Suckers, high and dry
A beheaded octopus drying in the Greek sun.
I can’t remember ever having eaten dried octopus, but I’m not saying I wouldn’t. There they were, looking festive, a row of fresh ones dangling decoratively from a boat’s rigging, like signal flags spelling out a message for dinner.
In Mykonos recently, on a long stroll along the shore, I saw these plump babies strung up, baking in the Greek sun. They had clearly protested their ignoble attachment to a laundry line, given that more than a few had clutched a lifeline with defiant fists.
A boat flies signal flags that spell out dinner.
Octoperson
The sticky-fingered cephalopods had received the ultimate capital punishment—beheading—and for what? Stealing bait? Like a lowlife pickpocket going for our prop wallets, except we throw them back.
Maybe they weren’t destined for food, I don’t know. I’m not one to look at tentacles and think mmm, succulent. There was no one to ask.
Me, I’d put light bulbs in them.
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2 comments for now
Lightbulbs, not a bad idea. It would make an interesting table light with ambiance. Don’t you have a bladder lamp?
29 Jan 2009 at 9:11 am
What a memory that story invoked. In ’73 visiting Greece, we were on the dock in Sounion, where we saw a fisherman turn an octopus inside out and then beat it vigorously on the dock for several minutes. An hour later, we had it for lunch. Mmmmm. Yummy
30 Jan 2009 at 12:42 pm