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Answer Man - Who Ate The Most At The First Thanksgiving Dinner
00:15:57
Answer Man - Who Ate The Most At The First Thanksgiving Dinner
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A
Get ready to rev those engines. The 2026 Les Schwab Classy Chassis parade and car show is back in East Wenatchee, WA. Kick things off Friday, May 1st at 6pm for the big parade plus the after party with live music. Then join us on Saturday, May 2nd at 10:00am at the Eastmont Community park for the car show. It's two days of classic cars, food, music and free family fun for everyone. For all the details, visit eastwanancheewa.go. we'll see you there.
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White Label the premium beer that is two ways light presents Albert Mitchell's program the Answerman, the program that answers your questions. Just as Comer's White Label answers America's demand for a lighter, finer premium beer. The Answerman is presented as a service to you to give you the answers to your questions. And here he is, the Answer Man.
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C
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you're all having a nice Thanksgiving day and I believe you some questions about Thanksgiving there for me to answer quite a few.
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B
Let's begin with this one from a Summit, New Jersey listener who ate the most at the first Thanksgiving dinner?
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C
The Indians. The Indians not only had larger appetites, but they outnumbered white men at the first Thanksgiving feast. 90 to 55.
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B
Next, the Smithtown, Long Island Man. Are all the people of this country celebrating Thanksgiving on the same day this year?
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C
No, not all. The people of Florida, Idaho, Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia have to wait till next Thursday to celebrate Thanksgiving.
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B
Why is that? Didn't President Roosevelt proclaim the 23rd as Thanksgiving Day?
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C
Yes, and Congress passed a resolution that Thanksgiving Day should always fall on the fourth Thursday of the month. But the president and Congress don't make legal holidays. That's the state's right. And these six states, the legislature or governor decided on the last Thursday, which this year is the fifth Thursday of the month.
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B
This letter from a Brooklyn woman. Which was the bigger holiday in pilgrim times, Christmas or Thanksgiving? My husband says Thanksgiving, but that doesn't seem to make sense to me.
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C
Maybe it doesn't, but your husband is right. Thanksgiving was a far more important festivity. For to many Puritans, the celebration of Christmas was idolatry. Hateful idolatry.
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B
A young man of Greenwich, Connecticut wonders why we call a turkey a turkey, since the bird didn't come from the country. Turkey?
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C
No. But when the bird was first introduced into Europe, the name turkey was used to mean any far distant land. So it was natural for them to call it a turkey cock.
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B
A man who lives in Garfield, New Jersey, inquires when Was Thanksgiving Day first celebrated by the whole United States on
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C
November 26, 1789, when, at the request of Congress, George Washington proclaimed a day of thanksgiving for the whole nation.
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B
A Manhattan woman wants to know if the Indians knew how to make pumpkin pie.
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C
No, they didn't know how to make pie crust. But the Indians did have a pumpkin pudding the made with maple syrup.
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B
A Camp Upton, Long island soldier asked, is there such a thing as a turkey with all white meat? Yes.
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C
White turkeys produce all white or at least light meat.
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B
A letter from an arsenic New York man reads, as I remember it, the first Thanksgiving was in celebration of a bumper crop, a bumper crop the pilgrims had harvested. Am I right? And what was the crop?
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C
You are right. And the crop was primarily corn, barley and peas. 20 acres of corn and 6 of barley and peas.
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B
A young man who lives in the Bronx wants to know how long it took the Pilgrims to eat their Thanksgiving dinner.
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Even with the help of the Indians who came to the feast, so much
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food was prepared it took them a
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week to eat it all up.
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B
A woman writes from Tenafly, New Jersey. Did the colonists learn how to make cranberry sauce from the Indians, or did the Indians learn how from the white settlers?
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C
Neither. Each had learned how before they met. When the pilgrim settlers arrived in this country, they found the Indians using cranberries in their pemmican and making a cranberry sauce with maple syrup, while the people of Europe had learned to make cranberry sauce with sugar from the Scandinavians.
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B
A note from a Hyde Park, New York man reads, what with all the fuss we've been having whether the third or fourth or fifth Thursday in November should be Thanksgiving. I wonder if you can tell me which one has a historical authority behind it. Which Thursday was the first Thanksgiving held
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C
on the second Thursday in December, the first Thanksgiving was proclaimed by Governor George Bradford as December 13, 1621.
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B
A young man who lives on Staten island inquires, who was the first man to eat turkey.
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C
We do not know who the very first was, but Benjamin Franklin said the first Europeans of prominence to eat turkey were Charles IX of France, his bride Elizabeth of Austria, and the guests at their wedding feast in 1570.
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B
This question comes from a west New York, New Jersey listener. Do they have anything like our Thanksgiving Day in England?
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C
No, not much. The English do celebrate a good harvest by appropriate ceremony in rural areas, but in the past, when they've had a day of national thanksgiving, it's usually been to celebrate a victory in battle or because the king had recovered from an illness.
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B
A White Plains, New York listener writes, please settle something. Counting one for each state, how many Thanksgivings are there this year? It has to be 48, doesn't it? No. 50.
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C
In the continental United States today there are 42 Thanksgivings. Next Thursday there are eight. That's because two states celebrate twice. And now, in order that we may always have a Thanksgiving, I'm going to ask everyone in the radio audience to buy a share in America. On behalf of my sponsor, the Tromer Breweries, I want to remind you to do everything within your power to support the sixth war loans. When the Victory Volunteer calls at your door, open up the purse strings and buy an extra war bond. Do your best over here so it
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will go better over there.
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And now let's have some more questions of a general nature.
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All right, here's one from a Brentwood, Long island listener. Can you marry your cousin in New York State?
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C
Yes.
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And a young man right from Stamford, Connecticut. Isn't reading funny books a good way to take your mind off your lessons?
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C
Yes, reading funny books is an excellent way to take your mind off your lessons.
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B
Ramsey, New Jersey, listened to years ago, H.G. wells chose what he thought were the six greatest men of all time. Do you remember who they were? H.G.
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wells chose the six greatest men of all time. Jesus of Nazareth, Buddha, Ahsoka, Aristotle, Roger Bacon and Abraham Lincoln.
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B
A White Plains, New York man asked, when was the first game law put into effect in America?
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C
In 1694, when the Massachusetts colonists established a closed season on deer.
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B
And a woman of Farmingdale, Long island inquires, what is the Lutine? L U T I N E Belle.
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C
The Lutine Bell is a ship's bell. HMS Lutine went aground off the coast of Holland carrying a million or more British pounds in gold and silver, which had been insured at Lloyd's of London. Lloyd's paid the claim, and so when the ship's bell was recovered some years later, claimed it. The Lutine Bell is now rung at Lloyd's. Whenever there's important news, one ring for bad news, two for good.
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A Far Rockaway, Long island man writes, the Chicago Transportation Lines have gone into bankruptcy. So I'd like to know, what are the fares they charge in Chicago now?
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8 cents on streetcars, 10 cents on subways and elevated lines, and 10 cents on buses.
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A Camp Upton, Long island soldier inquires, what did the United States Infantry Company consist of during the Revolutionary War?
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During the Revolutionary War, a company in the United States infantry consisted of one captain, one lieutenant, one intern, four sergeants, six corps corporals, two musicians and 90 privates.
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B
This note from a Bronxville listener reads, if the automobile was invented in England over a hundred years ago, why wasn't it in use there in Victoria's time?
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C
The automobile was invented by an Englishman by the name of Trevithick in 1801. But further development of the machine was arrested by the Red Flag act, in which Parliament decreed that a man had to walk ahead of any automobile which
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with a red flag by day and
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a red light by night. And this in spite of the fact that the speed of Trevithick's car was only 4 miles per hour. The law was not repealed until 1896.
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Listener, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. i asked who were the first people to say they were pains through the nose? The Irish.
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C
In the 9th century, the Danes who conquered Ireland imposed a poll tax that was historically called the nose tax.
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B
A high school girl right from Newark, in my English course I read a book called the Lost Mine of Tissingal. Is there really such a mine? Yes.
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C
The Lost Mine of Tissingal, from which the Spaniards took an untold amount of gold, is located somewhere in the province of Chiriki in the Republic of Panama. But no one knows exactly where. All traces of the mine were lost after the massacre of the Spanish in 1611.
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B
This letter comes from a Long Island City listener and reads, Suppose a man is standing holding a bag of grain on each shoulder. Now, after the listing has been done, is he working? Is he exerting himself?
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C
Yes, indeed, the man is exerting energy every moment he's holding the bags up. In fact, it's work for a man just to stand without holding anything.
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B
A man who lives in Brooklyn asks, when did Charlie Miller win the six day bicycle race he won?
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C
Charles Miller won his first six day bicycle race at the old Madison Square Garden in 1897, won again in 1898 and rode with Frank Waller to win his first team race in 1899.
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B
A young man of Towerington, Connecticut wonders if squirrels are the only animals that come down a tree head first.
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C
No, squirrels, chipmunks and similar rodents are the only animals that naturally come down trees head first. But apes, monkeys, raccoons, porcupines, opossums, kinkajous and other heavier bodied tree climbers may come down a tree headfirst if they're in a hurry. And coatimundis are not in the least particular which way they come down. With coatimundis, it's pretty much which end up they are when they start.
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Next, the Bronx listener asks, where does Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, lie?
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C
Buried beneath a huge rock atop a peninsula mountain in Brador Lake near Badek, Cape Burton, Nova Scotia.
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The Valley Stream Long island woman inquires, what is triskadechophobia?
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C
Triska decophobia is morbid fear of the number 13 and the fairy tales.
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B
Long island golfer asks, did two golf balls ever hit in midair?
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C
Yes, a number of times, head on from an angle and even one ball overtaking the other. In 1928, at Wentworth Falls, Australia, playing chip shots from opposite sides of the fairway, two players swung at about the same time. Another player who was standing at the pin saw the two golf balls hit in the air and then both drop into the hole.
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B
A Brooklyn woman inquires, what is the height of a city milk bottle? Quart size.
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C
The common variety is nine and a half inches tall.
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B
Here's a question from a listener in Smithtown, Long island how much water does the geyser Old Faithful in Yellowstone park spout when it goes off every hour?
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C
Old Faithful geyser spouts between 10 and 12,000 gallons of hot water every 65 minutes.
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A letter from a man who lives in Palisades, New Jersey, reads, I've heard it said that the Palisades, that is the channel cut by the Hudson river, extends out into the Atlantic Ocean quite a ways beyond what we think of as the mouth of the river. Can this be true?
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C
Yes, it's true. The channel of the Hudson river extends out into the Atlantic to a spot about 100 miles south and east of Ambrose lightship off Sandy Hook.
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How deep is the gorge at its mouth?
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The channel is 1600ft below sea level, and since the oceaneer is only 260ft deep, the underwater Palisades must be 1,340ft high.
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B
A Trenton man inquires, at what time, between the end of the last war and the beginning of this one, was there the least unemployment in this country?
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C
During the peak of prosperity in 1929, there was less than a half a million unemployed, an estimated 429,000.
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B
A Trenton, New Jersey listener writes, how about a Thanksgiving toast? Got one?
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Yes, indeed, a toast to wartime Thanksgiving. Here's to the things for which we're thankful. Here's to the blessings we enjoy today. Here's to the day of real Thanksgiving,
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the day our boys come home to stay. Do your part to speed that day, Friends, Open up the purse string Open up your heart in this sixth war loan let's show our thanks to our boys by buying more and more and still more United States War Bonds. They want to get it over, we want them to get it over. Our fighting dollars will help finish the job, will help bring near the day our boys come home. The day of real Thanksgiving. Remember, if you have a question you want answered, ask the Answer Man. Ask any question you wish and provided it has a definite answer that is not of a personal nature and does not violate professional ethics, you will get the answer by mail and without charge. Send your question together with a stamped addressed envelope through the answerman wo r New York 18. When the answer man returns to the air Tomorrow evening at 7:15, he'll broadcast the answers to such questions as what are the chances of one star colliding with another? Is there such a thing as an Arabic typewriter? Why don't bats bump into things when flying around in the dark? How many of the United States are surrounded on three sides by water when were 12 year old boys admitted to the Marine Corps? And why do the Chinese tie whistles on their pigeons tails? So join us again Tomorrow evening at 7:15 for Albert Mitchell's program the answer Man. In the meantime, try Chomer's White Label, the premium beer that is two ways light. Remember, White Label is light as you drink it and light after you drink it. Next time ask for Tromer's White Label. Then just taste and compare. This program was presented by John F. Tromer Incorporated of Brooklyn, New York and Orange, New Jersey, makers of America's largest selling malt beer. W O R New York.
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A
Get ready to rev those engines. The 2026 Les Schwab classy chassis Parade and Car show is back in East Wenatchee, WA. Kick things off Friday, May 1st at 6pm for the big parade plus the after party with live music. Then join us on Saturday, May 2nd at 10:00am at the Eastm Community park for the car show. It's two days of classic cars, food, music and free family fun for everyone. For all the details visit eastwananchiwa.gov we'll see you there. Every day the world gets a little weirder and a lot more awesome. Cool Stuff Daily takes a look at everything from mining in space to the latest in the fight against cancer to how AI is, well basically changing everything. It's all the cool stuff you didn't know you needed to know. Join us for Cool Stuff Daily as we take a quick look at science, tech and the Wait what stories that make you sound way smarter at dinner. Subscribe to Cool Stuff Daily now because the future's happening fast and it's way too fun to miss.