Contest: Why did the chicken....lay the egg

this photo from HERE (and the images made me laugh!)

Sometimes thoughts hit me upside my haid and I then want to know the "why's" of something. And this chicken thang hit me upside my haid this morning while I was watching a goose cross the road (why did the goose cross the road? to make Kat start thinking weird shit).

So, I got to thinking about chickens and eggs. Most animals I know of have a certain amount of babies. A robin lays eggs and those baby birds are born and then the robin waits until the next time to have their babies. A horse, cow, human, dog, cat--they have their babies whenever blah blah, etc. But how come a chicken lays eggs every day, or near every day (I know that light has something to do with it and egg people will use artificial light to get them to lay more often - but why do they have the capacity to do this? what in "evolution" causes a chicken to have so danged many eggs - especially if some of them won't even grow baby chicks?--what's the evolutionary purpose? the survival purpose of unfurtilized laid eggs?)

I mean, if us humans weren't eating them, would their be millions of chickens running around, or, would there be all these eggs lying around that chickens have squatted out all over because no one is eating them(except other wild animals slipping 'round)? Wait, but we don't eat the fertilized ones, right? So, gol-dangit, why even lay those eggs? Chickens don't lay them thinking, "Here y'all go, here's some unfertilized eggs for y'all to eat, bawk bawk bawk...y'all don't think nothin' of it, all yallses just crack em open and have at it....bawk, my pleasure...bawk bawk bawk. Y'all enjoy now! Y'all come back soon! bawkity bawk!" I mean, what's the purpose of the chicken having the capability of laying those eggs every day or near every day?

What? Who is laughing? I want to know! Aren't you curious? What other animal lays eggs every danged day? And not just one, but sometimes several of them. Why? why why why does a chicken have so many danged eggs?

The first person to give me a real answer - I mean, one you can verify *laugh* - gets a signed copy of Tender Graces. If you already have a copy, then I'll send you something else -- and if you just don't want a copy of TG and want that something else, then for gawd's sake don't admit that you don't want TG or you might hurt my wittle feewings *laughing* - just say, "I want the other thang...." and we'll just pretend you already have a copy of TG...teehee bawk bawk bawk.

So, anyway....stop laughing at me...!

Before I go --- Don't forget to scroll down to the links below, where there are the Blogging Community (and local community) artisans, for which Angie Ledbetter and I hope you all will do your holiday and non-holiday shopping....and if you are a blogger with artsy kinds of things or books or whatever, leave your link and I'll post it. From time to time I'll be re-posting those links.

Have a great weekend - I'll leave this post up Sat'day and Sunday and see if anyone can answer my question (without laughing at me). Huhn. And if you google "why do chickens lay eggs every day" you'll get all kinds of whatevers that don't answer your question. huhn.

I'll be back Monday with more on the Louisiana Book Festival....and Louisiana food!

PS -- two of the most discussed about posts I have had here are when mothers abandon or give up their children (and are they held to a higher standard than men), and the post from the other day about "when did food become the (my) enemy." I have read all your comments and laughed and cried and stiffed up my back for you in indignation...all things. As for weight and body image for us women, I think we should revolt - yes, we should all contact Hollyweird and magazines and ask to be represented as real women - is this what Dove is doing? oh smart Dove! ha! Maybe More magazine is doing it? I wonder, if we all said, ENOUGH would it matter? Or maybe we have to affect the change only within our own attitudes and our children's attitudes! Our daughters! Our Sons! okay, enough of that - back to the Chickens...

google images from: http://mypersonalizedringtones.com/images/chicken_laying_eggs.jpg

Work, work, now get to work, baby...work work, watch me work now...

I have been distracted the last few days, and for a bit longer I'll be distracted and busy as well. If I suddenly "disappear" just a little bit, there's good reason for it!

First, I took a few days to do some things around the little log house, for I know things are going to get crazy with the book (crazier?). We took the sofa from downstairs (it's like brand new as it's rarely used) and put it upstairs and took the one upstairs and put it downstairs - it's like having a new sofa! (I tell you, hauling a heavy-arse sofa up our stairs was no small feat - *huff puff errghhhhhh*) We bought a new chair made and sold by locals, and will get that today. I bought (ordered) a couple of new pillows and a throw from locals, and am waiting for them to arrive. So, our living room has a new look. Yay!

Then yesterday my friend (an executive chef and photographer) Christy Bishop came up to our place and snapped some "author photos" - she had a hard time getting me to stay still and to "look natural" - I detest photo-taking (as all my friends and family know - there are few pictures of me not making a face, or whatever). She finally told Good Man Roger - "give her some of that wine..." teehee...that helped...teehee. I'll see those today after she puts them on a disk.

Then! Bellebooks and I are going into the "line editing" phase of Tender Graces, so I will need to get very focused and get that done. My beautiful literary-goddess friend Mary Ann Ledbetter (yes, that name's familiar isn't it! She's Angie Gumbo Writer's sis in law!) wrote up a really intelligent, fun, beautiful intuitive Reader's Guide, and I need to look at that to get it to BB (and if you are an author who needs a Reader's Guide - she is one to think about - I am so pleased with what she did.) I have to write an acknowledgments page (eeeekk!) And, as well, I need to start thinking about the second book - which fortunately is already drafted out and has been sitting in the files just waiting - it tells the continued story of Virginia Kate.

I'm all a-dither and what all what not whatever *laugh*

Get your stories in today for the book give-a-way. You have until 8:00AM tomorrow, Friday, morning and then I will put them all up. Then, you can vote on your favorite from Friday until Monday - and Monday I'll announce the winner of BRIDA.

Okay - this must be the most boring rambling post in the history of boring rambling posts - I'll be round to visit you all today and then I'm knuckling down and getting to work!

Oh, PS -- I saw this pillow while looking for down-filled pillows online - um...LAUGHING! lawd...I don't know why it disturbed me -but ...hummmm...erk. It just seems ... wrong, somehow. There's a story here - someone tell it -- it begs to be told. The person who buys this pillow has a story!

A PEE ESS: I forgot to add: The Rose & Thorn Literary Ezine newsletter will be out in the next few days - I plan to have it ready to go by 2/1. If you haven't signed up for the R&T Newsletter, you can do so HERE. It's emailed to you, and we keep our subscriber emails safe!)

(google images from www.superstock.com & supplementalscience.wordpress.com & asia.cnet.com)

Fire on the mountain, lightening ooga aahgah oooooo!

First off - Suburb Sanity had an idea for the book give-a-way contest...if you would rather post your "entry" - the 200 words or fewer (and I know that's really "micro-fiction" - but, it's a practice in getting started, in drawing out an idea or a "caption" if you will, and keeping things short and tight enough for everyone's busy schedules!) - on your blog and then link it in the comments section, I will accept that. If you've already written yours, feel free to still do that if you wish. Just write it as a blog post on your blog, come to the comments here and tell me you've posted the entry and then put the link that leads back to the entry. Of course, you may also just post it in the comments section here just as before!

Now, you can stop here and go on to your Good Day, or read a little something I wrote on the YOG one day. I am off to walk and then do some pilates or yoga or some other health-wise bladdity doo doo.

Somewhere, someplace far away or not so far away, someone named or never named, cocked their head, raised high their arm and with a quick descending pound, struck a flint they had no idea was a flint, and created a spark. The spark was interesting, so they did it again and again, watched as the light bounced off the rock. Maybe they laughed, maybe they ran to get their friends and family to watch, maybe they were afraid and thought some god played a trick on them. Whatever happened in this long long ago, someone someplace named or unnamed created a spark that would then create a controlled fire. I want to thank them for it. They will never know my thanks, never know that what they created out of earth’s humble offerings would change the way human’s light their spaces, prepare their food, and create warmth. I am imagining there was no fanfare, and I am certain there were no research grants, there was no name written in history books, nothing to mark that day the spark created what human would come to both appreciate…without the fear of fire’s Other Side.

I can imagine before these long ago people created the spark they knew as good fire, they may have known of the big fire that swelled and grew out of control—lightening strikes a tree in a forest and the trees burn, one after another…big fire was not seen as a help to human, but instead something to be feared. A fiery hot god breathing smoke as it ate its way through anything in its path.
But that day of the sparkling flint arcing from the pounding of rock was a controlled event, something the human did from his or her own hand. From those humble beginnings, I am sitting in front of my fire, with a lemongrass candle burning on the counter, the kettle on to boil for tea. If my lights go out in our high windy day on the mountain, I’ll light a lantern for light. I will remain snug in my little log house, warm and safe and happy with my controlled fires. It’s difficult to name gratitude for something I knew can also create such pain, but all the same, I stare into the fire and am calmed.

(google image from cartoonstock.com)