#daylateandadollarshort

#daylateandadollarshort  
The Chicken Cut

How language changes.

Landmarks can be quite personal and not universal.

When my French beau fils came to the United States he practiced learning idiomatic English, eager to learn more.

On a drive through the town of Sonoma, often clogged with traffic as you head down town from the highway, a teenage friend showed him a short cut to bypass the central traffic. Turn at the now-defunct hamburger place where a Bantam chicken flock roamed the asphalt parking lot. Go through the parking lot to the street behind. Take side streets to destination.

My son-in-law asked, "What do you call that?" The teenager, as they are want to joke and mystify, answered, "The chicken cut."

None of the rest of the family was on that ride. He kept talking about "chicken cuts" and we wondered what they were. So, we asked. He explained. From that moment on that derelict hamburger stand and the chickens was not only a landmark but named the chicken cut.

Now chicken cut is part of the family vocabulary for short cut. There's one in La Teste de Buch http://www.latestedebuch.com/ as well as Sonoma.

To this day chicken cut is used in our family to mean short cut; not just as a landmark signal but as a way to celebrate the learning of language.

Ping! Peter Hatherley You might find this fun. :)

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