Pondering the Chicken Nugget

It's Friday and I thought about doing a really serious post. But the fact is, when I post on something serious I usually can't stand the wait until I'm back where I can see my comments (not that I have that many comments lately). So instead, I thought I would pose a question (of little consequence) that has been on my mind lately.--"How come if you buy chicken nuggets from the fast-food establishment of your choice, the nuggets will be shaped like circles or boots?"

Circles I can understand. Circles are a standard shape. But boots? I'm sitting here eating a Chicken McNugget from McDonald's right now and it is shaped exactly like a Christmas stocking. Who developed this idea? Am I supposed to feel as if I'm eating a foot? I'm assuming that if I am supposed to feel as if I'm eating a foot that it is not a chicken's foot as chickens do not normally wear boots. So is it a human foot? Boy, that's just sick!

Maybe I'm not supposed to feel as if I'm eating the foot, but rather just the foot covering. But I would think that eating piece of deep-fried boot would be quite a bit less tender than the tasty morsels I'm enjoying right now.

Imagine the guy at the chicken nugget factory sitting there waiting to press the chicken into its assigned shape. I imagine a tool made much like a cookie-cutter to accomplish this. So there he sits days after day. Circle in one hand, boot in the other. Miles and miles of unpressed chicken rolling by. (Gee, that was a little depressing.)

I wonder if there is a certain ratio of circles to boots that the chicken people expect. Is it one circle for every boot, or two boots for every circle, or some other variation? Do they gauge production by two numbers? "Hey Joe, did you make more boots or circles today?"

Before Hardees was famous for their enormous burgers, they used to have chicken nuggets that were shaped like stars. I wonder if they still have those. Tyson Chicken offers frozen chicken nuggets in the shape of Veggie-Tales characters. Which is ingenious because the shapes they come in are patterned after Larry the Cucumber and Bob the Tomato--an oval and a circle! Wow!

Another thing, why don't they sell beef nuggets? Do beef nuggets even exist? What about pork nuggets? Why do the very names "beef nuggets" and "pork nuggets" sound a little nasty, while people on a daily basis order chicken nuggets without even flinching. How about "turkey nuggets?"

Don't you love that they offer you a choice of sauce with your nuggets too? It's like they're saying, "These aren't really all that good by themselves, but if you cover up the way they really taste--MMMMMMMMHHHHHHMMMMM!

Maybe if nuggets were made from free range chickens they wouldn't have a shape. Maybe that's where the whole "Chicken Strip" rage has come from lately.

Anyway, I hope that this will give you something to ponder, that is if you needed something. If you didn't, I'm sorry to give you one more thing. Have a nice weekend.