Riders aboard a crowded BART train were met with a festive Thanksgiving extravaganza Thursday morning, courtesy of “Bay Area TV Man” and friends. The special feast began and ended at West Oakland station with a full loop from Daly City to Dublin in between.

As KTVU reports, a video posted by Bay Area TV Man is gaining popularity online featuring the content creator, who wears a full face mask, and two friends setting up a table, decorations, and a full Thanksgiving spread consisting of turkey, chicken, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, egg rolls, and apple cider. Their fellow BART riders were then invited to partake in the feast.

"It was a little awkward at first," he told KTVU. "It really took one person to take a plate. Once we put on some music, people started dancing, popped some apple cider — it was a great moment to see."

Per KTVU, the trio first set up their feast on a Daly City-bound train starting at West Oakland station. The Thanksgiving train then headed back east from Daly City to Dublin, then back to West Oakland.

Bay Area TV Man, who wishes to remain anonymous, told KTVU he wanted to share a positive moment with the community, and BART is an iconic symbol of the Bay Area. He said he plans to organize similar community events in the future.

“My goal is to inspire people to look out for each other and bring more positivity to the Bay,” he told KTVU. “The mask is a reminder that you do not need a title or a face to make a difference. What matters is the heart behind the action.”

Image: Screenshot from video

Related: Jokers Pretend to Be Flight Attendants, Bring Beverage Cart on BART

The San Francisco Turkey Giveaway is handing out free turkeys to gobble up for the 15th year in a row, this year with 5,500 birds being given out for Thanksgiving.

Let’s talk turkey. An estimated 25% of San Franciscans don't have enough to eat, according to the Department of Public Health's Food Security Task Force. We hope to not have that happen on Thanksgiving, which is why the Examiner reports that for the 15th consecutive year, the city is distributing thousands of free turkeys. According to a release from the mayor’s office, the 2021 Turkey Giveaway will hand out “more than 5,500 turkeys.”

“With one in four San Franciscans at risk of food insecurity, we know that our communities greatly depend on programs like this to help make ends meet, especially during the holiday season,” Breed said in the release. “I am grateful to all of the city departments and community partners that work hard to help all San Franciscans, especially our families, seniors, and vulnerable communities, put food on the table and, more importantly, find hope and joy during the holidays.”

According to the release, the turkey drops started Friday at Bernal Dwellings Apartments. To be a free turkey recipient, you probably have to already be receiving some sort of services form either the San Francisco Housing Authority or the San Francisco Human Services Agency, the two agencies handling turkey distribution.

And they’re handing out more than just turkeys. According to the release, “the Housing Authority provides hundreds of food baskets with dry goods for holiday meals to families and individuals living in various housing sites.”

Seems like they’re pretty good turkeys, too, as according to the mayor’s office, they were donated by organizations that include Whole Foods and the California Poultry Association.

Related: The Chronicle Tells You How To Hunt And Kill Your Own Thanksgiving Turkey [SFist]

Image: @Adam12332871709 via Twitter

Turkish Airlines flight 79 from #Istanbul arrived safely at SFO. Passengers learned of bombing while in flight. pic.twitter.com/QOxJ0bh9OU

— Sergio Quintana (@svqjournalist) June 29, 2016

Following a terror attack at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport Tuesday, officials at San Francisco International Airport say that security has been heightened and additional patrols planned to ensure the safety of travelers in the Bay Area.

According to the latest report from CNN, 41 people were killed and 238 injured Tuesday when three terrorists attacked the Turkish airport's arrivals hall and parking lot with gunfire and explosives. Though as of Wednesday morning no organization had claimed responsibility, "several officials said the attacks bear the hallmarks of ISIS," CNN reports.

In an emailed statement, SFO's duty manager writes that airport officials are "monitoring the events as they unfold to determine the exact nature of the incident."

"Immediately, what you can expect to see at SFO is a heightened state of vigilance, increased patrol by uniformed officers," SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel says.

ABC 7 reports that "people are certainly uneasy at Bay Area airports" following the overseas attacks, but that the FAA has already lifted a temporary hold placed on flights to and from Istanbul Tuesday.

Despite that, some local travelers were shaken enough by the attacks to change their travel plans.

"I wanted to re-rout my flights and just went to the Turkish Airlines counter and they rerouted me on Singapore Airlines," Palo Alto resident Narendra Advani told ABC 7.

Others, traveling from Istanbul to SFO, are just relieved they weren't caught in the attack.

"I was in disbelief," Istanbul resident Mina Kadigil told ABC 7 from SFO. "

I couldn't believe it because we were just there a few hours ago and I was like, if we would have missed our flight we would have still been there.".

Related: Bomb Scare At JFK's Terminal 5 Following Istanbul Attack, NYC Airports On High Alert

Frank Somerville is not just an anchor over at KTVU, he's a prolific Facebook user who recently started republishing some of that wit and wisdom on the pages of SF Gate. Some of my recent favorites of his have been his defense of his hair plugs, his concerns about a man lying on the floor of BART, and a response to folks who got shitty when he braided his daughter's hair. And today, Frank brings us something new to contend with: The jet-setting emotional support turkey.

According to Somerville, the turkey you see above went through security at San Francisco International Airport last week after flying with a woman who uses the bird as "a comfort animal," following her husband's death.

Somerville says she sleeps and flies (commercially, though we know turkeys can indeed fly without mechanical assistance) with it, noting that "Once on board the animal can't walk through the cabin. It also can't block the aisles or take up seats near emergency exits."

The nonjudgemental Somerville is ready for all you haters, saying that "It would be easy here to make fun of the woman... But I’ve seen enough things in my lifetime to realize that what may seem bizarre to me, is perfectly normal for someone else."

But...a turkey? Does that make me sound speciest? It does, doesn't it? Sorry, guys, I'll try to do better.

Related: The Chronicle Tells You How To Hunt And Kill Your Own Thanksgiving Turkey

The holidays are stressful. The last thing weary hosts and hostesses need at this point is some overcomplicated turkey preparation technique. Enter San Francisco-based no-nonsense cooking instructor Mary Risley, a.k.a. Tante Marie of Tante Marie's Cooking School, who offers the best turkey advice we've heard to date: "Just put the fucking turkey in the oven. Don't worry about it. Turkey never really tastes good."

Which is true! We're only in this for the booze and the pies anyway. And speaking of booze, we're definitely enjoying the half bottle of Chardonnay she dumps in the baking pan, along with what looks to be half a tub of butter.

Other hosting pro-tips offered in the mere 8 minute video: wine pairings ("No wine goes perfectly with turkey, cranberry and gravy."), how to get the hot bird on to the carving tray (clean oven mitts) and what to do with your leftovers (call her Food Runners organization, which will deliver it to a local feeding program). As for that all-in-one veggie dish she mentions: that can be found right here so you can get back to your Chardonnay.

Hat tip: GrubSF

Exemplary writer Joyce Slaton dares to go where some artisan half-baked food scribes should. Take, for example, the turkey she recently prepared as an assignment for CHOW, prepared using "Twinkling Turkey," a recipe from The Twinkies Cookbook of 2006. Yep. She made it. She ate it. It was horrific.

Mixing the Twinkie "shortbread" with crumbled corn muffins and a chopped apple, and then cramming it into a bird and sticking it an an over, Slaton reveals what happened next:

When the turkey emerged, with its crisp, gold skin streaming rivulets of thick white goo that melded with the turkey juices in the roasting pan (ruining any chance I had of making decent gravy), things didn't look good. I lifted a forkful of stuffing to my lips. Oh, dear God: cake doused with poultry grease. I quickly took a bite of turkey to try to erase the taste. Turkey, not too dry, normal flavor. And vanilla—sweet, sweet vanilla—mixing with the taste of roasted bird, the vilest thing I've eaten in a long time.

Read the entire piece. It's well worth your time. Just try not to retch at the thought of that stuffing touching your highly-evolved, frighteninhly-complex palate. Shudder.

*FILM: The 5th Annual San Francisco Irish Film Festival kicks things off with by director Lenny Abrahamson and writer Mark O’Halloran. This is followed by a reception with the Consul General of Ireland, Emer Deane. According to LS, "other highlights include Speed Dating, a romantic comedy about a lovelorn amnesiac; the award winning Irish-language feature film Kings, and finally The Undertaking, a documentary about Irish American undertaker and poet Thomas Lynch, who is famed as the inspiration for hit HBO series Six Feet Under. Thomas Lynch and film director Cathal Black will be at the screening for a Q &A. Plus, the ever popular, Magners n’ Shorts Program (Magners Irish Cider is served for free during the film program) and Irish TV Night will also return to this year’s festival."

LECTURE: Yeah, yeah, you can go listen to Greil Marcus prattle on endlessly about the Magnetic Fields and the outback, or whatever, later this month at teh JCCSF. Or better yet, you can hear Family Ties creator Gary Goldberg talk about what it was like working with Michale J. Fox (his second choice to play Alex P. Keaton), Stephen Spielberg (who Goldberg tried to talk out of doing E.T.), on the set of Spin City, and more. He speaks tonight at the Jewish Community center of San Francisco. (Also, according to IMDB, he doesn't own a computer. The hell?)

DANCE: While the members of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater probably can't bust out "Turkey Lurkey Time" to save their lives, they're still not half bad. Check out the famed dance troupe across the bridge over UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall.

The listed events were chosen by the editors of SFist and brought to you by the 2009 Toyota Corolla.

Jonathan Winston of Bikescape sends us this fury-inducing image he caught while wandering the catacombs of the Macworld Expo. It's a "baseball cap mounted iPhone with a handy plastic magnifying strip. Just right for watching youtube while walking down Market Street!

Save for the bald, in good conscience we cannot promote the sporting of baseball caps. And we can just imagine the streets of San Francisco turning into a blood bath if iPhone users started slowing down instead of pulling over to watch "Turkey Lurkey Time" for the eighty-fourth time. (Because we all now know to pull over to the right-hand side of the sidewalk to text or watch clips, right? Well, now you do.)

Any other shots of interesting products over at Moscone? Send them our way. SFist was there earlier today, but unkempt children attending the Expo frightened us away. Little rat bastards.

Well, not "all," per se, but on Monday night Paul Dahliwal, one of the three people involved in the Christmastime tiger attack at the SF Zoo, telephoned Carlos Sousa Jr.'s mother, Marilza, to tell her that he and his chums were "dancing, talking, and laughing" moments before the attack. (Doing the Turkey Lurkey dance, no doubt.) It seems that Paul also told her that they were not taunting the tiger, something that has been widely speculated.

Mark Geragos, attorney for the Dahliwal brothers, claims that the SF Zoo shifted into smear-campaign gear against Paul and Kulbir right after the attack, claiming that they had taunted Tatiana. This hearsay phone call info to Sousa's parents certainly helps reinforce the brothers' case.

It should also be mentioned that, according to CBS 5, "a necropsy of Tatiana the tiger revealed that the claws on her hind paws were torn or frayed, perhaps suggesting that she struggling to gain traction on the grotto wall, trying to get out." The reason for Tatiana's desire to get out of her pen just prior to the attack remains an unanswered question in this case.

Here's what NOT to bring to Thanksgiving dinner:
Cabernet Sauvignon (for the love of God, don't bring Cab)
Merlot
Petite Sirah
Chardonnay (unless there is a crab dish)
The varietals above are simply too much for Turkey Day.

DO bring:
Beaujolais Nouveau - It's in season. But be warned...Stay away from this wine if you're particularly offended by floral, aromatic varietals.

Pinot Noir - Spend $20 or more and you should come out with something pretty decent. Stick to Northern California and Willamette Valley Pinots (pre 2005, if possible).

Champagne or Sparkling Wine - Again, spend at least $20 or opt for the pink-wrapped Sophia Coppola (a bargain and a fun conversation-starter). When in doubt, bubbly is always appropriate.
The varietals above will pair nicely with almost all Turkey Day fare.

Cheers!

A loyal fan of the child-rearing arts -- she had taken nanny jobs at least twice before, even a job in Turkey, after answering online ads in the past; and even recently played Maria in her church community theater's production of The Sound of Music -- Katherine Ann Olson, 24, answered a Craigslist ad posted last week, looking for a nanny. The CL ad ultimately would lead to her death.

Last Thursday, in Savage, Minnesota, Olson's body was found in the trunk of her car at a park late Friday night. It seems that a few days earlier she responded the ad (now removed for obvious reasons) looking for a nanny. A 19-year-old male has been arrested in connection with her murder. "We're confident we have the suspect in custody," claim authorities.

Read more about the Craigslist-related death here.

It seemed like everyone in the beer-geek world was at the Toronado for their 20th Anniversary party on Saturday night. The place was packed to the absolute gills with locals, brewmasters, and beer fans who'd flown in for the occasion (we met a guy who'd come from Vancouver). Several brewers of note had made special beers for the occasion, and we were lucky enough to score a table and sample a few. We loved the Bear Republic Wild Turkey Rye Rocket Booster, the Russian River Damnation 23 and 20th Anniversary Ale, and the Sierra Nevada Wood-Aged Stout, to name a few. The anniversary beers are on tap until they run dry, so do yourself a favor and swing on over for a taste or four.