\u201cThe race is not always to the\nswift, nor the battle to the strong, but that\u2019s the way to bet.\u201d Damon Runyon\ncoined this cynical modification to the famous \u201cthe tortoise and the hare\u201d fable\ngenerally attributed to Aesop. (Your interlocutor, The Happy Pessimist, has deduced\nfrom the tale that Aesop vastly preferred turtle soup to hasenpfeffer.) However,\nthe key words in Mr. Runyon\u2019s wry comment are \u201cnot always.\u201d As civilization\ncrashes about our ears, even the dumb animals are happy to make a mockery of\nour expectations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What,\nDear Reader, do you expect to happen when a fox invades a chicken coop? The fox\neats the chickens, right? When the chicken coop is located in la belle France<\/em>, you expect that the fox\nwill dine on coq au vin, n\u2019est pas?<\/em> Not\nso fast mon ami<\/em>. When any event\noccurs in France, all bets are off. The generally reliable The Guardian informs\nus (https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2019\/mar\/12\/chickens-teamed-up-to-kill-fox-at-brittany-farming-school)\nin the case of the chicken coop at the Lycee\nagricole Le Gros Chene \u00e0 Pontivy<\/em> (Big Oak Farm School) in Brittany, the outcome\nof the latest fox vs. chicken encounter was chickens 1, fox 0. When a fox\ninvaded the school chicken coop, 300 irate chickens descended upon him\/her and\npecked him\/her to death. Ha ha!<\/p>\n\n\n\n This\nbizarre outcome is distressing. The Book of Bad Stuff teaches that when the end\napproaches, all kinds of weird shit will occur, and chickens prevailing over\nfoxes certainly fits in that category. And if this story is one of the indicia of\nimpending doom, what can we expect next? I can see the headlines now:<\/p>\n\n\n\n PRIUS\nDEMOLISHES MACK TRUCK<\/p>\n\n\n\n 97\nLB WEAKLING BEATS UFC CHAMPION UNCONSCIOUS<\/p>\n\n\n\n POLITICIAN\nCAUGHT PUTTING MONEY INTO CHARITY BASKET<\/p>\n\n\n\n So remember, Dear Reader, the next\ntime Sky Masterson asks you to bet on a fight, pick the chicken.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThe race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that\u2019s the way to bet.\u201d Damon Runyon coined this cynical modification to the famous \u201cthe tortoise and the hare\u201d fable generally attributed to Aesop. (Your interlocutor, The Happy Pessimist, has deduced from the tale that Aesop vastly preferred turtle soup […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1141","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P38V5o-ip","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funwithdoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/funwithdoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/funwithdoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funwithdoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funwithdoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/funwithdoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1142,"href":"https:\/\/funwithdoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1141\/revisions\/1142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funwithdoom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}