VTMBH Article: Body
Dick Horne was at a loss. How do you get a live, illegal, non-native fisha fish that scavenges and destroys the local ecosystem when it is put in an alien habitatwhen nobody is selling them?
Easypretend youre an Orthodox Jew.
Apparently, it worked. Horne, the co-proprietor of the American Dime Museum in Baltimore, acquired three live northern snakehead fish from a market in New Yorks Chinatowndespite restrictions barring the sale of live snakeheadsby asking a friend to claim that she was an Orthodox Jew who needed to kill the fish according to dietary laws.
As a result, Hornes oddball museum is one of the few places gawkers can see a live snakehead, which captured headlines this summer after members of the carnivorous, three-foot-long, reputedly land-walking species were discovered thriving in a Crofton, Md., pond, close to the Patuxent River. The Crofton invader was released live into the pond by someone who bought the fish from a market. Fears that the Frankenfish would invade ecosystems around the country led officials to poison the pond, and Interior Secretary Gale Norton to propose a federal ban on importing live snakeheads.
Such notoriety is a powerful lure for Horne, whose museum is named after the 19th-century museums propagated by P. T. Barnum. Horne felt a live snakehead would be an important acquisition for a museum that already exhibits a Fiji Mermaid, a shrunken head and Vietnamese nuclear worms.
There was only one problem. They didnt want to sell me a live one, Horne said of the Chinese fish markets where snakeheads are considered a specialty, especially when smoked and dried.
Horne called a friend who performs under the name Ula the Pain-Proof Rubbergirlshes a virtuoso contortionistand asked her to buy the fish for him.
What am I gonna say? Ula asked.
Tell them youre an Orthodox Jew, Horne replied.
Ulas story, that she had to bring a live fish to a rabbi who would slaughter it according to Jewish law, seemed to have worked. Never mind that whether a fish is kosher or not has nothing to do with the way it is killed.
There is no kosher way to kill a fish, said Murray Shaw, managing editor of Kosher Today, a monthly trade newspaper. Just take it out of the water. Shaw, who never comments on whether something is kosher, added, I would highly doubt this thing is kosher.
Since coming to the museum, the three snakeheadsnamed Oedipus, Fluffy and Bartholomewhave been an instant success. Weve just come off the best month weve ever had, Horne said.
Easypretend youre an Orthodox Jew.
Apparently, it worked. Horne, the co-proprietor of the American Dime Museum in Baltimore, acquired three live northern snakehead fish from a market in New Yorks Chinatowndespite restrictions barring the sale of live snakeheadsby asking a friend to claim that she was an Orthodox Jew who needed to kill the fish according to dietary laws.
As a result, Hornes oddball museum is one of the few places gawkers can see a live snakehead, which captured headlines this summer after members of the carnivorous, three-foot-long, reputedly land-walking species were discovered thriving in a Crofton, Md., pond, close to the Patuxent River. The Crofton invader was released live into the pond by someone who bought the fish from a market. Fears that the Frankenfish would invade ecosystems around the country led officials to poison the pond, and Interior Secretary Gale Norton to propose a federal ban on importing live snakeheads.
Such notoriety is a powerful lure for Horne, whose museum is named after the 19th-century museums propagated by P. T. Barnum. Horne felt a live snakehead would be an important acquisition for a museum that already exhibits a Fiji Mermaid, a shrunken head and Vietnamese nuclear worms.
There was only one problem. They didnt want to sell me a live one, Horne said of the Chinese fish markets where snakeheads are considered a specialty, especially when smoked and dried.
Horne called a friend who performs under the name Ula the Pain-Proof Rubbergirlshes a virtuoso contortionistand asked her to buy the fish for him.
What am I gonna say? Ula asked.
Tell them youre an Orthodox Jew, Horne replied.
Ulas story, that she had to bring a live fish to a rabbi who would slaughter it according to Jewish law, seemed to have worked. Never mind that whether a fish is kosher or not has nothing to do with the way it is killed.
There is no kosher way to kill a fish, said Murray Shaw, managing editor of Kosher Today, a monthly trade newspaper. Just take it out of the water. Shaw, who never comments on whether something is kosher, added, I would highly doubt this thing is kosher.
Since coming to the museum, the three snakeheadsnamed Oedipus, Fluffy and Bartholomewhave been an instant success. Weve just come off the best month weve ever had, Horne said.