PRESS RELEASE  August 11, 1997

August 11, 1997--The chicken is still on the loose! 

After a daring escape, (but not until he was so thoughtful as to send a postcard) the chicken spent the next 24 hours traveling places such as Florida and Witchita, Kansas, and he finally ended up in Port Neches, Texas, where he was seen by Sue Commander on August 2, 1997 half running, half rolling across Ms. Commander's backyard being chased by her own roughly spherical cat (photo courtesy of drc@nettap.com).  

The chicken then "popped over the pond" on August 4, 1997 for a brief visit to London, U. K., where spotter Simon Tanner witnessed him participating in and winning the cheese rolling contest near Gloucester.  Tanner reported a tight scrape for the chicken later that evening as it was seen "rolling into Soho from the Chinese Quarter with several chinese restaurant owners in hot pursuit."   Tanner clued HSPCIA spotters in to rumors that the chicken might be making its next appearance in New Zealand, where it would "single cluckedly save the endangered Kakapo species by giving them hope that there are creatures on this planet more intensely silly than them."

However, the chicken took a detour, as reported by HSPCIA spotter Scott Tarbet on August 4, 1997.  Tarbet, a space cadet well known to members of the Orson Scott Card mailing list, was just downloading and analyzing the latest Mars Pathfinder data when he radioed one line to OSC mailing list participants:  "There's good news, and there's bad news . . . ."   Tarbet's transmission was cut off in midstream, but HSPCIA officials were able to grab the first part of one stunning photo (courtesy of Scott Tarbet <starbet@mail.sisna.com>).

After his brief jaunt around Mars via Pathfinder, the chicken returned to the Russian space station, Mir, to act as a test subject for kosmonots who were visiting space for the sole purpose of experimenting with the effects of anti-gravity spam on hypothetical animals.  The chicken was then rocketed to earth to trade in his space suit for yet another plane ticket--this time to New Zealand, as suspected earlier.  The chicken was last seen in roaming with a flock of Kakapo's in a New Zealand wildlife preserve.  His presence is reportedly a very positive thing for the endangered species, whose morale predictably takes a terrific upswing every time the chicken attempts to fly over the fence to greet them.

Plans for the future include a role guest starring in the television series Xena, where the chicken will be on the set 18 hours a day playing a paper mache' boulder.
 
Where will the chicken go next?
 

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