Chicken-Licken & Radiolaria

After an acorn fell on Chicken-licken's head, she convinced Hen-len, Cock-lock, Duck-luck, Drake-lake, Goose-loose, Gander-lander and Turkey-lurkey that the sky was falling. They all got so excited that Fox-lox ate them up.

In recent weeks, Chicken-lickens have been rubbing their heads all across the U.S. It started last month at Bellingham (pop. 34,000), in northwest Washington, not far from where the first flying saucer was sighted. Auto owners noticed pockmarks, some as small as pin heads, others as big as peanuts, on the outer surfaces of their windshields. At first the victims blamed vandals, then ghosts and then some mysterious molten droplets falling out of the sky. In about the time that it takes a feature story to move over a press association's wire, the ghostly, ghastly pox spread. It appeared in Seattle, in Yakima and in Spokane. It flashed up to Winnipeg, down to Amarillo, across to Milwaukee and all the way to West Islip, N.Y.

Sand Fleas & Sonic Guns. As the headlines grew bigger from coast to coast, experts (mostly self-designated) came forward with explanations. Some choice samples:

P: In several cities, the favorite theory was that radioactive particles from the latest hydrogen-bomb explosion were falling upon the earth. This explanation was promptly exploded when Geiger counter tests found no radioactive material in the pockmarks.

P: In Victoria, B.C., Biologist Paul H. D. Parizeau, investigating "grey ash" found on car windshields, blamed Radiolaria. His argument: these single-celled animals live in countless billions in the sea. When they die, their silicic, spherical skeletons sink to the ocean floor, form a radiolarian ooze. An explosion such as the H-bomb would blow them skyward, heating them past 1,710DEG centigrade, at which temperature silica melts. But they would harden again at the lower temperatures of the atmosphere and, being feather light, would float on the wind across the Pacific --to strike windshields.

P: In Centralia, Wash., reporters seized upon a theory propounded by Building Materials Dealer Jack Scherer: windshield glass is made from silica sand, which abounds on the Pacific shores of the State of Washington. Silica sand is full of sand-flea eggs. So, when the windshields get warm enough, the eggs hatch and the fleas have to chip the glass to get out. When he learned that his facetiously offered explanation had been wired across the country, the astonished Scherer granted that it was no more ridiculous than some others that had been publicized.

P: In Tacoma, a more solemn expert said that the damage was being caused by unseen little people from outer space, who found that their sonic weapons were not powerful enough to destroy animal tissue, and were venting their disappointment on windshields.

Publicity & Psychology. The best explanation: 99% of the pox was produced by publicity and mass psychology. In city after city, careful study showed that most of the pockmarks were the result of normal damage--gravel, stones and other objects kicked up by a car ahead or blown by the wind. Glass experts pointed out that some of this damage might seem mysterious, because safety glass, hit by a piece of gravel, may suddenly develop a pockmark several hours later.

In Winnipeg, Physicist R. W. Pringle and Chemist Lionel Funt of the University of Manitoba examined material found in pockmarks, and concluded that meteorite showers, common in April, were the cause. In Schenectady, Ernest E. Johnson, manager of a General Electric laboratory, pointed out that droplets of resin, sometimes found in the atmosphere in industrial areas, can cause pits in windshield glass.

These sane explanations did not stop the rash of rumor. All over the U.S., thousands of auto owners began examining their windshields and discovering pock marks. Chicken-licken cackled in anguish, and Drake-lake said that he, too, had a pockmark.

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