So, I have 2 jobs. In the one, I am a Tech Support Dude™, in the other, a cook (part-time extra money thing).
<self-hijack> One of these lives has a future….the other, does not.</self-hijack>
Anyway, at the restaurant, there was this Father’s Day promotional. In seems that the Microcephalic Muppet General Manager™ thought that it would be a good idea to take big giant whole salmon and have people try to throw it in to a bucket. Those that succeeded would be rewarded with a free breakfast.
This is horrifying on so many levels.
[ul]
[li]First of all, this is a stupid, pointless waste of food. Those salmon (and I don’t want to get in to a vegetarian thing here) were living organisms that wanted to go on living. They were killed, ostensibly for food, and it seems to me very disrespectful to throw them around and essentially waste them. It is a cliché, but there are starving people in the world.[/li][li]In order to pull off this fuckery, the sidewalk in front of the establishment was closed. This is a public sidewalk where, to my way of thinking, people have a reasonable expectation to be able to walk (without worrying about a fish in the puss!).[/li][li]Once this exercise in chicanery was completed, a half-hearted attempt was made to clean up. The result: fish scales and guts on a public walkway, starting to putrify.[/li][/ul]
In general, I am thinking that it is this sort of thing that people from other countries see or hear about and find reason to dislike us. Talk about conspicuous consumption. Fuck it, why not take the fish when you are done with it and cook it over a fire made with thousand dollar bills! Only after that, you can throw it away in front of some people that haven’t eaten in 3 days.
What the Hell? Aside from humanitarian, conservation, civic, and cleanliness concerns, what the Hell? Is throwing a fish in a bucket some kind of bizare Father’s Day tradition out there in Seattle? What happened to, oh I don’t know, basketball free throws or something?
What is your GM going to do for Mother’s Day"? Award a free lunch to the prettiest fake flower arrangement made entirely from walleye?
I think that it is some sort of a strange sort of an reference to the Pike Place Market. There is a pretty famous seafood counter where the counter folks (Fish Mongers?) throw the fish to each other.
Just a wild guess. I asked around (just to see if there was some sort of cultural context that I was missing) and this is the best that we could come up with.
To make matters more interesting, the neighboring shop is a pretty darn granola co-op. I’m just saying that we are not winning any good neighbor awards.