Are oysters dumb enough for you?


A meal of 50 oysters wolfed down without conscience last Friday - a gift from Wolf & Irene!

“Are oysters dumb enough for you?”
As a vegetarian you might arguably not eat anything with a central nervous system … then – would snails and oysters be dumb enough for you? They are, after all, living creatures.

But, when it comes to Squid – who are reputed to be highly intelligent and are known to hunt in packs like wolves – the argument is complicated. They have a nervous system, are highly prolific in procreating, virtually re-inventing themselves fast enough not be out-eaten, just in case.
Cephalopods (Germ. “Kopffüßer”) and their cousins, the octopuses therefore do not qualify as “dumb enough” and if I was an oyster I would protest as well to being eaten under that label but rather be judged for my part in clearing marine pollution or – as the rarer ones of us do – producing a pearl. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Oyster shells are found in middens all along the Southern coast of South Africa documenting their usefulness for the continuation of the human race. They might after all not be as dumb as we think.
Away then with useless labels.
Mirror mirror on the wall – who is the dumbest of us all?

With love from
Colleen & Walter
Betty’s Bay, March 2, 2011