Chicken Riddle

“I think it’s pretty cool to have your chicken on Facebook.”

Ana Lipp, Co-owner of L.C. the chicken

Checking out the menu at the New Gloucester Village Store

Finally, there’s an answer to the age-old riddle: Why did the chicken cross the road? To get a piece of cheese, of course. At least that’s the answer according to L.C. the chicken of New Gloucester, Maine (population 5,569). L.C., which stands for “Last Chicken” (she was the only survivor in her brood), is the Lipp family’s pet chicken. The Lipps give her free run of the yard while they’re at work and school. What they didn’t know was that L.C. has free run of the village, too. As soon as the Lipps are out of sight, L.C. crosses the road and heads down to the New Gloucester Village Store. There she gets plenty of attention and bits of provolone cheese—her favorite snack. L.C. has become something of a local celebrity: pictures of her appear on the New Gloucester Village Store’s Facebook page and she’s been featured in the local news.

So now that we know why the chicken crossed the road, perhaps it’s time to tackle the next great chicken riddle: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Read more → Lindsay Tice, Why L.C. the chicken crossed the road, Sun Journal, January 30, 2012.