10-27-2010

One of the great things about living here is that I get to see things I had never seen before.  For example: watching a neighbor butcher a seal in his front yard.  I’ve seen many animals get themselves butchered and I’ve even assisted in the chore on occasions, although never to anyone’s approval.  To my credit, the animal has never complained.

Watching a seal being butchered is analogous to watching the grass grow, a bit boring.  Except that instead of watching life spreading out and flourishing, you’re watching a seal’s guts and blood spill on that same grass.  I did learn that the head of a seal is very similar to that of a small dog.  Pinnipeds for $400 Alex.

Eating seal is commonplace here, so all of my students have developed a fondness for the taste.  I ate it once when I was going to school in Sitka 25 years ago, and the taste still lingers.  We were talking in class about how people who live in different places eat distinctive foods.  I asked them what they ate and they listed many things, including seal and beluga whale.  Of course they asked me what we eat where I’m from.  I said “beef.”  They weren’t sure what that meant, so I said, “cow.”  I could have said “boogers” by their reaction.  And pig;  “ewwwww!”  For the next 10 minutes, they had to sit through a lesson in the righteousness of eating pig meat. Where did they think bacon came from?  I pointed out that you can’t buy seal and eggs at Denny’s in Anchorage, but they do have bacon and eggs.  They pointed out I wasn’t mentally stable.  I guess I should never use Denny's when trying to convince someone of how good a food can be.  It is a logical fallacy.  

Today we had a pretty good storm.  The walk to work this morning reminded me of what is to come for the next six months.  Wind and snow in my face will be a good way to wake up.  Plus, it will be at my back on the way home as it was tonight.  I left before the rest, and asked them if they find a lump beneath the snow, give it a kick to make sure it’s me and not a sack of crap.  The nice response would have been, “Of course Clay, we’ll look out for you.”  The reply I got was “How can we tell the difference?”  It’s that tight knit kind of community we have at the school and it keeps me warm inside.

While I didn’t have seal meat for dinner tonight, I know I will have some soon.  I’m not sure if it will be a rite of passage sort of thing or an I ran out of Spam thing.   I hope it’s a rite of passage thing because I’ll need the Spam to purge the lingering taste.  Yes, you can use Spam to cleanse the palate.