The curious case of the three-legged idiom

Until Rio 2016...

Here's the final medal count:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/medals/index.html

Singapore, incidentally, is ranked 75th, along with three other countries (ST, Aug 13, page B17).

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The curious case of the three-legged idiom

Former ST Editor Leslie Fong looked back on how, 23 years ago, he stopped the use of pseudonyms in the Forum pages ("The rightful slaughter of Three-Legged Chicken," ST Opinion, page A17). He mentioned the example of Three-Legged Chicken, the pseudonym for a very senior Cabinet minister.

His recollection brought me back to my own memory of that period. I had taken over the job of Forum page editor from an expatriate, Bill Campbell, back in the early 1980s. And yes, during my watch, Three-Legged Chicken (TLC) had written in. It was of course a pleasure to edit -- nay, no editing was needed! -- the beautiful prose of TLC, crafted, as it were, with tender loving care. If you think about it, TLC was the only minister then who could write or speak at length in English without grammatical or idiomatic mistakes.

But why "Three-Legged"? There's an idiom, "Busier than a three-legged cat in a dry sand box," which means the subject is very busy, almost frantically so. But I don't think that idiom is a familiar one here although TLC could well have known about it.

Interestingly, among older folks here, the Hokkien expression sar kar (three-legged) means someone who's a busybody!

Then there are three-legged stools -- very stable, indeed. But a three-legged chair will topple, and is thus a figment of one's imagination. Or is it?...

But I think the closest clue is another little-known idiom, "The chicken that one has caught has three legs". Of course there is no three-legged chicken! But, then, how can one be sure. Still, in ordinary situations, if you claim to have caught a three-legged chicken, you are -- in making your claim, assertion, argument, etc -- getting into an untenable position, one that can be demolished by TLC. Remember, TLC was writing in to cross swords with other Forum writers, and was certainly not waxing about municipal issues! 

Oh, the idiom in question apparently originated from Kanartaka, India.