O/T Dogs, fake cows & headless chickens
AGC Queen
by Franci Richardson
Unearthing Reeba, the chocolate lab, from deep inside a 12-foot retaining wall
where she was stuck this weekend was like playing a 5-hour house of cards game
where one wrong move meant the life of a Swampscott family's pooch.
``What we worried about was taking one rock out and the other rocks falling
down, collapsing in on the dog,'' Swampscott Fire Capt. Michael Champion said
yesterday.
Saturday, as is customarily the case, 5-year-old Reeba accompanied her master,
housing contractor Doug Dubin, to work.
First stop was a house lot on Alvin Way, where Reeba apparently chased a
raccoon into a pile of boulders, some weighing 1,000 pounds.
Dubin, who noticed her missing at 9 a.m., started a search that didn't end
until noon when he heard her barks echoing out of pile at the house lot.
Firefighters believe the 55-pound canine pursued the racoon 10 feet into the
wall and another 10 or 12 feet downward, where she got lodged.
``All you could hear was the dog barking from underneath the ground,'' said
Champion, whose department worked with police, public works and the Animal
Rescue League of Boston to free Dubin's buddy.
A backhoe was called in from the town, but proved too small to lift the rocks,
some of which weighed 1,000 pounds. Finally, the local quarry, Bardon Trimount,
donated a larger machine.
The last boulder was lifted at nearly 7 p.m.
``The dog come out of there like a rabbit,'' said Champion. ``It was a good
ending to a long afternoon.''
* * *
http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/daily/issues/2000/05/22/forum/editorials.
shtml#TWO
Putting a big fiberglass cow outside a student center and painting it with a
color scheme straight out of 1975 is like dropping a raw steak in front of a
pack of wolves. If something doesn't happen to the steak, then there's probably
something wrong with the wolves.
But we hoped that the wolves here would be a little more creative —
Northwestern deserves a good prank every now and then. Despite the potential
here, however, this wasn't a good prank.
Sawing Moo@NU's legs off and scurrying away with the dismantled prize isn't
exactly the kind of fun-loving, reversible prank that makes a statement on a
university campus.
Putting the cow on a raft in the middle of the lake, suspending it upside down
from the Arch or putting its head on University President Henry Bienen's pillow
à la "The Godfather" would have sent a rebellious message of dissatisfaction
to the administration. But the only message our beloved bovine bandits sent
was: We are thieves.
Let's not assume this prank was a failed effort by someone in our community.
But whether the cow was taken by an NU student or someone else altogether is
irrelevant. Whoever took it missed the opportunity to turn the cow into the
newest NU tradition.
The Rock was first painted as a prank. Now it's tradition. The Cow could have
followed suit. A clever prankster would have taken the cow, hooves and all, and
put it somewhere else. Moving the cow might have become a perennial event.
The culprits who so savagely mutilated Moo@NU not only missed a prime
opportunity, but they left the rest of us hanging. You took the cow. But the
question still stands: Where's the punch line?
---------------------------------
by Jeff Carlton
Where's the beef? More to the point, what's the beef?
With apologies to the family who generously donated money to bring a cow to
Norris, it's time to face facts. It was a cow. It was an ugly cow. And the fact
that someone sawed off three hooves and stole away with the rest of it in the
middle of the night is damn funny.
No self-respecting student body could have allowed that cow to sit there
untouched. Northwestern administrators threw down a challenge to students the
moment that cow went up outside Norris. That its only protection against such
an event was a 200-pound base is almost insulting.
Who says NU students are apathetic? It must have taken a great deal of effort
to cut off fiberglass legs and steal away with a 50-pound bovine. Activism like
this should be applauded.
Here's hoping Moo@NU never turns up. It has moved on to greener pastures,
hopefully as a fine furniture addition to someone's apartment or fraternity
house.
Bottom line: It's a funny joke, so milk it for all it's worth.
-----------------
By Ben Winograd
The Daily Northwestern
Opting for money over milk cartons, Northwestern is offering a $500 reward for
information that leads to the return of Moo@NU.
Hoping the victim of last week's cow-napping has not yet moved to the great
pasture in the sky, Norris University Center erected on its main floor a shrine
to Moo@NU, including a mug shot and angry letters from the community about the
disappearance.
While last year's Cows on Parade survived unscathed in Chicago, "Moo@NU could
not make it for more than 20 days ... on the campus of NU," wrote Patsy Thrash,
an Education sophomore.
Bill Johnston, director of Norris University Center, branded the pranksters
"cowardly" in a letter to the NU community.
As a result of the vandalism, three hooves, each standing about 9 inches high,
remained loosely fastened to the 200-pound base on Sunday.
Students said the reward could help NU milk information from informants.
Speech sophomore Justin Mool said the size of the reward was appropriate, but
if the cow-nappers were his friends, no amount of money could persuade him to
turn them in.
Speech freshman Marina Squerciati said she would take the bull by the horns if
she knew the culprit, even if it were a friend.
"I need $500," she said.
Cow-tipsters are asked to call University Police at (847) 491-3254 or Johnston
at (847) 491-2325 if they know anything about Moo@NU's whereabouts.
* * *
http://www.active.com/story.cfm?story_id=2487&sidebar=17&category=Activeusa
By Sandy Burgin
People don't really want to run around like a chicken with its head cut off —
unless, of course, they're competing in the "Run Like a Chicken With Your Head
Cut Off 5K."
More than 250 folks are expected to be running, walking or scratching their way
for 5 kilometers in Fruita, Colo., on May 20.
The 5K Run (or walk) Like a Chicken with Your Head Cut Off is one of the
featured events of the Mike the Headless Chicken Days festival May 19 and 20 in
Fruita, about 10 miles west of Grand Junction, Colo.
Mike was a chicken that survived a beheading some years back. More on that
later.
Some of the other activities of this annual event include the Fruita Area
Chamber of Commerce Head Hunt, the Fruita Children's Theatre Company's
performance of Henny Penny and Chicken Little; and every chicken game one could
think of: chicken bingo, cluck-off, egg toss, rubber chicken juggling, egg
races etc, etc.
There also will be vendor booths selling all manner of chicken items —
including the very elusive "chicken noodle soap" — as well as home-brew
contests, root beer tasting and the Chris Rouse Polka Band playing all your
polka favorites, including the chicken dance, over and over and over. Did
someone say marathon?
Before it all starts on Friday, May 19, there will be a reception and
dedication of Lyle Nichols' "Miracle Mike Sculpture," a 4-foot high, 2-foot
wide, 300-pound metal sculpture of the beheaded rooster. It is made of ax
heads, hay-rake teeth, sickle blades and other cutting objects.
Nichols' grandfather Carl grew up with Lloyd Olsen, who was an integral part of
the legend of Mike the Headless Chicken.
It was Olsen who actually chopped Mike's head off, which set in motion this
true story of one bird's will to live.
On Sept. 10, 1945, Clara Olsen sent her husband Lloyd out to the hen house to
prepare a designated fryer for the pan. Nothing about this task turned out to
be routine.
Olsen knew his mother-in-law would be dining with them and would savor the
neck. He positioned his ax precisely on this 5 1/2-month-old Wyandotte rooster,
estimating just the right tolerance to leave a generous neck bone. A skillful
blow was executed, and the chicken staggered around like most freshly
terminated poultry.
Then the determined bird shook off the traumatic event and never looked back.
Mike (it is unclear when this famous rooster took on the name) returned to his
job of being a chicken, pecking for food and preening his feathers.
When Olsen found Mike the next morning, sleeping with his "head" under his
wing, he decided that if Mike had that much will to live, he would figure out a
way to feed and water him. He did so with an eyedropper.
A week into Mike's new life, Olsen took him to the University of Utah, where
scientists theorized that Mike had enough of a brain stem left to live
headless. The ax blade had missed the jugular vein, and a clot had prevented
Mike from bleeding to death. Since most of a chicken's reflex actions are
controlled by the brain stem, Mike was able to remain quite healthy.
He made it into both Life and Time magazines and the Guinness Book of World
Records. He went on a national tour, during which people would pay 25 cents to
see "The Headless Wonder Chicken."
Mike grew from 2 1/2 pounds to nearly 8 pounds during the reported 18 months he
lived.
While returning from one of those road trips, the Olsens stopped at a motel in
the Arizona desert. In the middle of the night Mike began to choke on a kernel
of corn. However, the Olsens weren't able to find the eyedropper used to clear
Mike's open esophagus — and Miracle Mike passed on.
Now Mike's spirit is celebrated every third weekend in May in Fruita.
He also is immortalized in Lyle Nichols' sculpture, which is currently on
display outside the Java Junction coffee shop on the corner of Mulberry and
Aspen Avenue in downtown Fruita.
We caught up with Nichols recently in a telephone interview, during which he
touched on a number of subjects dealing with the sculpture, the legend of Mike,
and the 5K race.
"I look at myself as an idea person, and then I figure out how to do it,"
Nichols said. "I've carved stone, made sculptures out of bottles and some out
of glass, 7-Up bottles and a variety of things. The thrill is figuring out how
to do it."
Certainly sculpturing a headless chicken was a new experience for Nichols.
"I had never worked with a headless chicken," Nichols said. "I wanted him to
look like he has some character. The old saying about holding your chin up high
I took to heart, and I wanted him to look proud even without a head.
"I didn't want him to look droopy and hung over," he said. "So with the spurs I
put on his ankle and his chest sticking out, he had his neck back like he was
holding his head high — the effect was there."
Nichols, a self-taught artist, is the fourth generation of his family to grow
up in western Colorado. Working in stone, steel and wood, many of his
sculptures are on display in the Grand Valley, including "The Chardonnay
Chicken," which is 8 1/2 feet tall and contains 1,200 pounds of antique "farm
junk."
The idea for the 5K came from Karen Leonhart, director of the Fruita Parks and
Recreation Department.
"I am member of the Fruita Rotary Club," Leonhart said. "I was a fairly new
member since I came here from Southern Illinois a few years ago. One day the
guys were telling me all about Mike the Headless Chicken. And I just felt they
were trying to put one over on me. The next day the editor from the local paper
came over and laid out all the material, including pictures from Life magazine
in 1945 on my desk. That was proof enough that all their stories were true.
"I got to thinking that we ought to celebrate Mike in some way, and why not a
road race?" Leonhart said. "We are a very small town (6,000) and we've
struggled with our own identity. And here was a local project that was inspired
by a local legend. And it was a perfect fit."
Indeed, the miketheheadlesschicken.org Web site has received more than 150,000
hits this year. Members of the Chamber of Commerce and Leonhart have done
interviews with the BBC, CBC, South Africa Broadcast Company (SAFM) and points
in between.
Each participant will receive ceramic medallions made of chicken feed — hand
thrown, of course, by local artists.
As for the prize money for the race, it's chicken feed — what else did you
expect?
MEET MIKE: http://www.flickit.com/mike.html
Send email to: PUSSS...@aol.com