What is it?

kronckew · 7th September 2021, 05:48 PM

My Father-in-law in Alabama had a few apparently very expensive fighting chickens, hens, and a couple roosters. They hunted bugs in the fields behind the house (where the outhouse was) and flew up into the surrounding trees to roost at night. I don't think Melvin (My FIL) was fighting them tho. Probably used to, when he was younger.

Anyway, he used to occasionally put his plowin' mule in that field to trim down the grass. Mules are cantankerous, ornery critters. If you had to use the outdoor facility when the mule was there, you had to watch out, or he'd go for you. He only liked Melvin.

One day the mule got into an argument with the roosters, and he killed and ate them, and started on the hens. (Mules get put in field with sheep/goats to protect them from wolves/coyotes/puma, much cheaper than dogs, and self-feeding - usually on veg tho).

The mule disappeared, and my in-law's freezer had some large hunks of meat in it a few days later. Didn't taste much like beef - I expect it was the missing mule. Melvin liked the chickens more than the mule. The rest of us didn't miss the mule either. Nasty beast.

A. G. Maisey · 8th September 2021, 01:30 AM

Well, since we have diverged from spurs into the birds that wear them & the mules that eat the birds that wear them, we might be able to diverge a little more into the what one can face in the way of fighting birds in Australia.

In my generation we were brought up on the bush ballads of people like Banjo Patterson & Henry Lawson. I knew, and still know a lot of this verse by heart, and have in fact contributed to it in a very minor way.

This one from The Banjo might raise a smile:-

https://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poe...mecock-0004008

kronckew · 8th September 2021, 03:27 AM

Man walks into a bar and says his moulting fighting cock on a leash, and asks for a beer. The bar bully saunters over and says, that's an ugly old bird you got there, but can it fight, mine has beaten all challengers? Man says yes, and he doesn't even need spurs. Bets made, A ring is hastily arranged and the bully puts his huge bird with it's taped on fighting spurs in the ring with the skinny blue patchily feathered bird. The bully's rooster gives a tremendous war-cry and charges the poor spur-less thing, and in one quick move the blue grabs the bullies bird with it's wing claws, bites it on the neck, and shakes it once, breaking its neck, and proceeds to eat the bully's chicken, tearing it apart with razor sharp teeth. The bully pays up and says what kind of bird is that anyway with teeth? Man says, I found him in the Amazon rain forest, people said they were supposed to be extinct, but they called him a 'velociraptor'.

A. G. Maisey · 8th September 2021, 04:19 AM

So --- this is the famous "Blue Bird of Happiness" ?

Mickey the Finn · 18th October 2021, 01:25 PM

Perhaps so...at least for the lucky owner of the rare bird, upon whom Fortune certainly has smiled... If memory serves, they also thought the coelocanth, forest reindeer, and the Pseudoryx nghetinhensis (sometimes called the Asian unicorn, a misnomer, since it has two horns. The Asian unicorn was actually the Elasmotherium; see "The Mythic Chinese Unicorn: 2nd Edition" by Jeannie Thomas Parker) were extinct...

kronckew · 18th October 2021, 03:13 PM

Apparently he was a Norwegian Blue Velociraptor, and was pining for the fjords...Last I heard, he'd headed that way. Any Norwegians best be careful out in the woods. 'He' may have been a parthenogenic female looking for a place to nest.

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Act 1 Sc 5, 187-188: Hamlet

Little Ham said that to Horatio Nelson, or maybe Horatio Hornblower. I disremember which. (A hamlet is a little ham, isn't it?)

Bob A · 18th October 2021, 08:59 PM

Re: little ham, perhaps you're thinking of Mickey Rooney? Actors are the only little hams with speaking parts.

Hamlets are little villages; while they are said to speak with one voice regarding the characteristics of the villagers, it would be more a Greek Chorus than a singular voice.

I wouldn't Pooh-pooh your little ham, though. Possibly you were thinking of a piglet?

It would never do, to go into the mathematics of Horatios in a genteel forum, of course.

8th September 2021, 03:27 AM	#3
kronckew Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Room 101, Glos. UK Posts: 4,224	Man walks into a bar and says his moulting fighting cock on a leash, and asks for a beer. The bar bully saunters over and says, that's an ugly old bird you got there, but can it fight, mine has beaten all challengers? Man says yes, and he doesn't even need spurs. Bets made, A ring is hastily arranged and the bully puts his huge bird with it's taped on fighting spurs in the ring with the skinny blue patchily feathered bird. The bully's rooster gives a tremendous war-cry and charges the poor spur-less thing, and in one quick move the blue grabs the bullies bird with it's wing claws, bites it on the neck, and shakes it once, breaking its neck, and proceeds to eat the bully's chicken, tearing it apart with razor sharp teeth. The bully pays up and says what kind of bird is that anyway with teeth? Man says, I found him in the Amazon rain forest, people said they were supposed to be extinct, but they called him a 'velociraptor'. Attached Images

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7th September 2021, 05:48 PM	#1
kronckew Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Room 101, Glos. UK Posts: 4,224	My Father-in-law in Alabama had a few apparently very expensive fighting chickens, hens, and a couple roosters. They hunted bugs in the fields behind the house (where the outhouse was) and flew up into the surrounding trees to roost at night. I don't think Melvin (My FIL) was fighting them tho. Probably used to, when he was younger. Anyway, he used to occasionally put his plowin' mule in that field to trim down the grass. Mules are cantankerous, ornery critters. If you had to use the outdoor facility when the mule was there, you had to watch out, or he'd go for you. He only liked Melvin. One day the mule got into an argument with the roosters, and he killed and ate them, and started on the hens. (Mules get put in field with sheep/goats to protect them from wolves/coyotes/puma, much cheaper than dogs, and self-feeding - usually on veg tho). The mule disappeared, and my in-law's freezer had some large hunks of meat in it a few days later. Didn't taste much like beef - I expect it was the missing mule. Melvin liked the chickens more than the mule. The rest of us didn't miss the mule either. Nasty beast.

8th September 2021, 01:30 AM	#2
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,015	Well, since we have diverged from spurs into the birds that wear them & the mules that eat the birds that wear them, we might be able to diverge a little more into the what one can face in the way of fighting birds in Australia. In my generation we were brought up on the bush ballads of people like Banjo Patterson & Henry Lawson. I knew, and still know a lot of this verse by heart, and have in fact contributed to it in a very minor way. This one from The Banjo might raise a smile:- https://www.poetrylibrary.edu.au/poe...mecock-0004008

8th September 2021, 04:19 AM	#4
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,015	So --- this is the famous "Blue Bird of Happiness" ?

18th October 2021, 01:25 PM	#5
Mickey the Finn Member Join Date: Dec 2017 Posts: 90	Perhaps so...at least for the lucky owner of the rare bird, upon whom Fortune certainly has smiled... If memory serves, they also thought the coelocanth, forest reindeer, and the Pseudoryx nghetinhensis (sometimes called the Asian unicorn, a misnomer, since it has two horns. The Asian unicorn was actually the Elasmotherium; see "The Mythic Chinese Unicorn: 2nd Edition" by Jeannie Thomas Parker) were extinct...

18th October 2021, 03:13 PM	#6
kronckew Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Room 101, Glos. UK Posts: 4,224	Apparently he was a Norwegian Blue Velociraptor, and was pining for the fjords...Last I heard, he'd headed that way. Any Norwegians best be careful out in the woods. 'He' may have been a parthenogenic female looking for a place to nest. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Act 1 Sc 5, 187-188: Hamlet Little Ham said that to Horatio Nelson, or maybe Horatio Hornblower. I disremember which. (A hamlet is a little ham, isn't it?)

18th October 2021, 08:59 PM	#7
Bob A Member Join Date: Feb 2014 Posts: 436	Re: little ham, perhaps you're thinking of Mickey Rooney? Actors are the only little hams with speaking parts. Hamlets are little villages; while they are said to speak with one voice regarding the characteristics of the villagers, it would be more a Greek Chorus than a singular voice. I wouldn't Pooh-pooh your little ham, though. Possibly you were thinking of a piglet? It would never do, to go into the mathematics of Horatios in a genteel forum, of course.