Get last-minute help with your turkey

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If the bird turns on you, call the Turkey Talk-Line

Workers at Butterball's turkey-tips hot line are used to oddball situations:

The woman who cleaned out her turkey with a scrub brush and asked if that was OK to do. (You don't need to do that.)

People who thaw a turkey in the bathtub while washing their children. (Don't do that, either.)

Raleigh Rescue Mission needs food for Thanksgiving

The Raleigh Rescue Mission expects to deliver about 750 Thanksgiving meals to people in need Thursday, and the nonprofit ministry still needs some fixings to make the meals complete.

The organization needs chicken broth, turkey gravy, butter, instant mashed potatoes and 800 dinner rolls by today for its "Gobbles to Go" meals, which volunteers will prepare and deliver to those who are housebound, elderly or infirm. Donors have provided the rest of the meals, including about 50turkeys, volunteer director Holly Cook said.

Begun in 2003, Gobbles to Go uses about 30 volunteers to assemble and package hundreds of single-serving turkey dinners. An additional 32 volunteers deliver the still-hot meals to Meals on Wheels recipients and others who call the Gobbles to Go hot line during the week before Thanksgiving.

Cool Gear

H.S. STRUT RING ZONE SLATE CALL

With turkey season a month away, it's time to buy new stuff. H.S. Strut has a new line of calls designed to produce sounds in the range in which wild turkeys hear best. The calls are available in ceramic, slate and crystal for wide range of pitch and skill level. The pitch of the slate is soft, the glass high and loud and the ceramic a combination. The cost is about $25. Learn more at www.hunterspec.com.

Kamikaze turkey was no chicken

It was Tom Turkey's most desperate flight: head-first into a minivan bound for Grandma's house.

Tom met Cary's Bow family and their Honda Odyssey on Tuesday in Kentucky, a state home to many wild turkey.

Jonathan Bow, a pastor at Crosspointe Church in Cary, figures Tom's flight was nothing more than a pre-emptive strike.

Calendar

BANQUETS

FRIDAY Wake County Chapter of National Wild Turkey Federation Hunting Heritage dinner and auctions, 6 p.m., The Factory, Millroom Banquet Hall, 1839 S. Main St., Wake Forest. Fee: $55 single, $80 couple, $10 youth. Contact: Mark Etter 919-266-1918, Charlie Overton 919-872-2143.

OCT. 3 Tar-Pamlico Chapter of Delta Waterfowl Banquet, Feather Creek Farms, 1255 Satterthwaite Road, Greenville: social 5 p.m., Parker's BBQ dinner 6:30; retriever demonstrations, displays, games, auctions, raffles. Fee: $15 meal, $35 meal/membership, $45 couple/membership, 12-younger free; early-bird drawing deadline Sept. 20. Contact: Matt Little 252-531-0365, tarpamlico@yahoo.com , , www.deltawaterfowl.org ; www.feathercreekfarms.com .