Historical Figures: Mike the Headless Chicken
*image is from TIME magazine (because its REEEEEEEEAL!)
Do you remember the weekend of the 60 second Daiquiri post? That was one helluva hot weekend (I'm going somewhere with this. Hold on a sec and sit tight). Anyways, following that same weekend I returned to work on a Monday, as usual. I was feeling a little flat from all that heat. I was still talking about it when I got there. A little chit chat with a fellow coworker (C) and then next thing you know we were then talking about plucking chickens. So yuh. That's where this post comes from. I told her there was this chicken once that live a long time without it's head. I'd heard about it. She hadn't, so naturally she didn't believe me. I've done what I would normally do in any situation like that I guess. I've gone back to look it over. Just to be sure. Now I'm sharing that with you.
Now I know what your thinking. You can't believe everything on the internet and photos of taxidermy looks very much the same as still photos BUT you have to admit that TIME LIFE is a pretty credible source. Don't believe me yet? I'll leave you a link at the bottom. Yeh..... I'll even make you read more of my post first.
So, as the story goes.... Mike was a rooster that was alive and well for most of 1945. The farmer's wife Mrs Olsen decided to have chicken one night. She grabbed the trusty old ax and went to chop off Mike's head. Apparently she didn't do a very good job and left an ear, the jugular vein and the base of Mike's brain (yeh I was wandering about the vein too). There you have it. Apparently that was enough to keep Mike on the go and legend has it he lived another 18 months. His loving owners who had previously been keen on eating him did what anyone else would of done in the 1940's.... they kept him alive with a drop feeder and used him to make money in a travelling freakshow. Apparently he danced too.
Crazy huh? Either way the truth is that it really did happen.
Check it out yourself at http://time.com/3524433/life-with-mike-the-headless-chicken-photos-of-a-famously-tough-fowl/
It's just one of those things. You gotta see it to believe it.
So there's our historical figure for my post tonight. Maybe you have heard of him. Maybe you haven't. Mike the Headless Chicken....... Famous for having no head.
Goodnight.