Turkey experts can tell you all they want about how to pick the best turkey for this Thanksgiving, but it comes down to this:

Look for the turkey wearing clothes.

You need a turkey that's wearing a hat, straw is best to give him that country look - and the turkey should be plump enough to fill out a cute pair of blue-felt shorts with suspenders. And make sure he still has his feathers or another bird's or a pheasant's. Any kind of feathers will do.

Now that's a turkey that tantalizes, maybe not at the dinner table, but definitely at the judges' table.

That's what the turkey dressing looks like on Loretta Landeis' turkey, which, according to eight turkey judges, was the top Tom.

The judges picked Landeis, 64, of Mandan, as the first-place winner out of 323 entries in the Bismarck Tribune's first-ever Mr. Gobbles contest.

Although she had piles of competition.

"It was really fun to see the creative efforts everyone put into it,"said Lynae Hanson, a contest judge and the Tribune's marketing director.

Artists ranged in age from 89 down to a 1-year-old who turned Gobbles into a tornado of crayon colors.

Landeis and the second- and third-place winners get $20 gift cards from Dan's Supermarket to buy a 20-pound turkey, and fourth- and fifth-place winners get a book called "Great Colonial America Projects You Can Build Yourself!" by Kris Bordessa.

Landeis said she entered the contest for fun, and it was a way of expressing her thankfulness for family, friends, good health and for freedom and the military troops this season.

"I seen it in the paper and said, at my age, I should start doing things that are fun,"said Landeis, a self-employed floral designer who will be busy for part of Thanksgiving day working with flowers for a Friday wedding.

Landeis, whose husband's name is, coincidentally, Tom, is a longtime seamstress. "I've been sewing since I could hold a needle," said Landeis, who was taught by her mom, a tailor. Landeis took the 8-inch-long paper drawing of Mr. Gobbles from the Tribune, and got out her sewing machine and other things that she had lying around the house.

"I make things out of nothing, things people throw away," said Landeis, who learned that coming from a family of 10 children.

Her turkey has embroidered feet and edges, a hat, real feathers from an unknown bird, and old fabric - such as some 30-year-old gray terrycloth that was left over from when she was hired long ago to make 30 pairs of gloves for hotel waitresses who had to handle the famous hot turnovers that the old Kirkwood Motor Inn was known for.

Second-place winner Meagan Benedict, 11, a sixth-grader at Rita Murphy Elementary School, said she plans to be an artist when she grows up but doesn't think she'll specialize in turkeys. She does think she'll use her $20 prize to buy candy. Meagan put a Mr. and Mrs. Gobbles in wedding attire, the bride wearing pearl-like beads.

Third-place winner Christen Nagel, 13, a Cathedral School student, was reading a mystery novel when she entered the competition, which she thinks was the inspiration for her creation, a detective turkey, "Inspector Gobble."Her family is proud of her, but she doesn't expect it will earn her a special place at today's Thanksgiving table.

"My dad will probably sit there (at the head of the table),"Christen said.

Fourth-place winner Nancy Barrios, 49, who lives near Lincoln, has a fisherman for a husband, and created a turkey using fishing lure materials from a local tackle shop - such as spinner blades and buck tail hair. She said the contest looked like fun and "it's been awhile since I've done anything creative."

Fifth-place winner Dean Vetter, 4, created his turkey under his grandma's watch while his mom and dad milked cows at their farm north of Linton.

He said he liked making the turkey, but it wasn't as much fun as baseball. When contemplating how long it took to make, he remembers he was done about the same time his brother was done with the computer.

At 4, he's not new to the world of winning. At 3, he he was a winner in the local Easter egg coloring contest.

The winning turkeys, and many of the eight judges' favorites, are available to view at http://www.bismarcktribune.com/gobbles.

Entries also are on display in the Tribune's lobby this week.

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or virginia.grantier@;bismarcktribune.com.)