Game Hen: In Search of Manhattan’s Tic Tac Toe Playing Chicken

Posted on November 4, 2006

So, why am I in New York looking for a chicken.

I first learned about a certain curious cluck in my local newspaper. At a trial in Marin County, California, where I live, a psychologist testified that the fact that a defendant in a murder trial was able to compete in a game of tic tac toe proved his mental competence. The defense cried “fowl”, citing the chicken on Mott Street.

“Hey, chickens are dumb. If a chicken can do it, even a mental incompetent can do it.”

I begin my search on Mott and Canal, on the edge of Chinatown.

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