Turkeys

If you pass Karen Dawn's house in Pacific Palisades, you might see in her frontyard behind a white picket fence her elderly pit bull, Paula ? and two 5-month-old turkeys, Ellen and Portia. The fowl may not be the usual pet choice. But at a time of year when it is the usual food choice for millions of holiday dinners, vegans and animal welfare advocates try to raise consciousness about the slaughter by hosting meat-free dinners and events. FOR THE RECORD: Thankful turkeys: In the Nov. 24 LATExtra section, an article about two turkeys saved from slaughter by an animal advocate and invited to her Thanksgiving dinner was accompanied by a photo credited to Los Angeles Times staff photographer Brian van der Brug.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - The stakes will be high when diplomats from six world powers meet with Iranian officials here over the weekend to discuss the Islamic Republic's nuclear program: War or peace, the global economic recovery and a U.S. presidential election may ride on the outcome. Expectations are much lower. It will be enough for the diplomats if there is sufficient common ground with Iran to keep talking. As recently as a week ago, there were doubts that the long-delayed talks would even take place.

One turkey will have plenty to be thankful for this Thanksgiving when he is gobbling about rather than being gobbled up. He owes his good fortune to President Obama -- and daughters, Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8. On Wednesday morning, Obama continued the tradition of pardoning a turkey by granting this year's lucky bird, named Courage, a reprieve from the dinner table. "I am pleased to announce that thanks to the interventions of Malia and Sasha . . . Courage will also be spared this terrible and delicious fate," announced Obama, the two girls standing by his side.

Prospects for a cease-fire in Syria further dimmed Monday when fighting spilled over the border into Turkey and Lebanon, leaving at least three people dead, opposition activists said. An additional 160 people were killed within Syria, activists said, as forces loyal to embattled President Bashar Assad continued to shell buildings and shoot at residents of rebellious cities on the eve of a proposed halt to the hostilities. Government troops and tanks were due to be withdrawn Tuesday from cities and towns, but that seemed increasingly unlikely as the violence has only escalated in the last week and on Sunday the Assad government demanded written guarantees from all opposition groups, a proposal that the rebel Free Syrian Army dismissed.

A full plate of turkeys With apologies to cranberry sauce and corn bread stuffing, there's nothing better than letters to the editor to remind us that there are turkeys -- bad ideas -- in our midst. This year, readers lambasted pay cuts for government workers and payouts to automakers and banks. They railed against President Obama's choice of dog as passionately as they ridiculed his choice of Cabinet secretaries. In honor of (and with sincere thanks to) the outraged letter writers who fill this space each day, today's page serves up a heaping portion of some of 2009's biggest turkeys, per our readers, with just the right amount of salt and spice.

As Thanksgiving has approached, the Salvation Army in Compton has been overwhelmed with requests for turkeys from families that cannot afford them. But the organization has been hit hard by the same drop in donations that has plagued charities across the country. Capt. Ezekiel Guevara said he started the week with just one turkey in his freezer, far short of the 150 he was able to hand out last year and nowhere near the 500 he hoped to give to needy families this year. Guevara's story made the local news.

Last month, Walter "Gator" Pelletier, chairman of the National Turkey Federation and an executive at Butterball, approached Wes Pike, his go-to bird handler, with a secret mission: raising two well-mannered birds that wouldn't trash a room at the Willard hotel or go ballistic on President Obama during a pardoning ceremony in the White House Rose Garden today. Pike, 54, accepted the challenge. From Butterball pens in Goldsboro, N.C., he picked 22 15-week-old toms from a flock of 52,000 poults and moved them to a safe barn across the road.

I found Mr. Martinez's article on turkeys Nov. 26 to be a mockery of vegetarian beliefs and habits. His humor was not only unfunny, but tasteless. It's a shame that it was published. ERIC IRVING Woodland Hills

What a clever, though hardly original, idea to give Rep. Robert K. Dornan the "Golden Turkey" award for saying "no" to the $87.5-billion transportation rip-off. Perhaps the Democratic Party should now consider itself a "service organization" rather than a "political party." I think the Orange County Republican Party ought to offer a similar service to the Democratic Party. The Republicans ought to periodically offer a "Golden Tax & Spend Card" award to big-spending elected Democratic representatives in Washington and Sacramento.

Americans will cook approximately 45 million turkeys this Thanksgiving. Why we celebrate by cooking a meal that we never normally prepare is anyone's guess. But there's no doubting that gambling with those big, big birds puts the sport in Thanksgiving. Fiascos are so much part of the day that most large turkey processors, and even government agriculture departments, now routinely run holiday turkey hotlines. The Butterball Turkey Co. started the first toll-free help line service 20 years ago.

THE BEST WAY From LAX, Turkish Airlines provides non-stop service to Istanbul. Lufthansa, KLM and Air France all provide connecting service (change of planes). Restricted round-trip fares, including taxes and fees, begin at $1,216. TELEPHONES To call the numbers below from the U.S., dial 011 (the international dialing code), 90 (the country code for Turkey), 212 (the area code) and the local number. WHERE TO STAY Pera Tulip, 103 Mesrutiyet Caddesi Tepebasi, Beyoglu; 243-85-00, http://www.peratulip.com . Doubles start at $119 a night with breakfast.

REYHANLI, Turkey - Somewhere in Syria near the border with Turkey, thousands of refugees are hunkered down in a makeshift camp, afraid to go forward or go back. They cannot return home, because their villages in Syria's northwest Idlib province have become war zones, places full of government tanks and helicopters, and bodies in such large numbers that they have to be buried in mass graves. And across the border in Turkey awaits a country that is unprepared for the influx of refugees, where some are staying in sports arenas or schools as the government rushes to erect new camps for the thousands who have recently poured in. Instead, the families sit in a valley along the border in large tents normally used for wakes.

Istanbul, Turkey - For months I had been pining for a trip to Europe, willing to go anywhere a cheap flight would take me. But the elusive bargain I sought didn't materialize until February, and it wasn't completely Europe. The airfare of my dreams was a Valentine's Day special open to anyone: $599 round-trip from L.A. to continent-straddling Istanbul, including tax and fees. It required a companion fare (which meant I had to find someone to go with) and traveling in February.

The government of Turkey is asking American museums to return dozens of artifacts that were allegedly looted from the country's archaeological sites, opening a new front in the search for antiquities smuggled out of their original countries through an illicit trade. The J. Paul Getty Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Cleveland Museum of Art and Harvard University's Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection are among the institutions that the Turkish government has contacted, officials say. Turkey believes the antiquities were illegally excavated and smuggled out of the country after the passage of a 1906 law that gave the state ownership of antiquities in the ground.

Turkey's foreign policy has come full circle in the last year. Far from confronting Washington on a range of issues, Ankara is embracing its membership in NATO while working closely with Washington on Middle East issues, including Iran and coordinating Syria policy. What has changed? First and foremost, Ankara has come to appreciate a constant in the value of its foreign policy: Turkey is east if you view it from the perspective of the West, and west if you view it from the perspective of the East.

Turkey envisions itself as a Middle East power, a dynamic Islamic democracy with a thriving economy that can help guide the region through the turmoil of the "Arab Spring. " But it has stumbled in its efforts to stop the violence and repression in its neighbor and onetime ally Syria. Although Turkish officials have harshly criticized President Bashar Assad's response to a yearlong uprising that is increasingly taking on the character of a civil war, they have not budged the Syrian leader.

The race was close, tough, sometimes bitter, but "now's the time for healing," President Bush said in sparing the lives of two White House turkeys. Bush used the annual pre-Thanksgiving rite to roast the presidential campaign. The winning "running mates" were Biscuits and Gravy, turkeys raised in Mathias, W.Va. They won a contest pitting them against Patience and Fortitude. The birds will live on a Herndon, Va., farm.

Customers deluged a Tucson supermarket chain with turkeys, some of them already cooked, after a man claimed to have injected some of the birds with cyanide. Jim Acton, vice president of media operations for Smith's Food & Drug stores, said Friday that 6,000 to 10,000 turkeys would be buried in a landfill north of Tucson. They included turkeys that the store took off its shelves and those that customers returned.

TURKEY Presentation Angie Brenner and Joy Stocke will read from "Anatolian Days & Nights," a memoir of their journeys in Turkey, as well as have a Q&A about Turkey. When, where: 7:30 p.m. Monday at Distant Lands, 20 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena. Admission, info: Free. RSVP to (626) 449-3220. MONO LAKE Movie The Wild & Scenic Film Festival will feature the premiere of "The Mono Lake Story," hosted by the Mono Lake Committee. When, where: 7 p.m. Thursday at the Landmark Theater, 10850 W. Pico Blvd., West Los Angeles.

For the better part of the last century, three Arab states - Egypt, Iraq and Syria - dominated Middle East politics in matters of war and peacemaking and shaped the region's relations with the great powers. The kings of Jordan and Morocco - and, of course, Saudi Arabia (and the Persian Gulf states) when it came to oil - had their say too. But it was the three pseudo-republics, authoritarian military regimes really, that threw their collective weight around. Not anymore.