Welcome to the first ever Chicken Necker Blog.

I guess I should start by explaining what a chicken necker is, in case you don’t happen to know.

The term has actually made it into the Urban Dictionary and is defined as follows:

“Slang commonly used on the Eastern Shore of Maryland to describe a tourist or someone who is not from that area. Comes from the practice of using chicken necks as crab bait. As in:
These goddamned chicken neckers always turn 50/301 into a parking lot during weekends in July.”

Well, that’s a creative way to use the word in a sentence, eh? A Google search today returned 24,900 hits on the term ‘chicken necker.’ Basically, it means you’re ‘not from here.’ Really though, are any of us ‘from here’? Every time I see the bumper sticker that says “The Few, The Proud, The Native Eastern Shoreman” I think there should be a portrait of an Native American on it.

Did you know there's a chicken necker store in Rock Hall, offering chicken necker t-shirts and other stuff? Ever hospitable, Rock Hall even holds a “Chicken Necker Appreciation Day” once a year.

The opposite of a chicken necker is a trot liner—Eastern Shore natives apparently catch their crabs using a long line of … trot or something, look I don’t really know! I thought ‘Jimmies’ came in chocolate and rainbow and were something you got on your ice cream cone in the summer, so don't ask me.

I’m proud to be a ‘chicken necker.’ ...I'm from what Eastern Shoremen refer to as “The Western Shore.” When I first heard this, I kept feeling like I needed to tell people I wasn’t from California. Actually, I don’t even really feel qualified to be a 'chicken necker', because the only catching of crabs I do in the summer involves paper bags from Crab Deck takeout on Kent Narrows or Hunter’s in Grasonville.

But here I am, in my new job as Managing Editor of What’s Up Eastern Shore. After a decade and a half as a freelance writer for regional and national magazines and newspapers, I am absolutely thrilled to be here. I have lived on the shore for 8 years- and I actually gave birth to one of my four kids here on our side of 'the pond', (I even served as the first-ever chicken necker elected official in Centreville!) so I have gotten to know the Shore pretty well, and I will do the best I can to represent Shore folks, whether they’ve lived here for a month, a decade, or ten generations.

Check back here for the latest in chicken necker-ana. All things chicken necker-esque. Chicken necker-o-rama.

I welcome your thoughts, suggestions, and input. Please write to me at mmccarthy@whatsupmag.com and send me your story ideas.