Today is Thanksgiving Day in America and this cartoon by Nate Beeler cartoonist for The Columbus Dispatch shows President Obama taking part in one of the traditional Thanksgiving Day customs - the pardoning of the presidential turkey. However, instead of a bird, there's a computer screen displaying an error message on the HealthCare.gov website.
EXPLANATION
The cartoonist plays on two meanings of the word turkey. As well as being a "a large bird that is often kept for its meat, eaten especially at Christmas in Britain and at Thanksgiving in the US", the word turkey is also used to describe a failure, especially in American English. • That movie about the life of Diana was a real turkey. And the rollout of President Obama's flagship health care programme (aka Obamacare) is generally considered to have been a flop.
VOCABULARY
To pardon somebody is to officially allow somebody who has been found guilty of a crime to leave prison and/or avoid punishment. • She was pardoned after serving ten years of a life sentence.
MORE CARTOONS
• Turkeys 2103 (The Cagle Post)
• Thanksgiving 2103 (The Cagle Post)
• Obamacare Glitch (The Cagle Post)
