MDBCs 14 May 2024

On May 14, is Dance Like a Chicken Day. Also known as Chicken Dance Day, the goofy holiday celebrates the silly dance that is accompanied by the Chicken Song or the Chicken Dance Song.

The song, sometimes also known as the Birdie Song, was composed in the 1950s by Swiss composer Werner Thomas. Accompanied by a series of movements, the song soon became popular in the West, especially in the United States, where it was performed at parties and weddings.

The dance mimics the movements of a chicken and includes flapping of arms and wriggling of the body.

How to Celebrate?

Have a chicken dance dance-off.
Get together with friends and organize a chicken dance flash mob. Just make sure you get the requisite paperwork and permissions before you do it.

Did You Know…

…that chickens were originally domesticated for the purposes of cockfighting and not for food?

***

After I took a job at a small publishing house, the first books I was assigned to edit were all on the topic of dieting.

"Isn't the market flooded with these types of books?" I asked another editor. "How do we expect to turn a profit?"

"Don't worry," he assured me. "These books appeal to a wider audience than most."

***

An elderly man visits the doctor for a checkup. "Mr. Smith, you're in great shape," says the doctor afterward. "How do you do it?"

"Well," says Mr. Smith, "I don't drink, I don't smoke, and the good Lord looks out for me. For weeks now, every time I go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, he turns the light on for me."

Concerned, the doctor finds Mrs. Smith in the waiting room and tells her what her husband said.

"I don't think that's anything to worry about," she says. "And on the bright side, it does explain who's been peeing in the fridge."

***

My 45-year-old sister was attending the wedding of a childhood friend when she ran into people she hadn't seen in years. How long exactly?

One of them shouted, "Kathy, you got your braces off!"

***

Mother's Day is nigh, so we're loath to say this: Mothers aren't perfect. Here they admit it:

"My son knows he's not allowed downstairs until 9 a.m. Reason? He's been told that between 8 and 9 a.m., Mommy's fighting the monster that lives in the laundry basket."

"I just ate a full pint of Häagen-Dazs, and when my three-year-old asked me what I was eating, I told her it was special medicine for mommies, because I didn't want to share."

"My son was so excited for his second birthday, but when the day rolled around, I hadn't pulled anything together—so I told him that he had the day wrong and his birthday was actually the following week."

"I haven't taught my kids to tell time yet … That way, I can say it's bedtime whenever I want."