Unicycle weirdness

General
1

Last night I carelessly left the tv on after “Star Trek” went off, and saw
something on “Real TV” that made me wonder if I might be hallucinating.
Apparently there is a restaurant somewhere in Thailand which, if I remember
correctly, is called the “Flying Chicken”. The specialty of this establishment
is roasted chicken, which they serve in a unique way. When the chicken is done,
the chef places it on the business end of a small catapult (a catapult),
drenches the chicken with brandy and lights it on fire. Then he triggers the
catapult, which goes THUNK and launches the flaming chicken a rather startling
distance through the air out into the restaurant area. The blazing birds are
intercepted by the waiters (some of whom wear clown-type makeup), who zip around
on unicycles, catch the chickens either in pans or on skewers, do some
flipping/juggling things with them, and deliver them to the tables. I am NOT
making this up. Unfortunately I doubt that our fire and safety codes would allow
for this sort of operation around these parts. So if we want to dine on
catapult-launched flaming chicken served by unicycling clown waiters, I guess we
have to go all the way to Thailand.

Even as I was writing the above, the same show tonight had a short segment about
a guy (I didn’t catch where he was from but I think it was Argentina or maybe
Brazil) who has a motorized monocycle (the big wheel that you sit inside of
instead of atop). It supposedly goes 35mph and looked pretty good, although the
rider seemed to be putting one foot or the other down rather often to stabilize
the thing.

2

Re: Unicycle weirdness

Text item:

A guy who didn’t sign wrote:
>making this up. Unfortunately I doubt that our fire and safety codes would
>allow for this sort of operation around these parts. So if we want to dine on
>catapult-launched flaming chicken served by unicycling clown waiters, I guess
>we have to go all the way to Thailand.

I’ve always wanted to dine on catapult-launched flaming chicken that was juggled
by a Thai clown on a unicycle. I wonder what else they serve?

Somebody mentioned seeing this a while back, also. Can somebody tape it?

>Even as I was writing the above, the same show tonight had a short segment
>about a guy (I didn’t catch where he was from but I think it was Argentina or
>maybe Brazil) who has a motorized monocycle (the big wheel that you sit inside
>of instead of atop). It supposedly goes 35mph and looked pretty good, although
>the rider seemed to be putting one foot or the other down rather often to
>stabilize the thing.

Every once in a while I see some film of a motorized monocycle. I’ve seen
several different ones on film, and others in pictures in Jack Wiley’s books. If
I had one I’d definitely ride it (3 miles) to work!

Monocycles are interesting but not useful vehicles. You can’t brake too hard or
they’ll roll over (and over), and they’re hard to turn. And they don’t really
require much balance to ride, but they look so cool!

John Foss

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