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Florida tradition: Clearwater man tosses Thanksgiving turkey into pool to thaw

You have to thaw out the bird somehow.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Only in Florida, perhaps, there's a man and his family whose Thanksgiving tradition is to toss their turkey into a pool.

A big, frozen turkey needs to start thawing days before the holiday, so now's the time to do it. Mark O'Donnell went live on his Facebook page Tuesday to show off the grand splash of a 16-pound bird.

"So yes, folks, we thaw our turkey in the pool. That's how you do it when you live in Florida, right?" O'Donnell said.

It'll get plucked out of the pool tomorrow after thawing out in the water and under the warm Florida sunshine. There's no need to worry about the taste of chlorine; O'Donnell says it's at least double-checked for any potential leaks.

"Corn" the White House turkey got a better outcome than this bird, being granted a full pardon by President Donald Trump.

But there might have been a hint of politics in O'Donnell's tradition this year, too. The Clearwater pool turkey was named "Donald."

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