Saturday Sonata XX: George the Lobster is Free

LT here, with Saturday Sonata the Twentieth.

First, a snappy little heartwarmer of a story that'll claw at your heart strings:

A 140-year-old lobster that was destined to adorn a dinner plate is back in the ocean after a seafood restaurant in New York City granted him a reprieve.

The 20-pound crustacean, named George, was returned to the wild Saturday in a rocky cove in Kennebunkport, Maine, less than a mile from the summer home of former President George H.W. Bush.

George the lobster was transported to Maine by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which had beseeched City Crab and Seafood to allow the lobster to go free.

Way to go, City Crab and Seafood, you get extra cookies.

Now we all deserve a bunch of crabby songs. (You already know where this is going to end, don't you?)

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First, "I've Got a Big Bag of Crabs."




Ahem.

Next we have something even less normal. Really.




Now: This crab is eating a piece of meat. Delicately.




And from Newfoundland, true Lobsterland, "The Lobster Strut," by Mister Albert Sheppard. It starts like this:

There was a little Lobster on the shores of Sandy Point
The Clams all ignored him so his tail was out of joint
One day he heard the fiddle Crab and on his claws he got
He went up and down on Sandy Point just doin' the Lobster Strut.

It gets even better after that.




Now: "Can I touch him?"

"You can touch him."

"No."




Next: Do you know the PC guy in the PC/Mac commercials? His name is John Hodgman, and he's a funny dude. He has a book titled The Areas of My Expertise, and in that book we learn some interesting things, not the least of which is that lobsters weren't the first animals to be known as "lobsters." That sad story is told in this wonderful song by Jonathan Coulton, an old friend of Hodgman's. (If you're a crab, you can read an explanation of this here. But I recommend you watch the video first.)




Finally: "We were at the beach..." And goodbye. Happy Crabby 2009 to all of you.