Friday, February 17, 2017

A Craving for Fried Chicken Weekly Link Round-Up





After being accidentally locked in a small commercial chicken house when I was eight years old, I have very decided opinions about these birds: the only good chicken is a dead chicken. I know that's not rational, but when you're eight and a bit scared and trying to find your way out of a gloomy place by walking down a narrow walkway between wire cages filled with smelly beaks that are all trying their best to peck you as hard as they can... well, rationality flies right out the window. Or it would if any of the windows in that place had been open.

I've been remembering my incarceration in that chicken house lately since the neighbors have seen fit to supplement their larder by bringing in a flock of chickens and one extremely loud rooster. 

There are a lot of noises that drive other people insane that don't bother me a bit. A phone can ring for time and all eternity if I don't want to answer it. I find it simple to ignore the noise. But I simply cannot tune out a rooster crowing. The first three days that rooster was in residence, I thought I'd lose my tiny mind. It would not shut up, and the volume control was set on a permanent twelve.

Foghorn has since calmed down, but he still makes his presence known throughout the day. I can't help but think of my pool reading time coming up this summer... and plan guerilla raids which would feature a missing rooster. In talking this over with friends on Facebook, we all learned an interesting fact. In small town America, I could complain about the noise and the chickens would disappear, but there's no such law in large cities like Salt Lake City and Phoenix. You'd think it would be the other way around, wouldn't you?

In the mean time, I'm going to head on out to the link corral, hoping that Foghorn keeps his beak shut. Fried chicken surely would taste nice right about now....

Head 'em up! Moooooooooooove 'em out!

 

►Books, Movies & Other Interesting Tidbits◄
  • A new Mark Twain fairy tale has been unearthed. 
  • Much of the cuisine we now know, and think of as ours, came to us by war. 
  • In the time you spend on social media each year, you could read 200 books. (I already read 200 books per year, so does this mean I'd read 400 if I stopped blogging, tweeting, Facebooking, Pinteresting, and Google+-ing???)
  • The racy side of Jane Austen
  • New data suggests that boys are reading more than ever.
  • Library cats leave some sneezing, others feline fine. 
  • According to Ian Rankin, there's nothing crime fiction can't do. 
  • How Sherlock Holmes got his name. 
  • Bibliomania: the strange history of compulsive book buying. 
  • How Mormon polygamy in the nineteenth century fueled women's activism. 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄
  • A dog is being called a hero for keeping its owner warm after slipping in snow.

►The Happy Wanderer◄
  • A new expedition intends to find out if an earthquake made Mount Everest shorter.
  • The independent bookstores every book lover should visit in the U.S. 
  • The five best bookstores in Mexico City
  • A visit to Bridge Books in Johannesburg, South Africa, courtesy of Michael Sears (half of the writing team known as Michael Stanley).

►I ♥ Lists & Quizzes◄


That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing freshly selected links for your surfing pleasure.

Have a great weekend, and read something fabulous!


   

8 comments:

  1. Foghorn would drive me nuts, too. And living in a New York apartment has its noisy drawbacks as well, with construction going on outside my living room window. I have to keep my bedroom window shut much of the time due to constant remodeling going on in the building facing mine.

    But I suggest earplugs. I have slept with them on due to the construction/remodeling noise. The jackhammers really got to me.

    The earplugs helped. Also, I heard someone on TV mention that she wore earplugs for years due to her spouse's snoring.

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    1. Earplugs drive me nuts. I've tried them. I can't stand having anything in my ears. And due to having a rapist break into the house and a stalker following me as I walked to and from work years ago, I want to be able to hear what's going on around me. Old habits die hard!

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  2. No noise ordinance in Phoenix? Yes, I will admit that a rooster crowing all the time would make me nuts. I'm sensitive to certain noises anyway - gum smacking or food smacking, among other things. And I'm also a little afraid of chickens. My grandmother kept a few (in her small town, I'll admit) and I hated feeding them. I had nightmares.

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    Replies
    1. They managed to allow people to have small flocks of chickens in a way that doesn't interfere with the noise ordinance. I'm going to have to check into how that works.

      My mother also hated feeding her grandmother's chickens. A funny family story has its roots in that.

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  3. Yeah, I think I'd be about ready for a chicken dinner, too, Cathy! Yikes!!!Thanks for sharing these great links. Time for me to go visit some mines, I think....

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  4. I can understand then about the need to hear every noise.

    I guess zoning and noise regulations need to be checked. I don't think anyone in NYC could own a rooster. There are even rules here about barking dogs, what's allowed and what isn't.

    Maybe you should consider a dog. Their hearing is so much better than humans.

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    Replies
    1. Denis calls me "Bat Ears," so my hearing isn't a problem.

      Delete

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