The “both sides cheating” Saturday Evening Post cover linked in the Reddit thread (here) reminds me of an old (now deceased) acquaintance who spent 30 years running a butcher shop. While the Leslie Thrasher illustration is a great depiction of everyone-wants-a-maximum-return-and-damn-the-other, in reality I think granny didn’t stand a chance.
Here’s how Sonny described the scam (as I recall): “A butcher shop floor is covered in sawdust, to soak up the blood and keep you from slipping. But it was good for other things, too. You see, when someone selects a chicken, and I’m pulling it out of the case to put it on the scale, I slip a big-ass bolt right up that chicken’s butt. Set it on the scale, let the customer see it, and make a note of the weight. Then, when I pull it off the scale, I tip it down as I’m bringing it to the paper – the bolt falls out to the floor, and the sawdust keeps it from making too much noise…you just keep talking, or cough, or stamp your foot; it’s easy! Never got caught in all my time…and if I would have, well, fuck 'em – we’re all suckers, including me, and no one gets a break.”
He told me he figured his “chicken cheating” trick had returned enough cash to put a basement under his house, instead of just building it on a slab. And yes – he called it “chump change.”
