I guess this is as good a place as any to write this piece of Thai history.

Everone knows the legend of the Duck, right? I was living in Bangkok when the famous incident happened in 1975 or 76. It was reported in all the newspapers, Thai- and English-language.

One morning at about 4am, a Thai husband came home from a night of carousing and jumped into bed. Soon, he was fast asleep. His wife, up to here with all the playing around, took a knife and cut off the man’s penis, then threw it out the window into the garden.

Of course, the man’s screams brought neighbors who whisked him off to the hospital. The doctor told the man’s neighbors to go back to the house, find the organ and bring it back so that he could try and re-attach it.

So the neighbors rushed back to the house, by now accompanied by news reporters and photographers. Searching the yard, they found that the penis had been scarfed up by a duck. What ensued was the neighbors chasing the duck around the yard, while the photographers took pictures. As a result, photos of the scene and the duck with the organ in his bill appeared in all of Bangkok’s newspapers. I personally saw the picture in the Bangkok Post.

From that day, a legend was born, and the phrase “tat hai bhet gin” is, as I understand it, still a part of the Thai lexicon.

gary fouse
fousesquawk