Silly little pondering question for you all

[donna723]

Lol, Janet, I never considered middle Tennessee to be the "midwest! It's as southern here as you can get!

We only have one grocery store in town but it's very nice. For years it was an independent family-owned store. Then when the owners retired they sold it and it became a Piggly Wiggly for many years, known locally as "The Pig"! Then several years ago it became a Food Giant, advertised as being an "employee owned store", whatever that is.

 

[InsaneCdn]

An "employee owned" company is usually one of two situations...
1) the company was in trouble, staff weren't going to get all that was owed them anyway, and as part of a turn-around plan, staff got shares in the new out-fit to "compensate" for what they were losing in cash, or
2) it's a company that uses shares as staff rewards, as a way to get staff loyalty. Some do it well. Good Canadian example is WestJet.

 

[Signorina]

Yep - right up the road. Middle America USA, 3 miles from Lake Michigan - in Wisconsin!

In the US an employee owned company is an ESOP- Employee Stock Ownership Plan - which is usually the best way for an owner to sell a business that has a huge goodwill value or good market share that can't be valued properly as sellable assets

 

[Star*]

YEEEEEEEEEEUCK.

I'm still having NIGHTMARES from those pictures of the Board reunion where people devoured "THE KRACKEN" and they call IT a sea monster? NO thank you. I'm not eating anything that swims in it's own toidy.

 

[Lothlorien]

Don't like oysters or muscles, but I love most of the rest of it. I love lobster claws. I find they are more tasty than the tail. We eat langostinos a lot. Just about any type of clams, but Manilla clams are one of my favs, scallops, crab, squngilli (conch), calamari (squid), and my favorite fish are grouper, dolphin (the fish not the porpoise), shark and swordfish.

 

[SearchingForRainbows]

YEEEEEEEEEEUCK.

I'm still having NIGHTMARES from those pictures of the Board reunion where people devoured "THE KRACKEN" and they call IT a sea monster? NO thank you. I'm not eating anything that swims in it's own toidy.

:

Star, Thanks! I know I can always count on you for a bit of comic relief! Luckily, my morning coffee is long gone!

Until last summer, "home" was a half mile from the ocean. There is a great seafood market in town, it's been there for years, (owned by the same family who also owns several large fishing boats), and if you blink, you'll have already passed it. The only advertising it's ever had is a bright red, now very faded, picture of a lobster on it's roof. The seafood is the best ever!! The prices were extremely reasonable all year except during the summer months, tourist season. However, if the owner knew you, you always got the freshest fish available and could even keep a running tab that you could pay whenever - So hard to believe in today's world. Anyway, I used to buy haddock at least once a week, sometimes more. No matter how I cooked it, it was delicious! In the fall, the scallops were wonderful... I love just about any kind of salt water fish and shrimp, scallops, and crab. I used to love lobster but after cooking it for a family gathering when I was pregnant with difficult child 2, I got so sick from the smell, that I've never been able to eat it again.

Just thinking about all that great seafood is making me homesick... OK, I'm not going to hog this thread. It's just that it's been way too long since I've had really fresh seafood... SFR

 

[Star*]

I just thought of something SFR -when you said the sign about the LOBSTERS........When Dude was very little - we used to shop at a place in FL called KASH and KARRY. I don't think they are around any more. However they used to have lobster tanks near the meat /seafood department. When we'd stroll by there with our buggy (grocery cart) Dude would get SO upset. See I raised the Junior Marlin Perkins of the South and upon seeing the caged/tanked Lobsters he started to cry. ( I think he was about 18 months old) and he wept, and sobbed, and just those little tears that you know they're upset, and batting gigantic brown eyelashes and big brown eyes. I said "Honey whats wrong?" and he said "Mommy - why won't they let the HAMSTERs go free?" I had NO idea what he was talking about so I pushed the cart back to the place he was pointing to (snotty nose and all) and we watched the "hamsters" just sitting there and I said "OH those Hamsters!!!? Well I think those are here JUST so people can see how pretty they are." and well that wasn't a good enough answer. He got upset and told the seafood manager "You shouldn't keep hamsters they're going to miss their Mommy!" We both chuckled a little and the manager said "Well I'll tell you what how about if I find them a home after you leave?" and THAT seemed to make Dude happy. HOWEVER the next time we were in there - it happened all over again." It was so sweet and innocent - HOW could I possibly eat someones "Son" after that? Dude would have passed out. And obvioulsy we never made it to Red lobster too much due to lack of funds - We even found Talapia on the banks of a river one day and he had me wading nearly waist deep in muck trying to find all the fish I could to throw them back in what water there was so they wouldn't die. To this DAY he still calls them HAMSTERS.

 

[Tiapet]

LOL so um Star, are you saying you don't eat Hamsters?

 

[GoingNorth]

l'm allergic to shellfish. l like sole, flounder, mahi-mahi. My favorites are freshwater fish of most kinds other than catfish: panfish, lake perch, walleye, salmon, trout, northern pike. l love smoked and pickled fish as well...trout, salmon, pickled herring, that sort of thing.

 

[Star*]

Star IS saying she does not eat....hamsters. buttered ,or otherwise. Someday I'll tell you about the day little Marlin let "ALL" Gods creatures in the Star household loose in Florida.

 

[DammitJanet]

LOL Donna...I was responding to Sig...not you! I do consider Tn south. Sig's location says Midwest so I was astounded they had Pigs in the midwest. I thought they were only down here. Just goes to show what I know.

Star...Little Marlin would have been in big trouble considering what I know you have had in your house over the years!

 

[AnnieO]

I'm not sure I'd make it if I were allergic to shellfish... They're SOOOO GOOD... Lobster tail or crab legs... Crud. Red Lobster for dinner anyone?

 

[DammitJanet]

When I was young there was this great restaurant in Richmond that my dad used to take me to that served all you could eat seafood. They had the best crab legs. It wasnt a buffet either. You put your order in and they kept bringing you plates. Oh those were the days!

 

[GoingNorth]

Well, l've only had shrimp and had an anaphylactic reaction to those. l haven't tried anything else on medical orders. l don't miss shellfish because l can't eat them and it's certainly not worth dying for.

husband and l grew up in kosher households so we had no exposure to shellfish as children. He'd had them as an adult but wasn't impressed. l love finned fish and in fact, they are a major protein source in my diet as l eat very little meat.

 

[AnnieO]

GN... I am sorry... I'd prefer you didn't eat shellfish, either, in that case!!! (I would miss them...)

 

[Star*]

Little Marlin Perkins set free ------on that day:

A five pound, mouse eating Jaba toad. (Neighbor kids found it squished on the road and brought it to us - AINT IT COOL MS. STAR?...well he was - Jabba the hut)
A Five foot reticulated python named Curly (Neighbor on right - very cool sixty year old lady - Yeah - if we see him, we'll bring him back, Lady behind us ? I'll bring him back too - in a baggie.) Probably one of the ones on Animal Planet. Last snake I ever had without a keyed lock on his cage. It was locked - but apparently not child proofed - and a VALUABLE lesson.
A tortise named Nala - she didn't make it far. RIP Nala 1992.
A 4' Iguana Named Iggy. Well Iggy just went for the bedroom curtains and stayed there. That lizard loved his Mother. I have baby pictures of Dude and Iggy together in the tub. Both nekkid. Both cute. Both laughing.
A cockatiel that whistled Jinglebells off key because my x was tone deaf. We almost got him back. Neighbors heard the worst rendition of JBells they'd ever heard and called us - but he kept flying higher in the lemon trees....Oddly enough he did find a mate and they probably have bad singing proginy all over FL.
Two squirrels. One had a mohawk from getting hit by a car. He was almost ready to go anyway - Dude just opened the door and let him go.

And there was the corn snake, the toad, the alligator.....yup alligator. Another box turtle.

It all started when he put 14 toads in my bed one night and I had to wake him up to get the toads and told him - "They will miss their Mommy & wild things belong in the wild." He got his little plastic Easter pail, put them in the pail, kissed them all goodbye and said to go find their Mommy. After that? He took it upon himself to set EVERYONE free to go find their Mommy.

He was SO PROUD of himself. Cages all open, door wide open.......had that dusting hands thing going on like - TA DA! Yup piece of work - just like his Mother.

 

[Wiped Out]

I love crab, lobster, and shrimp! Most other seafood I don't care for. husband won't eat any seafood but my daughter and I both like it! Janet-we have the Pig here in Madison, WI!

 

[Tiapet]

When I lived in FL (in childhood) we went to the pig. I loved the place and can recall it because I was in my late teens. I miss it even still this many years later. I've lived in 7 states with different grocery stores. None of them have one that has been consistently available in them all sadly. I do not like that here where I am now only has 3 choices and of them I'm not real happy with. I miss NC and the availability of some of their stores for a variety of reasons. Double and triple coupons (although I hear that's coming to an end), the availability to find almost anything I want especially Asian food to make things at home, seafood was a lot easier to find though not nearly as easy as up in PA, MA, or CT (of course the last two would be the easiest).

 

[Star*]

When DUde was a little guy - Sometimes I used to have to pack his lunch in plastic bags. If I put them in a Piggly Wiggly bag he went berzerk. FOr YEARS and YEARS he wouldn't allow me to go INTO the PIG. I couldn't shop there or even have a bag from there. It must have been a bad day that first time lunch with I'm big on the pig on the bag. He's never said - but LORD what a fit. One of his worst. I can remember asking him - Well do you mind if I put your lunch in a BILO bag? He wouldn't carry a knapsack - or a lunch pail - had to be a plastic bag.

 

[SearchingForRainbows]

I just thought of something SFR -when you said the sign about the LOBSTERS........When Dude was very little - we used to shop at a place in FL called KASH and KARRY. I don't think they are around any more. However they used to have lobster tanks near the meat /seafood department. When we'd stroll by there with our buggy (grocery cart) Dude would get SO upset. See I raised the Junior Marlin Perkins of the South and upon seeing the caged/tanked Lobsters he started to cry. ( I think he was about 18 months old) and he wept, and sobbed, and just those little tears that you know they're upset, and batting gigantic brown eyelashes and big brown eyes. I said "Honey whats wrong?" and he said "Mommy - why won't they let the HAMSTERs go free?" I had NO idea what he was talking about so I pushed the cart back to the place he was pointing to (snotty nose and all) and we watched the "hamsters" just sitting there and I said "OH those Hamsters!!!? Well I think those are here JUST so people can see how pretty they are." and well that wasn't a good enough answer. He got upset and told the seafood manager "You shouldn't keep hamsters they're going to miss their Mommy!" We both chuckled a little and the manager said "Well I'll tell you what how about if I find them a home after you leave?" and THAT seemed to make Dude happy. HOWEVER the next time we were in there - it happened all over again." It was so sweet and innocent - HOW could I possibly eat someones "Son" after that? Dude would have passed out. And obvioulsy we never made it to Red lobster too much due to lack of funds - We even found Talapia on the banks of a river one day and he had me wading nearly waist deep in muck trying to find all the fish I could to throw them back in what water there was so they wouldn't die. To this DAY he still calls them HAMSTERS.

Too cute!! Thanks for sharing because thinking about seafood but calling it "hamsters," makes the idea of eating it absolutely repulsive, lol... This is a good thing because where I am now, there is no such thing as fresh saltwater hamsters, lol...