Chicken tonight

Despite appearances to the contrary, I'm assured it's tough being a journalist. Deadlines to meet, the phone ringing off the hook - it's all too easy to slip momentarily and say or write something you didn't quite mean to.

Though I'm sure my buddies at CRN have never had quite as bad a case of foot-in-mouth syndrome as Fox News anchorman Ernie Arnastos. The hapless journo was joking with his onscreen colleagues recently when he apparently decided to advise the weatherman to "keep plucking that chicken".

For reasons best known to himself, he opted to use the phrase as a synonym for "keep on trying". Unfortunately, the word plucking is only a couple of letters away from a word altogether less suitable for primetime broadcasting.

Arnastos has become an internet sensation and you can even buy t-shirts bearing his new and unwanted catchphrase. The next time a hack says something ill-advised to you, I urge you to cut them some slack, Dear Reader.

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