So you feel like a gerbil on a wheel? Or perhaps, "despite all my rage, I feel like a rat a cage?" Let me one up you, please. Welcome to 2011 and your new metaphor - Shrimp on a Treadmill! Is the diarist crazy, that's up for debate, or has the WORLD gone mad? YOU decide. More beneath the fold.
"Shrimp on a treadmill" entered my personal consciousness 3 weeks ago when I stopped by my 82 y.o. mother's house for the daily afternoon visit and she informed me that she would never eat shrimp again. Oh no, NEVER! Not after having seen the shrimp on a treadmill! She also told me that I needed to re-think my pescaterianism...because afterall, what had an innocent shrimp ever done to me???? So, internally, I'm thinking "Wow, this is it. Mom has severely gone over the edge. Points for creativity - I mean "Shrimp on a Treadmill" is rich in its imagery and harkens back to her New Orleans roots, but....clearly she has lost it. Then, because I don't WANT to believe that it is time for my Mom to move to an old person's home - I ignore my gut reaction and open my mouth and say this: "No, Mom. I haven't seen that commercial." "Are you sure it wasn't a minature giraffe on a treadmill?" (Thinking of that ad. for-God knows what -featuring the Russian guy surrounded by striking female models talking about the benefits of luxury while a mini-giraffe walks on a treadmill on the floor by his feet). Sad when I'm trying to use a midgit giraffe on a treadmill to mentally ground my mother in reality, but I digress. "No," she says emphatically. "The SHRIMP on the treadmill!" "That poor, poor, shrimp. I feel so sorry for it. I'll never eat shrimp again."
I tell her I have no idea what she is talking about but having given up all meat except fish, that I was sorry but I would continue to eat shrimp. (I know Leviticus says it is an abomination - but then Leviticus also says I should go into the desert and isolate myself when I'm having my period), so having written off the book of Leviticus as the book of Ridiculous, long ago...I will wallow in my shrimp loving damnation. Meanwhile my Mom is in full on drama concern for the "shrimp on the treadmill". I smile, and decide to sit on it before I call my out of town brothers again for consultation as to "what is best" for Mom.
Fast forward to last week. 1 day last week in the course of 24 hours I read something here about shrimp on a treadmill and a government funded study of same. I then hear something on MSNBC & 1 other source the same day. I also learn, the same day, that there is a youtube video of a shrimp on a treadmill. My first reaction is chagrin that I thought my Mom was losing it. Right on the heels of chagrin is HUGE relief, that my Mom (who shares a birthday with Jimmi Hendrix) while still dramatically charming is still grounded in reality. Right on the heels of relief is WTF!!!! So my Mom is sane, but the world has gone MAD!!!! WTF?!? People are picking through garbage cans to eat in this country but the government is spending money to study shrimp on a treadmill?????
So tonight, before publishing this diary - I went to ask.com re: Shrimp on a Treadmill is it true that the government spends money on this. First hit is a Youtube video of shrimp on a treadmill created by someone in 2006 who admits he/she creatively put these 2 images together with the Bennie Hill soundtrack because it is funny. Followed by another hit that states "Google it people". Shrimp on a treadmill is legitimate government funded research that helps science students study shrimp for the long-term benefit of helping those regions (the Gulf) that depend on shrimp for their livelihood. This leads me to my next point...the beautiful horror that is the internet. Yes, you can learn anything about anything....but IF you don't want to believe it - as I don't in this case -as it seems a talking point for Rush Limbaugh - DO you believe it? Frankly, I think those individuals in the Gulf who lost their livelihood last Spring/Summer with the oil leak are MORE interested in being made whole in the short-term livelihood of the sense - and regulating oil companies so they don't get burned again than they are in a long term "shrimp on a treadmill" study - assuming it is true that it is a study legitimatley funded by our tax dollars.
Me? I have no children but love this planet. I'm more concerned with the reality of climate change and what we as a country are NOT doing about it than I am about shrimp on a treadmill. I'm smart enough to know that we, like the shrimp on a treadmill, can't outrun the acidification and pollution of our oceans. Excuse me now while I go make another batch of Shrimp Ceviche while I still can. I'm shellfish like that.