Post a comment
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About The Inquirer Editorial Board
Harold Jackson, a winner of the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing, grew up in Birmingham, Ala., during the civil rights movement. He graduated from Baker University in Baldwin, Kan., in 1975, with a degree in journalism/political science. He has also worked at the Birmingham Post-Herald, United Press International, the Birmingham News, and the Baltimore Sun. He was at The Inquirer in the mid-1980s, returned in 1999, and became editorial page editor in 2007.

Paul Davies is the deputy editor of the Editorial Page. His newspaper career has spanned more than 20 years and includes stints at The Wall Street Journal and the Philadelphia Daily News. He graduated from the University of Delaware and received a masters in journalism from Columbia University, where he was also a Knight-Bagehot Fellow. He was born in Philadelphia and still lives in the city.

Tony Auth began drawing while bedridden for a year and a half at the age of five. He graduated from UCLA in 1965 and worked for six years as a medical illustrator while doing three cartoons a week for various college newspapers. Tony has been happily ensconced as The Inquirer’s editorial cartoonist since 1971. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1976, and has won numerous other awards, including five Overseas Press Club Awards, the Sigma Delta Chi award for distinguished service in Journalism, and the Herblock and Thomas Nast Prizes. Tony is married to Eliza Drake Auth, a painter of realistic landscapes and portraits.

Trudy Rubin is the foreign affairs columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, and a member of The Inquirer’s editorial board. Her column appears twice weekly in The Inquirer and runs regularly in many other newspapers around the United States. She is the author of Willful Blindness: The Bush Administration and Iraq.

Kevin Ferris is an assistant editor on the Editorial Board who oversees the Sunday Currents section and writes a weekly column on a wide range of issues. In his 15 years on the board, he’s handled letters to the editor and the Community Voices pages and has been Commentary Page editor. He started with The Inquirer in 1986, and his assignments have ranged from the copy and news desks to the Chester County bureau and the national/foreign desk.

As an editorial writer for The Inquirer for the past two decades, Russell Cooke has written on a wide range of topics covering government, legal, civic and social issues. Before joining the Editorial Board, he was a reporter in the Inquirer’s City Hall bureau.

Editorial writer Dave Boyer joined The Inquirer in 2002. He writes about politics, government, the economy, sports and many other subjects, but draws the line at writing about "Jon & Kate Plus Eight." He has won journalism awards and insists bribery was not involved. A native of Allentown, Boyer graduated from Penn State. He and his wife reside in Center City, where they enjoy strolling and paying the wage tax.

Melanie Burney joined the editorial board in January 2008 after covering education at the Inquirer for eight years. She previously worked at the Associated Press in Philadelphia and southern New Jersey. She is a graduate of Glassboro State College, now Rowan University, and a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Josh Gohlke has been The Inquirer’s op-ed editor since last year, editing the daily commentary page and writing occasional editorials. He came to the Inquirer after eight years at The Record of Bergen County, N.J., first as a reporter covering local and state politics and government and ultimately as the deputy editorial page editor. He also worked as a reporter for several smaller papers in New Jersey and California. Josh was born and raised in Los Angeles and graduated from Stanford University. He lives in Philadelphia.

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