On Mon, 2 Aug 1999, Stephen Black wrote:
> On Mon, 2 Aug 1999, Bob Keefer wrote:
>
> > Ya know, growing up on an actual farm, I had often heard the expression
> > "running around like a chicken with its head cut off," but I never took
> > it to mean actual -running-, as none of the dozens (hundreds?) of
> > chickens I personally chopped the heads off of -ever- ran around
> <snip>
>
> > Has anyone actually seen a headless chicken (not just a few of those
> > coincidental hops I mentioned)?
>
> Not this city boy. But Julien Offray de la Mettrie apparently
> did, and reported on it a mere 251 years ago. Only it was a rooster,
> not a chicken. He said:
>
> "A drunken soldier cut off with one stroke of his sabre an Indian
> rooster's head. The animal remained standing, then walked, and ran:
> happening to run against a wall, it turned around, beat its wings
> still running, and finally kept on moving."
>
>.... Is the difference between headless chicken (Bob's observation) and
> headless rooster (Julien de la M's observation) significant? Surely
> the topic cries out for an experiment. Where are all the drunken
> soldiers with sabres when you need them?
>
> -Stephen
The difference is in the precise location of the cut, no?
Pamela Joyce Shapiro | email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Temple University | voice mail: (215) 204-9595-
Cognitive Psychology | mailbox # 888-3214
