It Takes a Tough Man to Make a Tender Chicken

The New York Times > AP > Business > Frank Perdue, Chicken Magnate, Dies at 84

Frank Purdue, Dead. Probably my favorite advertising icon back when I lived in Rhode Island. Or was it New Jersey? There was his bust, on the TV screen -- this little bald beady-eyed fellow who did goofy stuff with chickens.

According to this obituary, he was tougher than he let on:

"In 1986, Perdue told to a presidential commission that he had twice unsuccessfully sought help from a reputed New York crime boss to put down union activities, actions he later said he regretted deeply."

Does that mean that the "reputed" crime boss refused to help, or was ineffective? We'll never know.

The other question Mr. Purdue always raised for me was whether it indeed took a tough man to raise a tender chicken. I mean, don't the chickens have it rough enough already, what with the cramped quarters, wallowing in their own chicken feces, the pecking and the incessent clucking and then the decapitation and the plucking and the rendering and the chopping and the quartering and the nuggeting and the deep frying?

I'm gonna go have me some chicken right now!