Chickens Close Philly School

Copyright © 2009 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

RACHEL MARTIN, host:

Hey, welcome back to THE BRYANT PARK PROJECT from NPR News. We are every where in the world, online, FM/AM, satellite, (unintelligible) on your computer, npr.org/bryantpark.

And now it's the time when we get a little more company in our studio. It's not just Alison and I anymore. We beckon, we ask, we call in our amazing - I don't want to call you amazing - you are amazing - our amazing producer into the studio for The Most.

(Soundbite of music)

MARTIN: Ian, you're up.

IAN CHILLAG: All right. This is from philly.com, which is the Web site of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News. This was the most popular and most e-mailed there. And I like to read that paper every day check in on my old hometown. And it turns out what's going down there yesterday, some kids broke into a high school with 85 chickens.

MARTIN: First question: where did the kids get 85 chickens?

CHILLAG: Well, that's being investigated right now.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Unidentified Man: Apparently you are the only one with that question, I think.

CHILLAG: Particularly a quote from one of the spokespeople for the school. I'm pretty sure there is a very upset poultry farmer somewhere who wants them back.

Unidentified Man: That's not how people talk in Philadelphia.

CHILLAG: Yeah, I know.

(Soundbite of laughter)

CHILLAG: Well…

MARTIN: And I mention this kind of…

CHILLAG: This is the way I accent…

MARTIN: …is kind of messy in the school, I imagine.

CHILLAG: Yeah. They said they didn't find any eggs. These were all hens, apparently which is weird. It was so messy that they had to cancel school that day, which cancels classes for 3,600 students. I guess this was a gigantic, enormous school.

MARTIN: Big school. Can you imagine walking into school and there's like all these chickens in your hallway.

CHILLAG: I think it would be like the best day ever.

MARTIN: Ever. I'm with you.

CHILLAG: I mean, there's actually, like, the kids, of course, were happy because they didn't have school. But then, there's some - one of the secretaries and spokespeople from the school like a secretary saying, there were so cute. You had everybody laughing and then, you know, Philly has a huge crime problem, and she says, you know, the chickens, it's better than hearing about a shooting, which is true.

ALISON STEWART, host: (Unintelligible) hassle is kind of waiting. All right, Dan, you're off the giant (unintelligible), back on your (unintelligible).

DAN PASHMAN: That's right. But for the record, Ali, I fish four different stories today and Matt picked the one that (unintelligible) with food, all right.

STEWART: We're about pigeonholing here, is that right.

PASHMAN: That's right. Yeah. But this is the most e-mailed in the Chicago Tribune wheeling which the town in Chicago in Illinois explains reasons for citing pig roaster.

MARTIN: Oh.

PASHMAN: This gentleman who is a Filipino descent - is from the Philippines actually, not just descent, he was cited for roasting whole pigs in his backyard. And this, now, backyard barbequing in the city of Chicago is very popular, and this got a lot of (unintelligible) a concern that the city was not to allow in more elaborate barbequing. It turns out that the real issue is whether or not he was selling the pigs. Because if you're selling them then they are all of these Board of Health regulations and various ordinances that need to be observed. And you're just cooking for your family and friends, then it's still okay.

STEWART: Now, was that with any food or specifically because it's meat?

PASHMAN: It's with any food.

STEWART: You just can't sell food.

MARTIN: No.

PASHMAN: I think you can't sell food out of your house without a…

STEWART: Like a vegetable market?

PASHMAN: Someone needs to come and inspect that.

STEWART: Now, that's the one a big thing because a lot of it…

MARTIN: Lemonade stand?

STEWART: …the street meat vendor guys…

PASHMAN: Right.

STEWART: Small businesses is (unintelligible).

PASHMAN: He was actually roasting a whole (unintelligible) for a Filipino holiday and he was - it was for to raise awareness or just probably this event for his church and…

STEWART: So it was a fundraiser?

PASHMAN: Right. No, it wasn't a fundraiser. It was just for the celebration with his folks, just for a celebration. But then there was a lot of back and forth because they said, oh, you - this guy says he gave you 140 bucks and he said no, that money was just to cover the cost of the pig and the charcoal, but…

STEWART: Poor guy.

PASHMAN: It sounds like a delicious holiday.

(Soundbite of laughter)

STEWART: Caitlin, what do you have?

CAITLIN KENNEY: I have story from the San Francisco Chronicle about scientist learning it - he says lessons from geckos. Now if anybody knows anyone who had a gecko, you'd seen them having a sort of distinct - their five finger - toes and walk along the edges of their cages. And it's pretty cool, so they sort of trying to harness this ability they have. The toes of the gecko are covered with millions of microscopic hairs, so they say that think of each toe as a teensy weensy toothbrush, a million times of the hairs on the toes create a form of adhesive. And the scientists are studying this and they have sort of applied it to a tape that they can use to attach things. And they're thinking this technology cannot be applied to non-slip (unintelligible). (Unintelligible) are bandages that cling to us in but (unintelligible) out. One of the biophysicists working on the project said, forget Spider-Man, we should be talking about Gecko-Girl(ph). Now that's pretty cool.

MARTIN: I was going to say that…

Unidentified Man: Gecko-Girl.

MARTIN: I mean, Spider-Man should have been a gecko. It makes more sense. He kind of looks, smell like a gecko.

KENNEY: Yeah. Well, if this technology works, you know, we could be clinging to buildings tomorrow just like geckos.

Unidentified Man: Awesome.

STEWART: As well as e-mails the San Francisco Chronicle. Matthew Martinez, our senior supervising producer.

MATTHEW MARTINEZ: Hello. I have the most e-mailed story right now at the Seattle Post Intelligencer headline, another JFK son, DNA may tell.

MARTIN: Ta-ta-ta…

MARTINEZ: Ta-ta-ta…

Okay. This is how this all started: Vanity Fair looking into whether this guy in Canada may be the illegitimate son of JFK. It gets picked up by Page Six, The New York Post.

STEWART: Oh, then all heck breaks loose.

MARTINEZ: And all heck breaks loose. And then The Globe and Mail in Toronto publishes a story about Page Six's item about Vanity Fair maybe doing the story about JFK's illegitimate son - had not exploded yet.

MARTIN: (Unintelligible).

MARTINEZ: Exactly. Anyway, there's a guy, his name his Jack, instead of being tracked down, he decides to come forward and say, I'm probably the guy they're looking for. And I love the description of him. Jack is tall, slim and freckled complexion, hazel eyes, and thick reddish brown hair parted on the left, swept across his forehead. He has perfectly straight teeth - Kennedy teeth - one might be tempted to say.

(Soundbite of laughter)

MARTINEZ: Sitting across from him, the term boyish comes to mind. Anyway…

MARTIN: (Unintelligible)

MARTINEZ: …he grow up in the…

MARTIN: Is he single?

MARTINEZ: Yeah.

STEWART: He could be the guy you're looking for.

Unidentified Man: I could be the guy.

MARTINEZ: Well, it turns out that he is American. He lives with his Canadian wife in Canada, and all he needs is some DNA from the Kennedy clan to prove that he is indeed a Kennedy. They're going to do a DNA test. The Kennedys haven't said if they're actually going to give the DNA, and he says that he will sign an agreement saying he will seek no financial remuneration if he is…

STEWART: DNA prenup.

MARTINEZ: Yes, a DNA prenup of sorts. The number one most e-mailed at Seattle Post Intelligencer.

STEWART: And my most is the most popular on Google News. Headline: New born rhino named after Kofi Annan. I don't know if this is a nice thing or not. There's a new born rhino in Kenya, part of a Maasai Mara reserve. Cute little guy. He's got a big horn. He's a black rhino. Now, they're saying that this has nothing to do with the fact that Kofi Annan is trying to mediate the situation down there between Odinga and Mwai Kibaki. But as one person put, associated with the situation, thick-skin Kofi Annan is likely to spend years in the wild. That's the rhino not the…

Unidentified Man: Rhino not the actual, Kofi.

STEWART: Not the former…

MARTIN: Got it.

STEWART: Secretary-general. To baby Kofi. Go check him out and all of these other stories on our Web site at npr.org/bryantpark. It's The Most.

Copyright ©2009 National Public Radio®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.