Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Gator Update (Nuisance Edition)

Rusty Burke tells me that the earlier link to this on-going story is broken. But he sends along this update. Video at link (as long as it's working).

Nuisance gators end up on the menu - 04/02/2008 - MiamiHerald.com: "Used to be, you blocked a busy road and you got a ticket. Now they turn you into a handbag or back scratcher.

The nine-foot alligator that was cornered and captured Tuesday morning after a traffic-stopping appearance at U.S. 441 and Bailey Road was sold to a processing facility for $280."

6 comments:

Doc Quatermass said...

I had gator and was a bit disappointed, although maybe it was just the way they did it at Gatorland. I'll give it another chance at a restaurant other than a snack bar sometime in the future. Unlike Carl Burns I haven't had goat. Back in the early '90s while wifey was at a workshop at the Poynter Institute, my daughter and I tried to locate a Cuban restaurant in downtown Tampa, but I had left the name back in the hotel room and couldn't recall it off-hand and no one on the streets of downtown seemed to know where it was.

Unknown said...

My father raised goats at one time, and we'd occasionally have a big barbecue in the pit he built in our back yard. I haven't tried gator, but you can bet it tastes like rattlesnake.

Doc Quatermass said...

Rattlesnake is another culinary treat I've yet to try. Ever read Harry Crew's "A Feast of Snakes"?

Unknown said...

Yes, but it's been a while. It's also been a while since I last attended a rattlesnake round-up. But not long enough.

Doc Quatermass said...

Ever meet Crews?

Remember the definition of love and true love? One of my prof's when I briefly majored in theology put me on to the book. I read most of Crew's work from around that time period.

Haven't been to a round up yet, though I saw a thing on TV about one. "Participatory journalist,"George Plimpton relates in "Shadow Box" that while covering a fight in Cuba (one of Cassius Marcellus Clay's, I believe) a general of Batista's offered him a chance to see the firing squad execution of one of their political enemies. Plimpton, feeling uncomfortable about witnessing the death of a political prisoner asked Hemingway what he should say to the general. Hemingway told him say , "Yes.", that a writer should experience everything he possible could. Plimpton was let, thankfully in his mind, let off the hook when the execution was canceled.

Unknown said...

Never met Crews. Really like a couple of his novels, though.

Went to a couple of rattlesnake round-ups when I lived in Brownwood. Don't miss 'em.

Wouldn't care to see an execution.