Teddy Roosevelt Pets

Jonathan Edwards the bear with the unnamed one legged rooster:

Theodore Roosevelt had the most pets of any American President, including this bear and fowl. 

There were other pet bears, and other poultry, in the Roosevelt household (as well as a badger, a lizard, and many other creatures) But these two seemed to stand out for me.

But I never pass up an excuse to draw poultry.

Squirrel RIding Chicken

I can never pass up an opportunity to draw a chicken.

The kids are still rather enthusiastic about Clumsy Ninja by Natural Motion Games. 
They have each managed to attain a level of 30 out of a possible 99.  Clearly, many more hours could be spent not doing homework or playing outside.

They particularly enjoy some of the minor characters in the game like the Squirrel and the Chicken.
I am not entirely clear on the role that these animals play.  I think they might actually give the Ninja assignments, but they seem mostly to provide companionship and comic relief.  On occasion, the rodent rides the poultry, which is a highlight for our kids.

When my younger son asked me to draw them, I am sure he meant me to copy the image from the game, but my selfish compulsion to draw a realistic chicken won the day.

The critters in the game are much cuter.

(You can see my other poultry napkins that were unpopular with my son at this link...particularly the very similar, and very unloved, zombie baby riding a chicken)

Emily Warren Roebling with Rooster on Brooklyn Bridge

Lady Engineer with Loud Male Poultry:

Our second grade son's class is finishing its study of the Brooklyn Bridge by writing and performing a 45 minute play about the drama surrounding the bridge's construction.

Slipped inside the story of the struggle to get the bridge completed is a feminist message. The bridge was originally designed and overseen by John Roebling. Early in the project, however, he succumbed to a foot crushing injury (compounded by the misguided belief that dipping it in water repeatedly would heal the wound). The bridge construction was then overseen by his son Washington.  When Washington became bedridden from caisson disease ("the bends") his wife Emily was grudgingly accepted as his representative and eventually as the de facto chief engineer. This was a rather remarkable feat for the time when it was commonly believed that women's minds were biologically incapable of comprehending complicated science and math.

On opening day, she was the first person to ride across the bridge. According to the second grade play script, she did this "with a rooster in her lap. It is a sign of victory." One source I stumbled upon in my 3 minutes of Googling said that the bird crowed constantly and did not appreciate the role it had to play in the spectacle.

It seemed to me ironic and sadly appropriate that Emily would carry a symbol of distracting chicken-brained male virility during her moment of triumph.

Alas, my portrait of Emily is not particularly accurate, but I did enjoy drawing the bird.

Turkeysaurus Rex with Pilgrim for Thanksgiving

It's an appallingly short school week because of "Fall Break."  At our kids' progressive Quaker school, we do not refer to the holiday as "Thanksgiving" in the same spirit as we use "Indigenous Peoples' Day" in place of "Columbus Day."  Since today is the single full day of school before this unnamed day of eating that overlooks the oppression of many people and fowl, it was the only option for a themed napkin to go to school.

As I am often reminded by my sons that birds in general, and chickens in particular, are modern day dinosaurs, I thought a giant Wild Turkey/ Tyrannosaurus Rex mash-up might be in order.  There have been a great many videos posted online of "wild turkey attacks" (here's a link to a very recent Washington Post article entitled "Great Moments in Wild Turkey Attacks" in case you doubt my expertise on this topic) So it seems that Wild Turkeys might in fact have the disposition of a large predator when given the opportunity. 

My sons agreed that it seemed appropriate that the Turkey have the upper hand at least for today.

A few other Thanksgiving themed napkins from years past can be seen at this link.

Chicken Jockey

TWFS (Too Weird For School)

I am told that in Minecraft, a baby zombie riding a chicken is a extremely rarely occurring antagonist (or "mob"). According to the Minecraft wiki entry for Chicken Jockey:
"In a chicken-free environment, this gives each spawned zombie a 0.25% chance of becoming a Chicken Jockey; if chickens are present, the chance increases to 0.4875%."

Usually the combination of cute and creepy (and Minecraft!) is a hit, but Ansel told me in no uncertain terms today that he would not be taking this one to school. I asked him which element was the problem, the baby zombie or the chicken?

He said that both were definitely the problem. 

Reggie From "Free Birds" with Pizza Steve from "Uncle Grandpa"

"Hang on to your nuggets"... and to your dairy, and your gluten:  Thanksgiving food that talks back.

We saw "Free Birds" over the weekend during a ten year old's birthday party.  The movie's other tagline posits itself as "The best turkey movie of all time."  This may be true.  Perhaps it would be wise to leave it at that.

I will observe, however, that it reminded me strongly of "Chicken Little" a widely panned 2005 Disney movie that was the object of obsession for our older son for much of the period between his third and fourth years.  Something about the talking birds, wimpy underdog protagonist and invisible flying ship catapulted me back to our repeated, stupifying viewings of "Chicken Little."  That said,  "Chicken Little" features one of my favorite animated characters of all time: Fish Out of Water ....and "Free Birds" does not have that redeeming feature.

At any rate, "Free Birds" posits pizza as the solution to the problem of the Thanksgiving driven murder of turkeys.  While my children are happy to embrace an exclusively dairy and gluten based diet whenever possible, Uncle Grandpa's Pizza Steve presents a further food empathy challenge.

Chris Grine's Chickenhare meets Ben 10's Kickin Hawk

We were compelled to stay up past bedtime last night finishing Chris Grine's graphic novel Chickenhare.

Here he meets another of my sons' favorite creatures from Ben 10 Omniverse.  They have little in common, I suppose, beyond their poultry parts, and their presence in my kids' imaginations.

ChickenHare seems a little uncertain about the alien...which is probably wise.