Just back from a long trip, the Drunken Severed Head awoke this morning to find he'd been visited once again by the Easter Blowfish!I'm not sure why this happens at my house every year (My Transylvanian blood? Result of flipping off an old gypsy woman in traffic?), but I enjoy seeing the ghostly holiday puffer come around. He always brings chocolate fugu and gaily-colored eggs, and it's always so suspenseful as to which goodies have deadly toxins and which are safe to eat. I always do the kindness of sharing with my neighbors first, of course.
Holiday trivia: a species of large blowfish found along the Atlantic seaboard is also known as the rabbitfish.
More trivia, from Wikipedia: "
"Some sources claim that about 100 people die each year from fugu poisoning...There are some reports of completely paralyzed but fully conscious victims that were believed to be dead, and woke up a few days later or just before being cremated. In some parts of Japan a fugu victim is put next to his coffin for three days to verify the death. If the body does not decompose, it is not yet dead.
"Some sources claim that about 100 people die each year from fugu poisoning...There are some reports of completely paralyzed but fully conscious victims that were believed to be dead, and woke up a few days later or just before being cremated. In some parts of Japan a fugu victim is put next to his coffin for three days to verify the death. If the body does not decompose, it is not yet dead.
"The pufferfish is also reported to be one of the main ingredients used in voodoo to turn people into zombies. [Some of my best friends are zombies. Max] According to ethnobotanist Wade Davis, the pufferfish is the key ingredient in the first step of creating a zombie, where the tetrodotoxin creates a 'death-like' state. In the second step, hallucinogens are used to hold the person in a will-less zombie state."
Happy Easter, everyone!
Max: I do believe there is mention of a Rabbit Fish in a Monty Python sketch "The Church Police" about finding dead bishops on the landing--"Hello Mum! Hello Dad! There's another dead bishop on the landing." and when the Mrs. asks her husband "Do ya want some Rabbit Fish?" and he asks "Has it got fins?" and Mrs. says "I dunno---but it was coughin' up blood last night." The husband declares it to be "disgustin" and then the Mrs. offers up for afters some rat tart---without too much rat in it.
ReplyDeleteWhen the Church Police arrive to find out " 'oo croaked Leicester." the Vicar Sergeant asks "S'cuse me, is that rat tart? Dissss-gustin'!"
So,one dead un-jugged Rabbit Fish has been used for comedy purposes--or should that be porpoises?
"Meek"