July 15, 2005

The doomed lobster, Hermione.

Here she is, friends. She is doomed. We were just squealing and shooting photographs a la Annie Hall. And now I'm furiously writing this post, so that you can see our dear Hermione, while she still crawls the face of the earth, before she reaches apotheosis, in the form of our elaborate, Nina-cooked blogger dinner.

The guest of honor, the sacrificial lobster:

Lobster

UPDATE: RIP, Hermione.

dinner

ANOTHER UPDATE: Welcome Instapundit readers. And here's a picture of me at the dinner, taken by Tonya, whose birthday we were celebrating.



MORE: Here's Nina's explanation of how to make that soup. And here's Tonya's post which contains, among other things, the full list of amazing dishes Nina cooked up for us.

23 comments:

Contributors said...

The update is hilarious.

amba said...

That should serve the additional purpose of driving away the animal-rights types.

Contributors said...

amba,
I don't think I could do it. I don't think I could drop a live lobster in boiling water. And I'm a right wing extremist.

Ron said...

Ann: When the lobsters take over, off to Lobster Gitmo for You!

All the Wisconsin Law Faculty...dipped in clarified butter and spritzed with lemon....brrrr...

Ann Althouse said...

Becker: The lobster was part of the soup course. The main course was filet mignon. And the dessert was pure heaven!!!

Justin said...

Is this a foreshadowing of what is to happen in the new Harry Potter book?

Adam said...

Mark -- that's always what I advocate -- decapitate it, sever the claws and tail, and steam the good stuff, chucking the carcass. The David Foster Wallace piece I link to there, though, calls it all into question.

Paul Deignan said...

I had heard that lobsters are closely related to cockroaches.

Hmmmmmmmmm.

CM said...

OH, thank goodness. I was looking at the RSS feed, which doesn't have the picture, and thought you were giving away the Harry Potter ending. I thought, "When did Professor Althouse turn evil?" But I'm glad to see that you are talking about an actual lobster, and not affectionately referring to a fictional character as a lobster.

Ann Althouse said...

CM: I forgot there was a Harry Potter character named Hermione. Tonya named the lobster. Anyway, don't you think it WAS kind of evil to kill the lobser?

Ann Althouse said...

Notice how Nina positioned the claw meat in the two-pea soup for a shark fin effect. Pure artistry!

Duke of DeLand said...

I LOVE Lobster, Ms. Althouse.....

Your story reminded me of the time, 30 years removed, when I was Manager of the Joliet, IL, Regional Chamber of Commerce.

We had a group known as "The Ambassadors" who did the ribbon-cutting ceremonies, etc. when a new business opened in Will County!

Each year, to reward them for their voluntary service, the ambassadors got a "Lobster/Crab Dinner"....

We had a member with a twin engine plane who flew to the NE and brought back, in large containers, a huge supply of lobsters and crab. We had a party to boil same creatures, and each member enjoyed at least one lobster....plus crab legs, etc.

WOW

Today that would be over-indulgence!

Duke of DeLand

Anonymous said...

I have as a general rule of life not to eat anything with eyes but women

The Snob said...

Becker: the only thing a 3lb lobster is good for is the tank in the front of the restaraunt. Here in New England we like ours at 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 pounds, and if you;re feeling hungry you just order two.

BlogDog said...

It's a miracle of nature that a sea-floor bug can take the scum it feeds on and transmute it into one of the single most delicious things on Earth.

Hermione? Why not Miss Pinchy? You could feed her risotto before accidentally giving her a bath in too-hot water.

Justin said...

Here is something that really is not about the new Harry Potter book, either. And it may be equally funny:

FOR MATURE EYES ONLY:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/050715

woods said...

I think you'd better head for the old fall out shelters... there's a loud shout of "Vengence is ours!" in the air...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097768/

Otherwise, good eating!

Bruce Hayden said...

Still not sure about the logic behind naming your food. Seems like a lot of kids on farms do this precisely once. Having to eat spot (the name of the pig my girlfriend's daughter named) solved that problem.

Bruce Hayden said...

Oh, just got the "Animal Sacrifice" link over at Instapundit. Saw your picture a bunch of times and the headline there several too, and then, voila, the two went together.

Jake said...

I would feel better about the sacrifice had she been named Homardione...

Ron said...

Ann: The Althouse fanbase must get you that Kill Bill yellow track suit (with matching katana!) and you should use a pic of you in that on the blog...it would work!

Gandalin said...

You would enjoy the story "Belacqua and the Lobster," from the collection "More Pricks Than Kicks" by Samuell Beckett. It has perhaps the finest ending sequence of any short story in English in the 20th Century.

The Sanity Inspector said...

I've never been able to enjoy lobster, ever since I heard the critters described as a cross between a cockroach and a plumber's wrench.