John, the farmer, was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred

young layers (hens), called 'pullets', and ten roosters, whose job it was to

fertilize the eggs.



The farmer kept records, and any rooster that didn't perform went into the

soup pot and was replaced. That took an awful lot of his time, so he bought

a set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a

different tone, so John could tell from a distance which rooster was

performing. Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report

simply by listening to the bells.



The farmer's favorite rooster was old Butch, a very fine specimen he was,

too. But on this particular morning John noticed old Butch's bell hadn't

rung at all!



John went to investigate. The other roosters were chasing pullets,

bells-a-ring ing. The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for

cover.



But to Farmer John's amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it

couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next

one.



John was so proud of old Butch, he entered him in the Renfrew County Fair,

and he became an overnight sensation among the judges.



The result...



The judges not only awarded old Butch the No Bell Piece Prize, but they

awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well.



Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making: who else but a politician

could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our

planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them

when they weren't paying attention.



Vote carefully this year...the bells are not always audible