20 things people from New England say?
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My wife company’s annual summer picnic is this weekend. And the caterer from New England is again coming down and doing the meal. She’ll be bringing New England lobsters and clams. The owner of the company says the picnic has to be held in September because New England shellfish should only be eaten in months with an ‘R’ in them. I dunno, sounds like some old wives tale to me.
I was asked if I'd do the bartender duties, as I usually do. But the owner’s wife told my wife I’m not to get the company’s owner so drunk again that he passes out in the middle of the day. She said I'm evil and it's happened 2 out of the last 3 picnics. I told my wife to tell her ‘challenge accepted.’ I've already picked up a jug of moonshine and a couple gallons of lemonade, and blueberries of course. I loves me a wicked challenge.
I was asked if I'd do the bartender duties, as I usually do. But the owner’s wife told my wife I’m not to get the company’s owner so drunk again that he passes out in the middle of the day. She said I'm evil and it's happened 2 out of the last 3 picnics. I told my wife to tell her ‘challenge accepted.’ I've already picked up a jug of moonshine and a couple gallons of lemonade, and blueberries of course. I loves me a wicked challenge.
My wife company’s annual summer picnic is this weekend. And the caterer from New England is again coming down and doing the meal. She’ll be bringing New England lobsters and clams. The owner of the company says the picnic has to be held in September because New England shellfish should only be eaten in months with an ‘R’ in them. I dunno, sounds like some old wives tale to me.
I was asked if I'd do the bartender duties, as I usually do. But the owner’s wife told my wife I’m not to get the company’s owner so drunk again that he passes out in the middle of the day. She said I'm evil and it's happened 2 out of the last 3 picnics. I told my wife to tell her ‘challenge accepted.’ I've already picked up a jug of moonshine and a couple gallons of lemonade, and blueberries of course. I loves me a wicked challenge.
The reason the "R months" only isn't entirely an old wives' tale, at least for oysters, is because they are mating May through August and that makes them mushy (no pun intended). These days, though, there are commercial oyster farms that would not be affected by that old guideline. Unless there has been a red tide bloom in their location, I can't find any reason why other shellfish should only be eaten in R months and would come as quite a surprise to all of us who continue to eat lobster and clams, etc. during the summer.
I've never thought about oysters mating before I read this.
Thanks. Should we be worried you have this information ready and available for any occasion?
Will make you think twice before wearing pearls again, eh?
Google is my friend (and memory booster).Thanks. Should we be worried you have this information ready and available for any occasion?
LOL. My youngest is currently reading about the Pilgrims in history class (they have some fancy schmancy name for it now... but I still call it 'history class'). She usually has me help her with her history homework. Tonight I said we’ll have to do it before the Jets game. She usually needs to come up with three questions that must invoke class discussion. I think I’ll recommend one be: 'Was the main reason the Pilgrims came to America because of: Religious freedom, fear of persecution and imprisonment in England, or to satisfy their weird fixation with shellfish?'Google is my friend (and memory booster).
At that time lobsters weren't considered the delicacy they are now so not likely they had any (positive) fixation with them. IIRC (without googlingLOL. My youngest is currently reading about the Pilgrims in history class (they have some fancy schmancy name for it now... but I still call it 'history class'). She usually has me help her with her history homework. Tonight I said we’ll have to do it before the Jets game. She usually needs to come up with three questions that must invoke class discussion. I think I’ll recommend one be: 'Was the main reason the Pilgrims came to America because of: Religious freedom, fear of persecution and imprisonment in England, or to satisfy their weird fixation with shellfish?'
) they didn't get that status until the railroads enabled them to be quickly shipped to the western parts of the US and an effective marketing campaign to elevate them as gourmet food.
Always knew the SKMB was a wealth of knowledge. MsMod's on roll.
Google... Yeah, right!At that time lobsters weren't considered the delicacy they are now so not likely they had any (positive) fixation with them. IIRC (without googling
... is probably more like it. (notice the short one in the middle?)
Let me guess... Your ancestors came over on the Mayflower, right?
https://psmag.com/how-lobster-got-fancy-dab39dcf688a#.1ih7m1pz9
Lobsters were so abundant in the early days — residents in the Massachusetts Bay Colony found they washed up on the beach in two-foot-high piles — that people thought of them as trash food. It was fit only for the poor and served to servants or prisoners. In 1622, the governor of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford, was embarrassed to admit to newly arrived colonists that the only food they “could presente their friends with was a lobster … without bread or anyhting else but a cupp of fair water” (original spelling preserved). Later, rumor has it, some in Massachusetts revolted and the colony was forced to sign contracts promising that indentured servants wouldn’t be fed lobster more than three times a week.
“Lobster shells about a house are looked upon as signs of poverty and degradation,” wrote John J. Rowan in 1876. Lobster was an unfamiliar, vaguely disgusting bottom feeding ocean dweller that sort of did (and does) resemble an insect, its distant relative. The very word comes from the Old English loppe, which means spider. People did eat lobster, certainly, but not happily and not, usually, openly. Through the 1940s, for instance, American customers could buy lobster meat in cans (like spam or tuna), and it was a fairly low-priced can at that. In the 19th century, when consumers could buy Boston baked beans for 53 cents a pound, canned lobster sold for just 11 cents a pound. People fed lobster to their cats.
Lobsters were so abundant in the early days — residents in the Massachusetts Bay Colony found they washed up on the beach in two-foot-high piles — that people thought of them as trash food. It was fit only for the poor and served to servants or prisoners. In 1622, the governor of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford, was embarrassed to admit to newly arrived colonists that the only food they “could presente their friends with was a lobster … without bread or anyhting else but a cupp of fair water” (original spelling preserved). Later, rumor has it, some in Massachusetts revolted and the colony was forced to sign contracts promising that indentured servants wouldn’t be fed lobster more than three times a week.
“Lobster shells about a house are looked upon as signs of poverty and degradation,” wrote John J. Rowan in 1876. Lobster was an unfamiliar, vaguely disgusting bottom feeding ocean dweller that sort of did (and does) resemble an insect, its distant relative. The very word comes from the Old English loppe, which means spider. People did eat lobster, certainly, but not happily and not, usually, openly. Through the 1940s, for instance, American customers could buy lobster meat in cans (like spam or tuna), and it was a fairly low-priced can at that. In the 19th century, when consumers could buy Boston baked beans for 53 cents a pound, canned lobster sold for just 11 cents a pound. People fed lobster to their cats.
Have been told by relatives who researched it that we have lines to three of those who came over on the Mayflower. Never bothered joining the Daughters of the Mayflower Society, though. Those same relatives who'd done the genealogy were members.Google... Yeah, right!
... is probably more like it.
Let me guess... Your ancestors came over on the Mayflower, right?
That's what the SSS wants you to believe.
I knew it!
And you should join the Daughters of the Mayflower Society. Everyone here would love to see you dressed in a pilgrim dress holding a copy of Salem's Lot. Am I right, or am I right?
I knew it!
And you should join the Daughters of the Mayflower Society. Everyone here would love to see you dressed in a pilgrim dress holding a copy of Salem's Lot. Am I right, or am I right?
How do we get a message to Mr. King? I think it would be a wonderful picture on the stephenking.com website homepage for Halloween. Can we put a survey up on the SKMB for this?
How do we get a message to Mr. King? I think it would be a wonderful picture on the stephenking.com website homepage for Halloween. Can we put a survey up on the SKMB for this?
