252: Poultry Slam 2003
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In Danielle's house, ever since she was a girl, when holiday dinners come, they serve a meal that will probably look familiar to you, picture, main course, big platter, drumsticks, white breast meat, golden brown skin, stuffing and gravy, and cranberry relish on the side. And in Danielle's family, they have a name for this meal, and she told me on the phone recently, the name for this meal is... Fish. Got that? Fish. Well, from WBE's East Chicago and Public Radio International, it's American Life, a special program today on The Wonders of... Fish. Actually, we can say the word here, and the word is poultry. And as you know, each week in our program, we choose some theme by the variety of writers and performers to tackle that theme, and this week, as we stand now, in that magical five weeks of the year, that magical five weeks between the turkey served at Thanksgiving, the turkey served at Christmas, a period when Americans consume nearly a fourth of all the turkey consumed in this country every year. And every year during this important time, this American Life brings you yet another program about poultry, that's right stories about turkeys, chickenstucks, fowl of all kind, and their mysterious hold over us. I'm Eric Glass, coming up this hour, deck one, ducky, the story of a typical American family, and imaginary poultry, deck two, what poultry positive program would be complete without? Yes, indeed, in the late 1960s, the winged warrior struck terror in the hearts of evil doers on radios all across this great nation. Today, my friends, he flies again, deck three, chicken diva. In that act, an opera, about chicken little, sung in Italian, and no kidding, able to make a grown man cry, back four, trying to respect the chicken, the story of one woman's quest to try to give chickens the honor and the dignity that they are rarely accorded, even though the chickens resist her efforts. Day with us, deck one, ducky, so in Daniel's family, the power of poultry is so great in their lives that when they serve, chicken or turkey, they call it fish, that's right, and they call it this for a reason, and the reason has to do with a stuffed hand puppet called ducky. Now, Daniel is a woman over 30 years old, her sister Ashley is two years younger, ducky has been in the family since they were children. Well, he was a Christmas present when Ashley was about eight, and I was about ten, and when he first arrived, he was really fluffy, and he was this beautiful, fluffy, white duck, and he had a cape on, and black kind of villain slash hero goggles, he lost the outfit pretty quickly and he went naked, and then he became Ashley's vehicle for torturing me. And that's not unusual for older siblings to dominate younger ones, and his children, Daniel, dominated Ashley, as she looked up to Daniel, fought to get her attention and her approval, and Daniel always, always, got her way, except when ducky was around. She actually would channel, I mean it's kind of an anachronism in this context, but she would channel ducky. She would become ducky's voice, she would speak as ducky, and ducky was sarcastic, ducky was selfish and bossy, ducky would insult Daniel, ducky would tease Daniel, ducky would give her painful nose squeaks. Ever Ashley kind of brought ducky into the equation, he was completely the dominant force, like I was just putty in ducky's hands.
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