Daves Cooks the Turkey..

The main character, Dave, In Stuart McLean's short story, "Dave Cooks the Turkey", is put in charge of "looking after the turkey" to make Christmas stress free and fun again for his wife. Little did Dave know that "looking after the turkey [...] meant buying it as well as putting it in the oven." Some of the humor in this short story in created using exaggerations. When Dave couldn't find a turkey in either freezer he "unloaded both freezers to be sure." After pouring himself some scotch and pacing around the kitchen worrying Dave called himself a taxi. "At 4:00 am, with the help of a taxi driver named Mohamed, Dave found an open store" and bought himself a grade B turkey. At the time he hadn't a clue what grade B meant but it was the least of his worries, it was the last turkey in the only open store on Christmas eve. He returned home and set out to prepare the turkey as it defrosted "it became clear what grade B meant. [...] Dave's turkey looked like it had made a break from the slaughter house and dragged itself a block or two before it was captured and beaten to death." The story begins to get out of hand as Dave pours himself another scotch, starts referring to the bird as Butch, and then discovers a lock on his stove. Dave then goes to a hotel, checks in, and asks them to cook the turkey for him. This short story does a very good job of using exaggerations to create humor and teaches Dave to never underestimate the obligation of cooking the Christmas turkey.