Chicken Salad from Chicken Scratch; Monkey See/Do; No Good Deed

[sagehen]

>>YOU CAN'T MAKE CHICKEN SALAD FROM CHICKEN SCRATCH
>
>I've never heard this presumably euphemistic version with "scratch". Is the
>noun "scratch" supposed to have a meaning here, or is it just something
>that (sort of) goes with chicken for bowdlerization purposes?
>
>-- Doug Wilson
~~~~~~~~~
Are you assuming that _shit_ is the hidden meaning here?  "Chicken scratch"
refers to chicken feed  which is spread on the ground and for which the
chickens scratch.
A. Murie