It seems the older we get, the less we are like the Energizer Bunny and the more we are like the drum.
Yes, today I am beat . Rat-a-tat-tat, beat like a drum.
Who knows why, really? Maybe I just did too much physical work, or it could be emotional stress, or perhaps the fact that I only sleep about 4 hours a night. But today, I’ve been feeling it all day.
So if it is all the same to you….. I think I’ll just relay a little historical tidbit I read about today.
It has to do with tornados. And chickens.
The deal was, way back in 1842. A twister ripped through Mayfield, Ohio. Strangely enough, after the thing hit… the local farmers notice that all the chickens, and turkeys, and geese…. had lost the better part of their feathers. Nakers!
A mathematician lived in the area. His name was Elias Loomis. So this guy conjured the theory that the loss of chicken feathers was an accurate measure of the power of passing tornados. He even fired chickens out of a canon to test his hypothesis. (That seems completely awful to me.)
Well… about 100 and some odd years later, Bernard Vonnegut , also a scientist, caught wind of this claim. (No pun intended.) Coincidentally, Bernie-boy was the brother of one of my favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut. But back to the chickens.
Vonnegut decided to evaluate this notion with a slightly more sophisticated method of testing. He put the chickens in a controlled wind tunnel. Sure enough, they lost feathers, but not very consistently. As a result, Vonnegut decided that feather-loss was not an accurate measure of the power of a tornado.
Who knew?
But, after I read this…. Three things came to mind.
1. This could be one cause of the chicken crossing the road. Forcefully and against her will.
2. Did these guys really think they could accurately gauge wind speed by the measure of plucked turkey butts?
3. And finally, I should count my blessings. As beat as I feel tonight, I am sure it does not compare with a chicken in a wind-tunnel, cannon, or a tornado.
Yes, I’m guessing I will sleep pretty good night.
And I’d bet money, I’ll wake up tomorrow morning… hungry for chicken eggs. Scrambled or otherwise.
Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind. –Bruce Lee