UPDATE: forgot the link to the #$%^# petition: www.change.org/...
Obviously, we have bigger fish to fry right now, but we don’t have a better turkey to pardon. A distant online acquaintance has posted a change.org petition to name the turkeys that President Biden will pardon this year Arlo and Alice, after Arlo Guthie’s classic Alice’s Restaurant. Now, I wasn’t aware that more than one turkey gets pardoned, but if it *is* only one, then Arlo is still a great name. Also, I imagine said turkeys already have a name beforehand. But still. A feel-good petition if ever there was one.
In the words of the petition…
"Alice's Restaurant" was performed on July 17, 1967, at the Newport Folk Festival in a workshop or breakout section on "topical songs", where it was such a hit that Arlo Guthrie was called upon to perform it for the entire festival audience. The song's success at Newport and previously on WBAI radio led Mr. Guthrie to record it in front of a studio audience in New York City and release it as side one of the album Alice's Restaurant in October 1967.
The song became an anthem in the anti-war movement and the phrases "You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant" and "the Group W bench" became ingrained in the lexicon of the counter-culture.
In 1969, the song was adapted to create the movie "Alice’s Restaurant."
In 2017, the song was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant."
Many Americans have made the playing of "Alice’s Restaurant" on Thanksgiving an essential part of their holiday tradition.
Therefore we, the undersigned, ask President Joe Biden to honor the significance of this song in our American culture and celebrate its 55th year anniversary, by using the names "Arlo" and "Alice" as the names of the pardoned turkeys for the November 2022 holiday.