Chicken Lips

Reading the Newsletter published by PCC Community Markets allows me to be frightened without having to pay a fortune to see a horror movie. The Newsletter is always full of food warnings and chemical scares. Recently PCC reported that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a warning not to kiss chickens. Normally I would skip such a bulletin but two of my close friends (both groomsmen in my wedding) raise chickens and my paternal grandparents were raised on farms. My wife and I are both part of the chicken family. She is a chick and I am chicken, so I am deeply rooted in the chicken subculture. I therefore feel obligated to notify my peeps that the CDC “estimates that 23 percent of the people who reported contracting salmonella from homegrown fowl either had recently kissed their chickens (7 percent) or snuggled them (16 percent).” Although this is personally disturbing to me on many different levels, I want to go on the record as supporting the rights of consenting chickens to form relationships of their choice. That ended the Blog until I read it to my daughter-in-law who loves PCC. Apparently she often kissed the chickens on her grandmother’s farm and thinks the only absurdity is exaggerating the health risks. Another example of me mocking a mainstream activity I am totally ignorant about!