John the farmer was in the fertilized egg business. He had several
hundred young layers (hens), called "pullets", and ten roosters, whose job it
was to fertilize the eggs.
The farmer kept records and any rooster that didn't perform went into the
soup pot and was replaced. That took an awful lot of his time, so he bought a
set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different
tone so John could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing. Now he
could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report simply by listening to
the bells.
The farmer's favorite rooster was old Butch, a very fine specimen he was,
too But on this particular morning John noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at
all! John went to investigate. The other roosters were chasing pullets,
bells-a-ringing. The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover.
But to Farmer John's amazement, old Butch had his bell in hi s beak, so it
couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next
one. John was so proud of old Butch, he entered him in the Renfrew County Fair
and he became an overnight sensation among the judges.
The result...The judges not only awarded old Butch the No Bell Piece Prize
but they awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well.
Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making: who else but a politician
could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet
by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they
weren't paying attention.
Vote carefully this year...the bells are not always audible.
