WHICH CAME FIRST? CHICKEN OR EGG?

I was researching some of Shakespeare works yesterday looking for a particular item which I never found. However, I did come across a particular word Shakespeare mentioned several times in The Merry Wives of Windsor. “Cuckold.”

Cuckold led to “henpecked.” Henpecked to the eternal question as to which came first: The chicken or the egg?

Lets begin with Shakespeare. Then back in time 10,000 years to something like a chicken. From whence we shall return to answer the eternal question.

Cuckold was a word familiar to the chicken farmers of Shakespeare’s day. When the rooster or cock grew old, the farmers would bring in a younger cock to service the hens. The older cocks were then referred to as cuckolds.

The farmers would cut off a cuckold’s spurs so it could not injure the younger cocks should they fight.

Henpecked is another word that comes down to us from the farmers of Shakespeare’s time. Henpecked meant a man who was dominated by his wife. Still does.

When a cock attempted to mount a hen, the hen pecked at the cock, thus driving him away. Unable to mate with the hen, the cock was said to have been henpecked.

Chickens were native to Asia. Specifically, the jungles of southeast Asia. They were domesticated. Today, valued as one of the most domesticated animals in the world.

Going back 10,000 years ago, chickens were not valued as food. Cockfighting was their forte in Asia and China.

With that background, the question arises as to which came first: The chicken or the egg?

Difficult to answer. As some things are.

Recall Luna Lovegood, the dreamy yet dotty witch from Harry Potter. Lovegood was asked about the riddle, “A circle has no beginning.”

It is impossible to identify the first case of a circular cause or consequence.

A circle has neither beginning nor end.

Determining whether the chicken or egg came first similar in difficulty.

However, the answer has been arrived at.

Long ago, a “chicken like bird” was close in many respects to a “chicken,” but not a chicken yet. That “first almost chicken” has became known as a “proto-chicken.”

A proto-chicken laid an egg. The “proto-rooster” fertilized it.

One of the fertilizations resulted in a freak of nature. The genes from the ma and pa “almost chickens” fused. They combined in a new way. Created a mutation that accidentally made the baby different from its parents.

The mutation was not noticed initially. Took one hundred years for the difference to be noted. The egg difference sufficient after a century for the noticeability to become the official progenitor of a new species. The “chicken.”

The simplified answer to the eternal question: Two birds that weren’t really chickens created a chicken egg. Ergo, the egg came first following which it hatched a chicken.

Coronavirus is affecting many persons and businesses economically.

Businesswise, the hospitals are taking a beating. Surprisingly since they are full of coronavirus patients. Most of whom however never had or have lost their medical insurance.

Rural hospitals are taking the biggest beating. It is expected the big city ones will follow.

The rural hospitals have and are continuing to go under for 3 reasons. They have been forced to cancel elective procedures which are the most profitable for a hospital. Delay in reimbursement killing them. Finally and perhaps difficult to believe, dwindling patient volumes.

Thus far this year, 42 hospitals have closed. Twenty nine of which have already filed for bankruptcy.

Recall Benghazi? The very people outraged for 8 years because of 4 dead people in Benghazi are now telling us that 100,000 plus deaths due to Trump’s negligence is acceptable.

Jimmy Carter is 92. The former President still active. His way of life the past several years helping to build homes for Habitat for Humanity. Wife Rosalyn working by his side.

Last week, Carter was working in constructing a new home in Edmonton, Canada. He passed out. Dehydrated. Rushed to a hospital where he spent a few days. All is well now.

Carter has been out of office more than 30 years. Still active in helping others.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, he is America’s best post-President.

Keep going, President Carter!

Came across a Tumblr comment this morning that must be one of the circumstances to be considered in arriving at a determination as to whether reopen schools: “A parent knowingly dropped off their Covid positive child at day care because they had to work.”

Someone responded: “If you all don’t think this will be the case when schools open, you’re smoking crack rock.”

The Keys and Monroe County Commission should stop screwing around! Put the barricades back up at the entrance to U.S. 1 to the Florida Keys.

We don’t want Miami-Dade and Broward Counties’ Covid-19 bug out of control here!

An interesting comment in this morning’s Key West Citizen Citizens’ Voice: “Temporary inconveniences placed on personal freedoms to save lives and eradicate a disease is temporary at best. Death, on the other hand, is eternal.”

Could not have been said better!

Enjoy your day!

 

 

19 comments on “WHICH CAME FIRST? CHICKEN OR EGG?

  1. Probably NOT !

    Much more likely they’ll refer to it as the Trump era (error), of whicj “masks” are only ONE issue. Remember Clorox?

  2. Exceptional blog today Lou. I am going to commend it to my readers.

    Great explanation of why the egg came first.

    President Carter represents the best of us… Trump, not so much.

    Your posting about school opening and the “Citizens'” comment are spot on.

    Kokomo Man

      • This one is simple.

        You see… the chicken (or chick as I like to say) was in front of the Beach Club on Duval. She saw a fine looking rooster across the road (Duval) as he came out of Irish Kevins. So the chick dashed across Duval (crossed the road) causing a giant traffic pile-up. The chick “crossed the road” because she wanted to get in front of the rooster as he walked down Duval.

        You see this all time on Duval. The chicks cross the road because of the roosters. But wait… there’s more.

        As she walked, the chick really shook her tail feathers. Well, that drove the rooster crazy. She turned left on Caroline Street. He followed. The farther she walked the more “excited” the rooster got. Jimmy Buffett even wrote a song about it. The original lyrics were, “Rooster goin’ crazy on Caroline Street…”

        Well, I’m sure you know how this went. That chick and that rooster are the reason you see chickens all over Key West today.

        Kokomo Man

  3. The very people outraged for all these past several years because of 4 dead people in Benghazi are now telling us that 100,000 plus deaths due to Trump’s negligence is acceptable. And those people are now willing to reopen Schools early in what can only be an eminent threat to innocent school children.

    These are the same people on other issues who so sanctimonosuly like to call themselves ‘protectors of the unborn’ and “Right To Lifers”

    Is there no shame to this Hypocrisy? Shouldn’t we really be calling them “Rightfull Liers?”

    Do we really have to ask what’s wrong with America?

    • What missing email? There never were any missing emails. ALL the emails from the VERY secure in her home were identified and analyzed without issue. The so called missing emails were never discovered because it was all a hoax by her Republican opponents to discredit her political chances.

    • And how many of the 100,000+ dead are at the feet of your governor?” just put them in with the old folks” he said.

      • Typical “Right to Life” hypocritical nonsense from the Troll known as “Sandy” with another of his jumbled waste-of-time posts intended only to start a fight.

  4. School and in fact, all of the fall and winter will be an unmitigated disaster as the flu is returning with her sister Covid still going strong. Why should it not be? So far, the USA has totally botched the response to a pandemic due to beyond amazing incompetence from our illustrious well tanned (fake) President down to many individual bosses without a clue. We should be ashamed of the pandemic scoreboard. We are a Superpower? LOL! We are resting on laurels of a lot smarter and better people than us who gave us a lot and we are squandering it all. Those laurels are withering.

    It will be a continual thing we all must face and hopefully we do NOT contract the virus as now I hear you can get it again….and again. The damage to your body maybe forever. Serious. Who knows in 2-3 years hence, you die or get disabled for life.. Mild cases are not so mild when things shake out. Just like a cold or the flu. it comes back again and again Just like other Coronaviruses…who knew?

    Fauci and science knew. We live in a Dark Age when fools run the show and people suffer, many die needlessly. All for greed. Fiat money. Doubt all our civilized accomplishments for superstition, propaganda and fraudulent conspiracies.

    My hope is a vaccine to handle the COVID soon and in the future as it will be combined with the flu vaccine as both viruses mutate annually. Then we move on to the next horror as the earth weeps. There will be other pandemics as Mother Earth heats and population grows into all the wilds. Eating who knows what.

    But we must ask ourselves how and why did this pandemic happen. The answer may terrify us.

    But we can find our peace…even in this hell. That is the lesson. Earth and our species will stablize…beyond our lifetimes but the planet does not even know we are (were) here.

    • A viruses don’t mutate annually, they constantly mutate, somewhere about once during each year.

      Most pandemics happen because they were not nipped in the bud (or at least controlled)when identified early on. We had the infrastructure, put in place during the Obama years, but Donald Trump dismantled that, out of spite apparently with his hatred for a black president. Now we are paying for his ambitious smallness.

      • My point on mutations is that SARS-Cov-2 like the other Cornonavirsues mutate. That is why we have no lasting immunity to the common cold or the flu. Thus, whatever vaccine is created may work for awhile but will have to be constantly updated to remain effective. Just like the flu vaccine. That is going to be very costly as we would have to vaccinate a lot of people annually or so for COVID alone. And many, many people will refuse vaccinations as they do with the flu.

        I agree Trump totally ignored the threat as it was clearly identified in China in December. I belive I read Trump had previously dismantled or at least vastly underfunded a government pandemic team prior to this pandemic. Primarily, because President Obama had created it prudently.

        We are living with the results of this Administration’s utter failure concerning this pandemic daily. If he gets re-elected the US gets exactly what it deserves, much more pain and loss. The MAGA slogan is really a nasty slight on the real agenda.

        • By world standards, America WAS already great, at least by where Obama had taken it from the Bush years and BEFORE Trump grabbed power. Since then we have definitely slid backwards.

  5. Modern people are used to things being clean and easy and fun filled. All of sudden life is getting down and dirty and not so easy or fun. This is the time for a Nationwide major reality check.

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