"When testing the depth of ignorance, most people never get out of the shallow end of the pool."

I’m pretty durn sure that if it’ud been left up to men, we’d still be hunters ‘n gatherers moving from cave to cave ever’ time our garbage got too deep for us to feel comfortable with...”Time to move” we’d say ‘n we’d pick up our weapon of the day ‘n leave it to the little woman to pack up whatever she wanted cuz y’know, all those things that she wanted wudn’t none of our doings at all...All y’got to do is look around to realize that mankind, when it refers to men, ain’t really evolved at all...Men are the best examples of evidentiary Creationism that ever existed...women, on the other hand, may well be proof positive of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution...that’s prob’ly why we never seem to understand each other...’course, as men, we all got to thank God for the fact that opposites attract...

What it is that got me thinkin’ about all this was watching the Stormchasers

careening after the tornadoes....I know, when they did a movie about them, they had some female stormchasers but the truth of the matter is that almost all the idiots that chase around trying to put themselves in the middle of a tornado for the sake of whooping ‘n yelling ‘n taking a few pictures to prove that they really did do this super manly thing are almost excusively men...’n not just men but testosterone-fueled adrenaline junkies....’cuz you know, there ain’t no woman alive who’s really dumb enuff to do such a thing....

"You're never too old to learn sumthin' stupid!"

Wild turkey’s are smart...ev’rybody sez so...They’re smart ‘n wily ‘n very good at hiding when they spot someone with a gun...Heck! I s’pect they’re maybe almost as smart as crows...maybe.

Years ago I knew this old boy had a turkey ranch...he raised them big old double-breasted birds that are so popular at holiday dinners...he told me that turkeys were so dumb that when it rained, he had to herd them inside otherwise they’d stand looking up at the rain with their beaks open ‘n they’d drown...I got to thinking that men, young men especially, are a lot like those turkeys...it’s a good thing that God made women so’s we’d have someone to tell us when to come in out of the rain....

"Sum people cause happiness wherever they go; others, when they go!"

The Buck stops here....

"One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it is such a nice change fro being young."

O dem luv’ly streets of Ol Fair Oaks...

me ‘n da boyz went walking several times t’day...it’s a quiet day, pretty much, well, except for Doug ‘n his lawnmower but since he was all the way t’the end of the street, he wudn’t really bothering anyone...I really should be working in the yard but I’m terribly lazy...ain’t a whole lot wrong with being lazy s’long as you ain’t shiftless...shiftless is bad! Shiftless c’d get a poor boy in trouble quicker’n most anything else where I grew up...

Nosirreebob! My mama just wudn’t stand for shiftless....

Which don’t have a lot t’do with anything t’day...I just didn’t want’a work in the yard so I didn’t...what I did was to transplant a hugely overgrown plant that Millyrose sed she wanted in a larger pot....so I did it... or tried t’do it...I had to get Millyrose to help ‘n I’m gonna have to buy some more potting soil t’morra....but that’s another story....

we were watching the nooze about the tornadoes when Willie ‘n Rusty set up such a racket that I tho’t that at the least, we were being attacked by Martians or some other illegal aliens...

‘course, we wudn’t....what it wuz, wuz a deer standing in our front yard...nice sized buck too with a nice rack of antlers still in velvet....my dogs were coming unglued ‘n the dogs ‘crost the street were doing the same ‘n he just stood there looking somewhat bemused...Millyrose ran for her camera ‘n snapped a half-dozen or so pics...

The deer normally come ‘n visit our south forty ever’ summer but gen’elly speaking, they come a little later in the year...I don’t think this fellow’ll stay very long...he’s by himself ‘n we got some construction going on in the house next door ‘n they’d prob’ly disturb his afternoon naps...

But who's counting....

“If at first you don’t succeed, then maybe you shouldn’t take up sky-diving.”

Zest in quest.......

Way back when I was struggling to come to grips with the fact that I was going to have to actually work for a living since I had embarked upon a life-journey with Millyrose and rather cavalierly leapt into parenthood thereby leaving forever behind those careless joys of childhood, I stumbled into a job as a ‘route salesman’...

Looking back, it was interesting enough, I suppose, in that it allowed me to, in essence, wander along a prescribed route and meet with a number of people, most of whom were engaged in the process of earning their own daily bread by selling alcoholic beverages....twas there that I learned the aphorism, “Work is the curse of the drinking class.”.....

Anyways, the one really important lesson about work that I learned in this job was that you began with a book containing the names and locations of your customers...You started with the first one, put one foot in front of the other until you got to the last name in the book and then you went home....That is the true essence of most jobs and basically, that is what differentiates a job from a career. Y’see, a career is a life-consuming enterprise, an obsession in many cases that takes roots in childhood and never lets go...and it just wouldn’t do for a lazy man.....although, I suppose a case could be made that obsessive advoidance of work could possibly be classified as a ‘career’.....not that I’m making any judgments, of course....far be it from me to sit in judgment of writers who don’t write, artists who only talk about past or future projects without actually doing anything at all, or even (GASP) politicians who have elevated the art of doing nothing into an art form....the original ‘performance artists’ y’might say....anyways, Millyrose ‘n I started this journey 52 years ago t’day ‘n it all sort’a reminds me of the guy who jumped from the top of the Empire State bldg...on the way down he passed a window cleaner who inquired about his health. His reply was, ‘ n I quote...”So far, so good!”

Like breathing out ‘n breathing in....

Just got a phone call from Francisca who is on a little cross-country jaunt...

she followed Old Route 66 from it’s western nadir to Chicago (the reverse of the song)...well, she followed it as much as she was able as it’s been chopped into little pieces of mid-20th century Americana by the Interstates..

‘n now she’s returning, only across the top of the country where she’s been plagued by storms, road closings, etcetera ad infinitum....but it’s evening now where she is somewhere in the mountains of Wyoming ‘n losing daylight while she is keeping herself busy herding a calf that has separated itself from it’s mother ‘n is attempting to cross the freeway....now as you might suppose, freeways ‘n cows go t’gether somewhat like oil ‘n water ‘n Francisca has been on the phone to the local authority ‘n is now driving the wrong way (on the grassy berm, of course) keeping her little Honda Fit between the calf ‘n the freeway....

“Lettin’ the cat out’a the bag is a ‘hull lot easier than puttin’ it back in.”

."I keep wondering how I managed to get over the hill without ever getting to the top."

I ‘uz thinkin’ that I prob’ly spend ‘way too much time thinkin’ but then I’ve also been told that’s what an old fool does best ‘n I’ve often heard it said that a body should stick with what a body knows best..

anyways, that’s the kind’a tho’ts that run thru my mind in the wee hours of the mornin’...

It don’t take a lot of that to decide that it’s time to wake up ‘n smell the coffee as Ann Landers wuz so fond of saying back in the day...Dear Ann ‘n Dear Abby were twins ‘n competitors ‘n I don’t know who does their columns now...prob’ly their daughters or maybe granddaughters...it don’t matter cuz I’d bet money that in one of their columns somewhere along the way they’re gonna rerun that ‘wake up ‘n smell the coffee’ thing ....

‘course, to smell the coffee requires that I actually get m’self out’a bed ‘n grind the beans ‘n put the pot on the boil....that’s old-timey talk for pouring water in the coffeemaker ‘n pressing the on switch...in the long, long ago time, you had to build a fire, grind the coffee, put the ground coffee in a pot, fill the pot with water from the well, put the whole mess on the stovetop ‘n wait for it to boil...

after it boiled, you waited for the grounds to settle, sumtimes dropped an egg in the pot to help that process along....oh, life was complicated back in the good old days...Heck! If y’wanted to fry up some eggs to go with that coffee, y’had to go out to the hen-house, gather the eggs (basically, steal ‘em from the hard-working hens that you kept fed for that very purpose) trek back to the house, put some lard in a big, ol’ iron skillet ‘n fry the eggs...’n if you wanted toast, you sliced some bread, put it on the toaster which was basically a wire clamp with a long handle ‘n hold it over an open flame ‘til it was charred on both sides....then you scraped the black off ‘n spread some butter on it (‘n I ain’t even goin’ into how you got your butter back then) ‘n it’s way too early in the day to discuss where your bacon came from.....ah, there’s a lot t’be said for the ‘good old days’ but the only thing that made ‘em good wuz life wuz young ‘n oh, so mellow......

Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

If you have a dog, you learn to watch your step...

“There are many definitions of stupidity; one is in believing that what you already know is enough!”

I just gotta say it...don’t want t’be a hypocrite about it cuz a cold beer tastes pretty good once't in a while....Once upon a time, a long, long time ago (a very long, long time ago) a cold beer made for a relatively satisfying breakfast.... but, that was once upon a time, etcetera ‘n such....as I grew older ‘n wiser (‘n fatter) I switched to coffee ‘n cigarettes ‘n the SF Chronicle ‘n such, but then (sighhh) I grew even older ‘n wiser (plus fatter) ‘n I gave up the cigarettes ‘n the Chronicle (wot the hell, Caen, McCabe ‘n even Delaplane were gone)....Life is a brief moment ‘n the immortality of youth is even briefer....As I continued to grow older ‘n fatter ‘n maybe just wise enuff to know how awfully dumb we mortals c’n be, I refused to give up my coffee.. I argued with the dieticians over coffee ‘n butter ‘n chock’lit-covered p-nutz, (okay, I might’a got the chock’lit-covered p-nuts a little wrong) but not the coffee ‘n butter.....(it’s the quantities that’ll do you in, not the substance itself).....Back in the day, I used to think that anything worth doing was worth doing to excess but I was wrong...It’s the excesses that are dangerous....too many cigarettes, too much booze, too much butter or coffee or chocolate cake or spaghetti ‘n meatballs...it don’t matter....too much of a ‘good’ thing turns it into a bad thing.....same with religion ‘n politics.....if you get unbalanced with durn near anything, you’re probably gonna take a fall ‘n the older you get, the more falling hurts....remember when you were a kid ‘n your dad urged you to try harder, climb higher ‘n your mom wrung her hands ‘n said, “Don’t fall. Don’t fall.”....Well, your mom knew whereof she spoke....... So my recipe for a long (comparatively speaking, that is) life is to avoid falling down....

“There are two ways to get by in this world. One is to be oh so very clever ‘n the other is to be oh so very pleasant. I reccommend pleasant.” Elwood P. Dowd

So we wuz out ‘n about t’day playin’ catchup with errands ‘n stuff that we might’a done yesti’day ‘cept Millyrose did a road trip to SF...after the rain, it’s kind of a nice day with a lot of fluffy clouds ‘n not too hot...just a pleasant kind of day...anyways, we found ourselves pulling out of the parking lot at Costco shortly after the noon hour...well, pulling out is actually an overstatement, what we did was to sit in a traffic jam of people trying to pull out of the Costco parking lot...I have learned a certain amount of patience over the years ‘n I wuz just watching the other drivers when a ‘Beemer’ passed me on the right..well, he passed a lot of cars on the right, running along the curb to jump the line ‘n get ahead of ever’one else....ah well, it got me t’thinking about cars ‘n the people who drive ‘em...the ‘prestige’ cars for example as opposed to the autos driven by reg’lar people...it ain’t that reg’lar people can’t drive prestige cars...it’s that when you drive one of them better’n anyone else cars, you tend to drive with...I dunno...a sense of entitlement maybe...that it’s your road ‘n reg’lar people should hang back ‘n let you go ahead...I wuz wondering what a traffic jam consisting of Beemers ‘n Volvos with a smattering of Mercedes ‘n maybe a Ferrari or Lamborghini ‘ud look like....Heck! Prob’ly look like Hollywood on a big nite....

When my Aunt Eunice learned to drive (back in the old ‘old daze’) she didn’t even need t’get a drivers license...back in those long-ago daze, people didn’t need a license to drive a car anymore than they needed one to drive a horse ‘n buggy...back in those daze, a blacktop highway was a rarity ‘n you c’d drive a long ways without ever seeing another car...anyways, Aunt Eunice got accustomed to taking her half of the road out of the middle..use’ta scare the tar out’a me when I’d ride with her...not that she was a bad driver, it’s just that she was used to driving a farm truck or tractors ‘n in later years, a school bus, ‘n she expected people to get out of her way....’n you know, that was prob’ly a good idea back then...not sure how that ‘ud work out for her t’day....

One of the things that I learned working for my Aunt Eunice is that life is a lot simpler when you plow around a stump.

Six or maybe half a dozen....

"The nicest thing about the future is that it always starts tomorrow."

Random tho’ts in idle moments ‘n idle tho’ts in random moments......sometimes it’s really hard to tell the difference.....sort’a like the weather in a transition season....of course, all seasons are transitory, that being the nature of things....time ‘n tide wait for no man....seasons come ‘n go ‘n mankind....well, humankind as a nod to womanhood, really has nothing to say about it. We just think we do.....

As humans, we tend to think a lot, mostly about ourselves....when we think about the world around us, it’s always how it relates to us....we’re a very narcissistic lot, we humans....the world (our world, the only one we have) revolves around us....Our reality is all that we have ‘n we tend to question that in many ‘n sundry ways.... How did we get here? Where did we come from? What is the purpose of life? Is there a God? We are cast in the image of God, they tell us.....the ‘they’ being those who have gone before...or did we invent God? Is God cast in our image? And if there is no God, why isn’t there? There ought’a be a God!

We’ve been talking to God for a long time, we humans, in our conceit. All the billions of people that came before the billions that are here now talked to God. And all the billions that are to come will talk to God. Even the atheists among us that deny the very existence of God spend an inordinate amount of time and effort in that denial.

Agnostics fret over the possibility that there is no God. Or maybe, there is. It is an age-old conundrum, an unprovable riddle that keeps us awake at night.....

well, something keeps us awake at night and pondering deep thoughts is more socially acceptable than computer Solitaire.....or for that matter, pondering what may or may not be socially acceptable.

I once had a teacher whose name I have long since forgot though I can picture him in my mind. The picture I have in my mind may or may not be accurate...memories get twisted over the years, bent by innumerable stories, movies and television shows. I recall a tall, angular, narrow-shouldered, dark visaged man in his early 30’s. A man of effete mannerisms who fairly dripped disdain as he lectured what he prbably saw as a parade of intellectually inferior Neanderthalians. We viewed each other from diametrically opposed positions thus quite possibly clouding each others judgments, although it’s not only possible but highly probable that I’m the only one who misjudged the whole experience.

Age is a wondrous thing, allowing as it does, the opportunity to look back over your life and guage the depth of your early ignorance by comparing it to the infinite vastness of a horizonless ocean of ignorance in which we swim.

So my idle ‘n random tho’ts have meandered on for almost 500 words, give or take, ‘n if you’ve read all this, you really need to get a grip....”Say goodnight, Gracie”

“If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.

If you live in or near Sacramento, you just haf’ta be aware of the protestors at the Capital. Teachers ‘n students, all brought t’gether by union hacks to scream about the budget cuts. They interviewed a middle-aged teacher who certainly should have known better but who bragged about spending a night in gaol...’n it’s all about budget cuts ‘cuz there ain’t enuff money to go around... I swear t’Gawd, there just ain’t enuff money in the whole damn world to make t’days schools better...

Once upon a time, a very long time ago when the world was new, well when it was new for me anyway, teachers were underpaid but highly appreciated... They had standing in their communities, they were respected, their words carried weight....civic leaders sought them out, asked their advice...maybe didn’t follow their advice, civic leaders seldom ever actually lead, mostly they try to get in front of any parade so that spectators will think they’re actually leading.....well, heck....that’s the nature of politicians everywhere..sort’a bred in the bone, y’might say....

Now, I’m not saying that teachers back then didn’t sometimes teach things that weren’t exactly true...I recall when I was a boy, they taught about ancient mankind...Neanderthal Man, Cro Magnon Man and my all-time favorite, Piltsdown Man....Except Piltsdown man was a hoax...It was proven to be a hoax within a few weeks of it’s somewhat fanciful discovery,,,by that time, however, it had already made it into the newspapers ‘n it took a couple months for a retraction to make it into the ‘news’ media....’n guess what....that was sufficient time for the Piltsdown Man to find his way into the history books...’n there it stayed...for a lot of years..the hoax took place, I think, around 1947 ‘n it was still being taught as fact in 1955. Ah well, stuff happens!

There were far worse things that were taught (or not taught, which was more often)...State-sponsored historians routinely whitewashed historical events... for example, under Woodrow Wilson, school history books excluded almost all the contributions of African Americans in the building of the United States....they also left out most references to the genocide directed at aboriginal Americans...and government sponsored military action (expressly forbidden under the Constitution) against union personnel. Rather like air-brushing models ‘n movie stars t’day...we air-brushed the warts out of our history....Not a new thing, y’understand, all countries routinely do the same thing ‘n they all use the same excuse, “History is written by the winners.”..

Unfortunately, we humans never seem to learn from hist’ry...

Heads or tails.....

“I never tho’t I’d live this long. Clean livin’ ‘n dirty tho’ts prob’ly did it. I don’t believe in adhering to any rules I don’t support ‘n I didn’t vote for. To hell with what people think. Just be who you are ‘n you’ll be happy.” Willie Nelson

Ambivalence in humanity is a normal response to most non-threatening situations that do not require fight or flight; whereas extremism in thought and action in all but extreme situations is illogical.

The logical response when faced with a problem, ie, a non-life threatening situation, is to weigh the pros and cons, make a reasoned assessment and deal with it to the best of your ability.

The non-logical response, either attack and destroy or take to your heels and run away is therefore, by extension, abnormal.

So take heart all you ambivalent fence-sitters; whiling away a lazy afternoon pondering both sides of the fence is a perfectly normal avocation. Of course, should it rain, it’s logical that you should seek shelter. Therein lies the question; should one be conservative and head for the nearest shelter or broaden one’s horizon and search for a more comprehensive umbrella?

Huddling by oneself ‘neath a bush or tree might be enough if t’is but a Spring shower but suppose one is faced with an epic storm. That might require a sturdy shelter and like-minded folk with which to share.

Life is full of such decisions. To go it alone or travel with the herd? To gain it all or settle for a piece of the pie? Not easy questions but ones that we are faced with each and every day and if we don’t choose then the choice will be made for us.

“Where I’m going, I don’t know. When I’ll get there, it won’t matter. All I know is I am on my way.......” Lee Marvin in Paint your wagon.

Deja vu again.....

"I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you!"

‘Way back in April of 2008, I wrote:

“I paid $3.73 a gallon for regular gas t’day.....nuthin’ I c’n do about it ‘cept cut out unnecessary trips....McCain sez he’d like to cut out the federal tax on gasoline for the summer....’s a good idea but I don’t think anything will ever come of it....all our legislators will do is talk, talk, talk....but if they wanted to stimulate the economy, cutting $.40 a gallon off the price would do it far better and cheaper than a refund check. A similar plan might help in California....least we wouldn’t have to put up with media stories about students protesting cuts in education......Heck! Education is one of the places that needs to be cut drastically. Especially in the administrative departments wherein lies most of the actual waste. I just tho’t I’d phrase it thataway so’s I wouldn’t end a sentence with a dangling participle.......so there......Justin Other Smith”

So, yest’iday I bought gas at the same place I paid $3.73 a gallon for back in April of 2008....’n I paid $4.12 per gallon of regular....’n still there ain’t a helluva lot that I c’n do about it ‘cept cut out unnecessary trips...’n try ‘n combine some of the ‘necessary’ ones so’s I c’n get the most bang for my buck...McCain hasn’t said anything this time around ‘n I don’t expect him to...Hell, he ain’t said anything that matters for several years now...matter of fact, sayin’ nuthin’ while speaking is what our legislators seem t’do best...anyways high gas prices ‘n student demonstrations are deja vu again.....they (California State Police) were s’pozed to arrest some of the recent demonstrators ‘n maybe they did but nuthin’ will ever come of it....’course, if the legislators were to ever get serious about solving some of the budget problems here in California, they’d encourage more demonstrations, arrest the demonstrators ‘n levy some really huge fines ‘n apply that money to the deficit.....Nah! That ain’t ever gonna happen...giving money to California legislators is like giving your car keys ‘n a bottle of whiskey to your teenage son ‘n telling him to be careful.....

“Nostalgia ain’t quite what it use’ta be.....”

Once’t upon a time in the not so way long ago, Millyrose ‘n I camped beside the Snake River in Wyoming....it was springtime in the Tetons ‘n the river rushed past the little cabin in a muted twentyfour hour a day roar much like the traffic noise from Sunrise Blvd only without the odd siren or screeching brakes....I only mention that becuz t’day as me ‘n Rusty ‘n Willie made our way down this quiet little backwater street, there was only the traffic sounds of Sunrise Blvd to remind me that Ol Fair Oaks Village is pretty much a lost island of yesterday surrounded by present-day Sacramento....I keep da boyz on leash becuz it’s the law ‘n becuz Willie has bouts of temporary deafness when he becomes focused on sumthing of great importance (cats, chickens, squirrels, leaves, bicyclists, etc)....we still stroll down the middle of the thoroughfare of Crestline Avenue as tho’ we were wand’ring the deserted hills of Avalon...not a lot of traffic on Crestline, thank Gawd, altho’ in the early daze of our life here, Herfy, the lab-shepard mix that accompanied us at the time use’ta sleep in the middle of the street...there were no leash laws in effect at that time ‘n dogs roamed freely around the Village...

‘course, we didn’t have the chickens then, that being before the time of Hugh Gorman...well, there wuz a handful of Banty’s but they didn’t wander too awful far from their home territory...ah, those idyllic daze of yore....

“You shouldn’t ought’a judge folks by their relatives.”

DERBY DAY! CALLOO, CALLAY......

What the heck, it’s only one day ‘n after all, I wuz born ‘n bred in Old Kaintuck....it sez so on my profile...(American by birth, Kentuckian by the grace of God)....

so Millyrose ‘n I were up ‘n at’em early on this coolish morn, errands done, lunch out’a the way, dogs walked around the village (lots of dogs in the village this morning - Rusty ‘n Willie got ‘way too excited)...not sure what the turistas tho’t about them but I’m not gonna lose any sleep over it.....what I’m gonna do is watch the Derby...gonna check out all the horses...’n the silly hats...come Derby Day in Kentucky the women all seem like they’re trying to outdo the Brits.....silly hats ‘n mint juleps...dunno if you’ve ever had a mint julep or not....Millyrose sez she never has....I have but didn’t bother to finish it....took two sips....the second sip was just to make sure that the first sip was as bad as I tho’t it wuz.....’course, if you happen to like mint juleps, it’s alright by me...I feel much the same way about brocolli ‘n I know a lot of people loooooove brocolli, I just don’t know why...but I figger I just shouldn’t interfere with sumthin’ that ain’t really bothering me.....

Strawberries 'n 'most anything.....

“A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory!”

Strawberry Fields forever.....well, as forever as it gets in t’days world...a couple years ago, I was fearful that the proposed development around Bella Vista was gonna wipe out the last strawberry field in Fair Oaks but since the bottom has fallen out of unbridled development here in California, it seems t’have been something of a boon for the strawberry growers....ah well, one of those silver lining things, I s’poze...y’know what I mean...’s an ill wind that blows no good atall, atall...

Anyways, the Strawberry Patch is open ‘n there seems t’be a neverending stream of motor vehicles with, of course, the multi-faceted drivers of said motor vehicles....prices are much the same as last year ‘n I c’n personally testify to the quality of the product....’n tho’ I don’t really want to rub anything into the noses of friends ‘n relatives back in the States (I heard from a friend this A.M. that the o’nite temp was in the ‘30’s) I’d just like to say that in a few moments, I’m gonna be sitting out on my front porch with a bowl of French Vanilla ice cream ‘n fresh strawberries....

Life is tough in Ol Fair Oaks.....

“I use’ta be indecisive...now, I’m not sure.”

T’day is the biggest day of Springfest....t’is the old car show that makes it so....they begin arriving in the early, early morn....chugging up the hill on Crestline, making the turn on California that brings ‘em to the village center where they line Fair Oaks Blvd the whole two blocks....s’a big deal for The Village...Crestline is lined with visiting autos reducing the already narrow avenue to barely one-way status... Some of the residents block their own driveways with No Parking signs but seeing as how most of the residents are of the Johnny come lately variety themselves, I don’t see the point....’bout as far as I go is to ask some of ‘em not to block my driveways but I don’t make a big deal about it...it’s prob’ly just apathy on my part... kind’a reminds me of the old joke about knowing the difference between ignorance ‘n apathy...(I don’t know ‘n I don’t care)....

Anyways, Millyrose ‘n I walked down ‘n looked at the old cars....Millyrose bought a couple beignets (fried do-nutz w/o the holes ‘n covered with powdered sugar ‘n tasty)....lotsa turistas, baby carriages, dogs...oh, ‘n gawking chickens...

you almost always got gawking chickens in the Village, just standing around waiting t’be fed...

which, not to be too awful snide about it, makes me think that most of the chickens must be Democrats.....