When my sister or I asked a foolish ‘why’ question to my dad he may have replied: “Why don’t chickens pee?”
Years later my wife and I spent two years in Budapest Hungary. When my sister visited we took her to one of our favorite Hungarian restaurants. My then 4 year old son asked a ‘why’ question and my sister answered: “Why don’t chickens pee?”
“What?” my wife asked. I didn’t want my son to learn this phrase so I did what my wife and I always did when we didn’t want the kids to know what we were saying. I Switched to Hungarian and said:
“Miért nem csirké pisi?”
My wife blinked in surprise and then I noticed something. The tables around us had suddenly gone silent. I had just said this Hungarian phrase surrounded by Hungarians. Maybe they thought I was telling a joke or maybe they just thought I WAS curious, but everyone around me waited for an answer.
We finished our meal and the conversation started up again. I hope the perplexing question didn’t keep anyone up at night wondering.
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