Cockroach of the Sea

My buddy Melly's stepmother maintains that lobsters are "the cockroach of the sea," and I'm inclined to agree. I can't imagine anything I'd rather not eat, the little scavengers. But unlike cockroaches, lobsters are very beautiful. And when I see them, I want to let them go, or pet them, and last weekend on Cape Cod, I was at last allowed to touch:



They were in a massive tank in a shop in Orleans, and you could reach over and grab them. It was weird and wonderful and pretty sad, really. I was with my friend Holly and her old friend Amy, who said that if you pet the underside of their tails, they fall asleep. This seemed odd, but we tried it:



Hmm, not alseep, but they sure feel weird. Better left in the sea, the little dears.