Running around like a headless chicken

Day 135 / 365

To run around like a headless chicken means to be busy doing lots and lots of stuff but doing all of it aimlessly, and therefore not getting anything done. But what interests me more about this phrase is its origin. It’s actually based on a real-life story of a chicken, which you can see in the picture above. Mike- “the headless chicken” lived without a head for 18 months!

The story behind Mike

Mike lived in a farm in America owned by Llyod Olsen in the 1940s. One day Llyod was having his mother-in-law over for supper. To impress his wife wanted to cook a nice chicken dish, so she sent Llyod to bring one from their farm.

Llyod chose Mike as the unlucky chicken for that day. But as luck would have it, when Llyod proceeded to behead mike he missed the jugular vein, and most of the brain stem remained intact. A clot prevented Mike from bleeding to death. So even though mike had no head, as you can see in the picture, it still roamed about and tried to peck for food. Llyod let the chicken be, thinking it will die out in a few minutes, but when it didn’t he decided to take care of it.

He was able to feed it through an eye dropper. Mike became a huge hit. It was put on display and Llyod charged admission from the public to see it. Mike died 18 months later after getting a piece of corn choked in his throat.

This post is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here

Yesterday’s blog — How we’ll find life on other planets