# Do you know what a lobster looks like? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 27, 2012, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813 "2012-08-27T13:21:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mister\_Owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@Mister\_Owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Owl)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/21 "2012-08-27T15:57:49Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > No one in California has ever heard of [Red Lobster?](http://www.redlobster.com/locator_g/default.aspx?q=california) What has that to do with the topic? There are plenty of Maine lobsters in California restaurants. I merely offered one possible explanation for someone misidentifying the brooch in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/22 "2012-08-27T16:13:59Z")
> [@Mister\_Owl](#): > > What has that to do with the topic? There are plenty of Maine lobsters in California restaurants. I merely offered one possible explanation for someone misidentifying the brooch in the OP. So which image of a lobster is more common in California? (If there’s any real way to know.) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/23 "2012-08-27T16:18:41Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > So which image of a lobster is more common in California? (If there’s any real way to know.) I think most people have the image of a North Atlantic lobster with big claws. But I can understand a decorative item identified as a scorpion. The primary image people have of lobsters is the red color, even though that only occurs after cooking. I can’t say what people on West coast would think a spiny lobster looks like, most people only see the tails. I’m sure whole spiny lobsters are sold somewhere, but I’ve never seen one outside of an aquarium, and those were very small. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/24 "2012-08-27T16:20:31Z")
Ah, I didn’t think about the color. Maybe that has something to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/25 "2012-08-27T16:24:13Z")
> [@Mister\_Owl](#): > > . . . There are plenty of Maine lobsters in California restaurants. I merely offered one possible explanation for someone misidentifying the brooch in the OP. It’s also one reason why we import Maine lobsters in the first place: more meat. Nevertheless, even people who’ve grown up here are sometimes surprised to learn that California lobsters don’t have claws. (As a kid, I always felt sorry for them.) So I don’t know. Probably the brooch just didn’t look like the Red Lobster sign. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/26 "2012-08-27T16:28:22Z")
I live in Texas. I grew up here. However, my father’s family was in New England, and one of his brothers had a few lobster pots. On one family vacation, this uncle caught a few lobsters, and it was decided that the family would have an old fashioned seafood feast. My parents and my grandma Bodoni were in charge of transporting the lobsters in one of those styrofoam coolers. I was in the back seat, with the lobsters between me and Grandma. There was no lid to this cooler, and the lobsters kept trying to crawl out. Keep in mind that I was a pre-schooler. I was terrified of those huge monsters with the scary scary claws. Grandma just kept pushing them back into the cooler. She was a fisherman’s wife, and was used to dealing with all sorts of sealife that didn’t want to become seafood. Yes, I know exactly what Maine lobsters look like. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/27 "2012-08-27T16:43:18Z")
I grew up in Los Angeles. When I was around six years old, my Dad went to Boston on business and brought back a couple of live lobsters in a cooler. When my younger sister and I came back from school, they were in the bath tub waiting to become dinner. Sis and I were fascinated by them. Dad named them Herman and Sherman and it still comes up as a joke from time to time. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/28 "2012-08-27T16:45:18Z")
Yeah, I know what they look like. They look just like scorpions, right? ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@Mister\_Owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Owl)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/29 "2012-08-27T16:47:34Z")
Maybe I should have replied this way; I was born and bred in Southern California and know what a Maine lobster looks like. I also know what a spiny or rock lobster as well as various scorpions look like. I don’t really know what the brooch in the OP looks like so can not say whether or not I would misidentify it. Most likely I would have thought it a lobster however. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/30 "2012-08-27T16:49:15Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Yeah, I know what they look like. They look just like scorpions, right? Except for the tails. Scorpion tails don’t have much meat in them. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/31 "2012-08-27T16:54:47Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Ah, I didn’t think about the color. Maybe that has something to do with it. So it wasn’t red? Then yeah, I would have guessed scorpion also. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/32 "2012-08-27T16:57:38Z")
> [@Mister\_Owl](#): > > I don’t really know what the brooch in the OP looks like so can not say whether or not I would misidentify it. I’m looking for an image, and [this](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zg2aSuNdL._SY395_.jpg) is the closest I could find. Hers was a lot more silvery. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/33 "2012-08-27T17:16:39Z")
I live in Montreal (central/eastern Canada) and I see live lobsters in supermarkets, so I know what they look like. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@Mister\_Owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Owl)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/34 "2012-08-27T17:37:03Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I’m looking for an image, and [this](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zg2aSuNdL._SY395_.jpg) is the closest I could find. Hers was a lot more silvery. That’s a lobster. The lady you met just comes across a lot of stupid people.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/35 "2012-08-27T17:39:39Z")
> [@Mister\_Owl](#): > > What has that to do with the topic? There are plenty of Maine lobsters in California restaurants. I merely offered one possible explanation for someone misidentifying the brooch in the OP. What makes you think I was responding to your post? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/36 "2012-08-27T17:45:35Z")
> [@Mister\_Owl](#): > > That’s a lobster. The lady you met just comes across a lot of stupid people.😉 Maybe so. Yeah, I don’t see how it could be interpreted any other way. And maybe just one or two people said that to her, and she inflated it to “everyone.” ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@Mister\_Owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Owl)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/37 "2012-08-27T18:15:43Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > What makes you think I was responding to your post? In as much as it was not directed towards anyone in particular I opted to respond. Is that a problem? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/38 "2012-08-27T19:22:15Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I’m looking for an image, and [this](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51zg2aSuNdL._SY395_.jpg) is the closest I could find. Hers was a lot more silvery. That picture does a disservice to both lobsters and scorpions. That’s because it’s a crayfish. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/39 "2012-08-27T19:26:07Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > What do they taste like? Pacific Spiny Lobsters taste like Maine lobsters, only about two or three times better. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813/40 "2012-08-27T19:31:23Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > So which image of a lobster is more common in California? (If there’s any real way to know.) By far Atlantic Lobster with big claws are more common in California. You see them in the tanks of seafood restaurants and super markets. Occasionally you will see Pacific lobsters on the menu but it is specifically indicated that it is Pacific lobster. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-what-a-lobster-looks-like/632813.md?page=3)