strong like ball

[Dennis R. Preston]

We had chickens, and this twist of the wrist was a coming of age
phenomenon for me. The first time I was sent out to do the deed
(which I had observed many times), a breaking rather than a parting
of the neck resulted, so that the poor critter could no longer hold
its head up, but it did indeed run around the yard, like a chicken
with its head a-danglin rather than like one with its head cut off. I
caught it and took my little hatchet to it.

I was later successful with this flick of the wrist and sent many
birds to the big coop in the sky.

dInIs


>At 11:09 PM 3/2/2005, you wrote:
>>My grandmother used both "greedy-gut" and "glutton" with wild abandon.
>>However, I don't recall that she ever said just plain "gut(s)." She
>>used "insides" for chickens or named the individual parts thereof, when
>>asked. Since we had our own chickens, I saw my grandfather kill a
>>chicken by literally wringing its neck. He picked up the chicken by its
>>head, made a particular movement with his wrist, and the chicken's head
>>remained in his hand and its body fell to the ground, where it ran
>>around like a chicken with its head cut or, rather, torn off.
>>
>>So, I've seen a literal slap on the wrist, a neck literally wrung, and
>>a chicken literally running around with its head torn off.
>
>I have too--in fact, my mother did the chicken-neck wringing so that we
>could have "chicken every Sunday."
>
>>I've just heard a character on CSI: NY say for[beid] for "forbade." O,
>>tempora! O, mores!
>>
>>-Wilson
>
>I hear this all the time--no biggie.  But re. an earlier thread, today, on
>our local radio, I heard a student announcer say "... the 10 million dollar
>jackpot drawling...."  She was obviously reading a script, so the intrusive
>/l/ intrudes even in spite of print.  Not uncommon in southern Ohio.