Counting the Chickens…
One of the challenges of learning a foreign language is getting the idioms. The American idiom that my father (a native Italian speaker) got right away was “don’t count your chickens before they hatch.”
This is an ideal phrase for repeated use by the parent of a dreamer. My dad often told me not to count my chickens before they hatch; I heard it every time I tried out for a part in play or a sport when I was in high school, I heard it in college, I heard it when I was applying to law schools, and I heard it every time I was excited about a job interview. In 2007, when I was running for local office, my dad asked how I thought it was going. I responded:“I’m not going to count my chickens before they hatch.” (I won.)
Yesterday, I wrote:
John Fitzpatrick, who made reproductive rights (and the PPHPAF endorsement) a central issue in his campaign defeated the right-to-life (RTL) endorsed incumbent Sheila Marcotte with 52% of the vote. I am thrilled to take this seat out of the RTL column.
This, it turns out, was counting my chickens before they hatched. The report was based on a result posted with only 70% of precincts reporting. This race is too close to call and is among one of four races for the Westchester County Board of Legislators that is actually up in the air.
The other race that I wrote about yesterday that falls into this category is Legislator Michael Kaplowitz’s. Kaplowitz, the incumbent, is leading Terrence Murphy, with 82 percent of the votes counted. It’s 52% to 48%, so things could change.
In all the post Election excitement, I failed to heed my dad’s advice about waiting until all the chickens hatched. It was a mistake.
Will there be a pro-choice super majority on the Westchester County Board of Legislators? We all will have to wait and see. The results won’t be certified until next week. When the chickens have hatched, I’ll be sure to let you know how many there are.
