Step right up! Win a ... WTF?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

As some of you may know, I’m an American who has lived in Korea for the past 5 years… for the most part, I’m used to it and feel at home. However, occasionally I stumble across something that REALLY makes me feel like a foreigner! Earlier today this happened, and I MUST share this mundane and pointless experience:

Lately, “toy cranes” have become popular in Korea (if you don’t know what a “toy crane” is, look at this…), and I have had some success at winning small stuffed animals for Astrofiancee (she claims it’s just luck, but I know that she just doesn’t recognize true unadulterated skill when she sees it!). Toy cranes are everywhere! If you walk 500 meters down a sidewalk, you’re certain to pass 3 or 4 of them.

So, about a week ago, I noticed a new toy crane machine on the sidewalk in front of a bookstore near my dormitory. It was empty, and I just assumed that it was broken or something… earlier today, Astrofiancee and I were out looking for some dinner, and discussing whether to have Korean food, Chinese food, or Western food. As we walked down the sidewalk, I noticed the aforementioned toy crane was still empty. Or so it seemed! As we got closer, I noticed that the bottom 5 or 6 inches of the glassed-in enclosure was filled with water. “That’s odd” I thought… as we got a bit closer I noticed that in the water, at the bottom of the enclosure were 6 or 7 LOBSTERS!!

I collapsed on the sidewalk in laughter, while Astrofiancee talked to some women hanging around the area… after I recovered, I learned that for 500 won (about 45 cents or so) you get 2 chances to grab a lobster with the crane!

I’m not a big fan of seafood (hate it, as a matter of fact!), but Astrofiancee is; so we had to try!

I managed, on the first try, to snag a huge mutha of a lobster, but when he was pulled out of the water he began to flop around a bit, and worked his way out of the crane. :frowning: He fell back in the water…

Astrofiancee stepped up for the second attempt… and got nowhere, as the machine ripped us off and didn’t give us a second chance! :mad:

Anyways, too friggin weird!!

2

Regardless of any naysayers inclinations, at the purest level, that is absolutely beautiful. Somewhat of a weird yet wonderful dream come true.

Bless you for sharing that with us.

3

Thanks Bawdy!

Stuff this weird you just HAVE to tell someone!!

4

We’ve got one of those here in Milwaukee at Crabby Al’s Seafood Shack. It’s called… The Lobster zone

It’s very cool, and costs $2 a crack for a lobster dinner. Not bad if you can win.

5

Reminds me of the time I was in a small French country village on Bastille Day. There was a local carnival, and the guy I was with, who had been a big college basketball star, wanted to try his luck. At one booth, there was a pen full of live ducks. The object was to throw a small ring (maybe three or four inches in diameter), and land it around the neck of a duck. After several tries, my friend was successful, and as his prize was awarded…the duck!

We ended up giving to it to a farmer, who probably had a good supper.

6

At various stages of our lives we temporarily covet, then move on to new longings for that which is mechanical.

Den, family room, basement, game room, or backyard, it just doesn’t seem important.

To me, the simple pleasure of hunting a lobster with “The Claw” will likely become all consuming.

Large tank, proper aeration, sandy bottom, stacked rock nooks and crannies, test kit for proper salinity and a joystick directed crane to properly induce the crustacean into aerobic activity…boy howdy, backyard barbecuing will never be the same.

Pinball, blech. Space Invaders, sheesh. Console Pong, how trite.

7

:frowning:

Those poor lobsters.
Frankly I don’t understand how a person can look at a live creature and send it to the kitchen to be killed at all… but doing it for fun is somehow even worse :frowning:

8

What would be even better is if when you grab the lobster instead of putting it down the chute it dropped it into a pot of boiling water. :smiley:

9

I gotta admit I find the image of a lobster game outside a bookstore to be pretty damn funny. But at the same time I agree with Opal… and I’m kind of surprised by ChiefWahoo’s link, this strikes me as exactly the kind of thing that animal rights groups would jump all over, in this country at least.

One thing is killing me here, Astroboy-- what are you supposed to do with the lobster once you win it? Put it in your totebag? Hope it follows you home? This is going to drive me nuts.

10

I’ve grown vegetables in my garden that probably felt the same way…

11

A lobster dinner gives me more emotional satisfaction then a live lobster in a tank of water. Therefor, I prefer my lobsters with a side of melted butter and my cows 3 inches thick and rare.

12

Gee, I was under the impression that lobsters weren’t animals any more than grasshoppers are.

Aren’t insects and crustaceans both arthropods? I was unaware that “Animal rightists” were concerned with the welfare of insects and their kin.

Ya know, there are millions of starving mosquitos out every summer here. Perhaps these concerned souls would come up here and feed them for us…

13

That is way too cool!! Also sounds like a lot more fun than the game I play:

Go to tank.
Deposit $20.
Robot disguised as butcher reaches in with wooden fork.
Extracts small lobster and boxes it.
I win… (?)

P.S. Is there anyone else out there like me who thinks the tail sucks so they give it to the kids and just eat the best part (knucles, legs, claws, roe and liver)??

14

Some of them are. There was an earlier thread that talked about how some “Animal rightists” were complaining about the effort to eradicate the Guinea worm, a parasite that IIRC hatches inside the host’s body, grows up to a meter long, and very slowly burrows out through the host’s skin. (Oh, how I wish there were a puking smiley)

15

I don’t kill bugs either, unless they are actually biting me.

16

You got me! It actually occured to me when I managed to snag the lobster that I didn’t have the faintest idea what I was gonna do with it… :confused:

Opal I agree it seems a bit cruel, but that’s part of the weirdness of it…

17

Don’t you kids use ASCII any more? I got your puking smiley right here -

=8^@

18

A similar machine was on the streets in Tokyo for a while earlier this year. It only lasted a few weeks, mainly because of complaints similar to Opalcat’s. :frowning:

I never got a chance to try it, but it would probably be cheaper, for me at least, to simply go to the store and buy my own lobster.

–sublight.

19

There’s no danger of that happening here! Things are changing, but this is a culture where dogs are not only still commonly eaten, but… (I’m serious! Hit back on your browser and read no further if you’re easily upset!)
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…I hear that out in the country-side, they literally hang the dog up in a bag, and beat it to death with a stick on the theory that the beating and attendant adrenaline in the meat makes it more tender and more delicious! :mad:

I am NOT an PETA member, by any means (I likes my steaks!), but no animal deserves that! Except maybe that worm that RoboDude was talking about…