Just a Thought

We were at lunch with friends on Sunday - a restaurant in a tavern in the Perth Hills. It's over a hundred years old so lots of lovely atmosphere. Yes, I know that barely counts in some countries but in Western Australia that means quite a lot given the fact that the first European settlers came here in 1829 and enthusiastic razing of 'old fashioned' buildings was all the go until recently. The food was average and the service pleasant if tardy but that's not what I meant to write about.

We were sitting there making our selections from the menu and someone enquired as to what calamari was. Fried squid she was told.

'Oh, I can't eat that,' she said.

I assumed she must have an allergy and asked her about it.

'No, it's because a researcher was doing some experiments using octopus.' (I'm sure you see the immediate problem since we were not talking about fried octopus but I let it pass). 'When it came to the octopus having an electrode attached to its head to measure brain activity the octopus reached around and removed it. The researcher immediately gave up experiments on octopus so I can't eat that.'

She then ordered fish and chips. How is this any different? In either case she is eating a once living creature. Strange and fuzzy thinking there, it seems to me.