DATE: Monday, September 1, 1997             TAG: 9708300051

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Larry Maddry 

                                            LENGTH:   73 lines

OUTER BANKS DJ PROVIDES CHUCKLES FROM CAROLINA

CAROLINA CHUCKLES. Ken Mann, who owns a clutch of radio stations on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, is the early-morning DJ on WNHW-FM in Wanchese. His show has a big following up and down the Tar Heel north coast.

Now, Mann has his own recording, ``Carolina Chuckles - Ken Mann's Outer Banks Humor.'' It got a rave review in Carolina Country magazine.

The ``chuckle'' I liked best was about a fellow driving his car on a highway who saw a chicken ahead.

As he got closer, he could see that it seemed to have three legs. The chicken was running ahead of his car.

Never having seen a three-legged chicken, the fellow wanted a closer look and he pushed the pedal to go faster. As he hit 45 mph, the chicken was doing 50; as he went 50, the chicken accelerated to 55. He had never seen anything like that chicken running just ahead of his bumper.

He pushed down the pedal to go 60, and the three-legged chicken was still ahead until it veered off the road to the right and ran into a farm yard.

The driver backed his car and found a road leading to the farm. He pulled in and was astonished to see three-legged chickens everywhere he looked.

There were three-legged chickens in trees, in the fields and atop a chicken coop. A farmer was standing on the porch of the house. The driver got out of the car and explained his astonishment.

``You've got three-legged chickens everywhere I look!'' he said. ``How did this happen?''

``Well,'' the farmer replied. ``I've got three sons. They love chicken. Have to have chicken at every meal. And they're crazy about drumsticks. So I raised these hybrid chickens myself.''

The man scratched his head, looking at the farmer. ``Well, do they taste good?'' he asked.

``I dunno,'' the farmer replied. ``I've never been able to catch one.''

(Copies of Mann's ``Carolina Chuckles'' are available on cassette tapes for $8. To order, write P.O. Box 431, Wanchese, N.C. 27981.)

Baby Talk. A few columns back, I wrote about the joys of being a grandparent and mentioned that my daughter-in-law read children's stories to my grandson before he was born. (Prenatal experts recommend the readings to stimulate the brains of the unborn.)

I got an interesting letter shortly afterward from Heather Jankovich, a teacher at Camp Allen School in Norfolk.

She used to read Dr. Seuss's ``Cat in the Hat'' to her son Eric. She continued reading the story to him when she was pregnant.

In time, another son, Joseph, was born. She read books to Joseph when he was an infant. One day she got around to ``Cat in the Hat.''

``When I read it, he squealed with delight and began to kick his legs,'' she said. ``He was so happy, it was as though he were remembering something from the past that he had enjoyed.''

Another letter arrived about the same column from my friend Dr. Ed North in Duck, N.C. He enclosed an editorial by Mortimer B. Zuckerman, editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report, from the magazine's Aug. 25 issue.

Zuckerman quotes professors Todd Risley and Betty Hart, authors of ``Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children.'' The professors say the number of words an infant hears each day may be the single most important predictor of later intelligence and economic and social success.

They say on average the child of professional parents hears about 2,100 words an hour. A child of working-class parents hears 1,200 words. Parents on welfare speak only about 600 words an hour.

This is a strong argument against day-care centers and baby sitters until children are at least 4 years of age, Zuckerman argues. He notes that research indicates the neuron links that are the keys to creativity and intelligence are mainly set by age 3.

ILLUSTRATION: KENJIM RECORDS

Lighten up with ``Carolina Chuckles - Ken Mann's Outer Banks

Humor.''

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