Monday, December 13, 2010

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Foodtoons

Image: wn.com

My friends, I tried to write you a normal post this morning, full of sarcasm and humor. I even have a picture of what I baked over the weekend to show you. I really tried.

But the facts are these: I work for a lobster fishing company, and we lost one of our own yesterday. David Mahonen, a hell of a nice guy from Maine. I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon with him one day last summer to make sure he had the paperwork and prescriptions he needed after an injury. He was a quiet guy with a wry sense of humor. He'd quietly throw out a funny comment in his Maine accent and wait patiently while it sunk in. I remember him saying that he expected to be back to work soon after the injury because he's a fast healer. Not this time, Dave. Not this time.

I've wanted to write a lot about how the fishing industry is being taken over by Big Business, how we are being told to eat local produce but the local fisheries are being systematically shut down. I've wanted to say that fishermen are being depicted as enemies of the environment by the spin machine that is part of the effort to put them out of work and to make the commercial fishing permits tradeable commodities to be snapped up by corporations. However, I've felt that Serious Thoughts are not part of what I do here at Foodtoons.

But the bottom line is this: offshore fishing is dangerous. People get hurt all the time. People die in the frigid waters. The men and women who do the job do it because they love it, and they love the ocean. So the next time you go to Red Lobster for an all-you-can-eat Lobsterfest, please remember that. And be thankful.

I'll be back with more madness tomorrow.


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