Turkey in the Straw
I just finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, in which Barbara Kingsolver details her family's quest to eat local for a year. This turns out to be not only feasible but bucolic when you have 40 acres and a mule in a temperate climate with good soil and reliable rainfall to be worked by two adults with lots of free time from their academic careers, years of experience in farming, canning, butchering, sausage-making and other traditional food pursuits, and a passion for being out in the mud with plants and poultry. Although a bit preachy at times and not especially relevant to my broke-ass urban lifestyle, it was a fairly entertaining read. The best chapter was the second-to-last, in which Kingsolver attempts to get her heritage turkeys to mate. This was difficult not only because turkeys are big, heavy, and stupid, but because turkeys have been bred exclusively through artificial insemination for so many decades that no one knows what turkey mating or nesting behavior looks like anymore. When the first hen started getting flirty Kingsolver thought the bird had worms. This chapter also contains the following amusing anecdote:
Animal behaviorists refer to a mating phenomenon called the "Coolidge effect," a term deriving from an apocryphal story about the president and first lady. On an official visit to a government farm in Kentucky, they are said to have been impressed by a very industrious rooster. Mrs. Coolidge asked her guide how often the cockerel could be expected to perform his duty, and was informed:"Dozens of times a day."
"Please tell that to the president," she said.
The president, upon a moment's reflection, asked, "Was this with the same hen each time?"
"Oh, no, Mr. President," the guide replied. "A different one each time."
The president smiled. "Tell that to Mrs. Coolidge."
So I guess President Coolidge gets to be remembered for something after all.
Animal behaviorists refer to a mating phenomenon called the "Coolidge effect," a term deriving from an apocryphal story about the president and first lady. On an official visit to a government farm in Kentucky, they are said to have been impressed by a very industrious rooster. Mrs. Coolidge asked her guide how often the cockerel could be expected to perform his duty, and was informed:"Dozens of times a day."
"Please tell that to the president," she said.
The president, upon a moment's reflection, asked, "Was this with the same hen each time?"
"Oh, no, Mr. President," the guide replied. "A different one each time."
The president smiled. "Tell that to Mrs. Coolidge."
So I guess President Coolidge gets to be remembered for something after all.