"DON'T WORRY, ITS THE SAME CHICKEN..."

This is the true story surrounding the origin of the Washington insider phrase "DON'T WORRY, ITS THE SAME CHICKEN..."

I will not reveal the names of the other people that were present at this event, but I will share with you that I was there when it happened. It was one of those events that just take on a life of their own. I was in Washington DC for a series of briefings and demonstrations about five years ago, it was one of the rare and happy occasions when I had the opportunity to go to dinner with a buddy of mine from Army Warrant Officer School. I met him and his friends, if memory serves it was me, him, a girl and another guy. We went to a restaurant called The Arizona Grill (I believe it was in Vienna Virginia).

The Pakistani waiter came over to our table to take our orders (I remember his nationality because when I think of the event I can't help but hear his heavy accent). When he asked if he could take our order I remember saying "ladies first". The young lady pointed to the menu and asked if the chicken fried chicken was any good, to which the waiter replied "DON'T WORRY, ITS THE SAME CHICKEN...". We all busted out laughing!

As everyone at the table was involved in working for the US Government either directly or indirectly we latched onto the phrase. My use of the phrase involves reference to utterly ridiculous situations associated with dealing with the US Government, "DON'T WORRY, ITS THE SAME CHICKEN..." is real information but it really did not answer the question "is the chicken fried steak any good?". A way of claiming you responded as required while providing no useful information but covering ones ass at the same time, a page right out of the all-star bureaucratic playbook.

In the context of Information Technology and large organizations, my Army buddy uses it in the context of "we already solved that problem, its the same chicken". This is a reference to people trying to justify their position by drumming up new work as a reaction to the latest internal political wind shift, not realizing that the problem was solved within the organization but never implemented because they never knew there was chicken to begin with!

I am sure the readers of this blog will come up with new and exciting ways to use the phrase "DON'T WORRY, ITS THE SAME CHICKEN..." BUT Beware because sometimes its not the same chicken!