NY Times Brings Anastos's Chicken Back From The Dead

Did you read the NY Times profile piece on newsman Ernie Anastos? In it, the paper puts him face-to-face with his famous on-air fumble, at which point Anastos suggested a rehash of the "dead story" did not belong in the piece... but the Gray Lady disagreed! So there are many paragraphs dedicated to getting down to the bottom of WTF he meant exactly, when he said "Keep fucking that chicken" during the September 16th broadcast last year.

Anastos explained that anything revolving around the weather report is “kind of a play area,” and when they went off air, "We thought nothing of it... no one said anything." (Though Dari Alexander's reaction spoke volumes!) He says it wasn't until he awoke the next morning to an internet filled with his gaffe that he thought, "Wow, did this really happen? Is this a joke?" He explains that he's certain he said "plucking," and pondered the origin of the remark saying, “My grandmother, she would have a live chicken. I would pluck the chicken. I would help her out.” Right. Well, "keep fucking that chicken" lives in 2010! And that's a good thing.