Somehow The Times 'City' section managed to run an entire story on the Mott Street arcade Chinatown Fair without mentioning its most famous attribute: for decades, it was the home to New York's Tic-Tac-Toe playing chickens.

As fans of Calvin Trillin (and Ms. Pacman) know, Chinatown Fair used to have a game in which you could challenge a live hen in Tic-Tac-Toe to win a bag of fortune cookies.

Say what you will about animal cruelty (it was sort of inhumane to keep a live bird in a glass box), those chickens won every freakin' time. They've been gone for a while, but Chinatown Fair still sorta smells like a barn.

Where the Kids Are, and Were [NYT]
Game Hen [Connected Traveler]
Tic-tac-toe playing chickens are an example of learning in animals [Chris Noesell, Masters Project]

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