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

[Douglas G. 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.

Thanks. I learn something every day (and forget two things, probably). Now
I see "scratch" = "scratch feed" in some (not all) large dictionaries, and
DARE even shows an example of "chicken scratch".

To this city boy, "chicken scratch" usually refers to handwriting.

I've almost always heard the aphorism with "shit". I think I've heard it
once or twice with something else too, but I can't remember what, maybe
"feathers" or so, not "scratch".

-- Doug Wilson