Chicken Bleep

We can't tell you how excited we are over the news that the San Diego Chicken has been named Grand Marshal of the Holiday Bowl Parade.
After taking a moment to calm ourselves down, our initial reaction was: the Holiday Bowl has a parade?
You can bet we'll be camping out real early for this one. We wouldn't want to get squeezed out of a good seat by any of the six people who go to the Holiday Bowl Parade.
Last time we saw the Chicken, he was prancing around during the Chargers-Steelers game on "Sunday Night Football" in October. And the way NBC's Al Michaels gushed upon the arrival of the Chicken, you'd have thought Brett Favre walked into the booth to deliver a pastrami sandwich to John Madden.
We've never gotten the Chicken's "humor." We know we're in the minority with that.
But hey, if a 58-year-old man prancing around in tights is your idea of a good time, knock yourself out.
Try this: Next time someone is raving about the Chicken, ask them to explain why he's funny. Should be an interesting conversation.
But be careful. In this town, to say anything negative about the San Diego Chicken is nearly as sacrilegious as saying something negative about Tony Gwynn.
The Chicken is a San Diego icon, or so they tell us. Why? Who knows, but he's been doing the same thing for 32 years, so bestowing icon status on the Chicken is kind of like giving the Irving Thalberg Award for lifetime achievement at the Oscars. He's getting up there in age and you almost feel sorry for the guy.
But this is the same town that made The Flan a beloved local icon, so clearly it doesn't take much.