Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Those wacky Brits...

There was a National Lampoon (I think) book years ago whose theme was Americans turning Britain into a giant theme park, only existing for our amusement...

Roto Reuters: We don't want to be disrespectful to dead fish...

An English fishing town has banned the sport of conger cuddling after an animal activist complained.

Nobody spoils fun quite like an activist.

The tradition, once described as the most fun a person could have with a dead fish, involves one team trying to hit another with a conger eel tied to a rope.

It was popular in Lyme Regis on England's south coast and used as a fund-raising event for the local lifeboat.

But the sport has now been banned after an animal rights activist complained that it was "disrespectful" to dead fish and threatened to campaign against the event. Animal activists have a reputation for radical action in Britain.

"The RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) were worried that it might show them up in a bad light," Rob Michael, chairman of the town's lifeboat guild, told Reuters Saturday.

"In this day and age, and with health and safety, you have to be that little bit more careful. But some people are extremely upset."

Under the rules of conger cuddling, contestants stand on small wooden blocks as if they were skittles. Members of a second team then swing a dead conger eel attached to a piece of rope at the group in a bid to knock them off.

That sounds like fun.

The team with the last person standing wins. Conger eels can grow to more than three metres.

You know what this means. I must find a conger eel recipe for my Animal Flesh Recipe of the Day...

Ah, yes...Here it is! Anguilla alla Milanese...

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