Baklavas lol! 
Of course they meant balaclavas. But what about masks I wonder…
To have given up on baklava is to have given up on life. Rest of the sign makes ok sense, but I’ve been drinking.
I’m sure they’ll blame it on spell check.
“The Florida Department of Health says 26 people have become infected with the bacteria and six of them later died after eating raw shellfish, including oysters, so far this year. In 2021, 10 people died out of 34 people sickened. In 2020, there were seven deaths among the 36 who became ill.”
Not sure about the denominator, but those are not the odds I would have expected!
Not a big fan of gulf oysters, although they seem thrifty. I wonder if the odds are the same with U.S. coastal and oysters from Europe, i.e. France. Heading to France shortly and I plan to eat a lot of oysters.
Eating raw oysters from the Gulf of Mexico is far more risky than if the oysters come from the cold Atlantic. Parts of the Gulf are “dead zones”, where the pollution is so bad, fish and other sea life either exit or die. A very large number of septic systems have been installed in homes where the water table is too high and waste water seeps into rivers feeding into the Gulf. Toxic algae blooms are common in these rivers.
Red Tide, caused by a microscopic toxic algae, is a regular problem in the Gulf. Recent evidence has shown that chemicals, used to disperse oil spills, kills the Red Tide predators.
Bacteria generally grow faster in warmer conditions. Oxygen is toxic to many harmful bacteria and, as the dissolved oxygen plummets in warm waters, these bacteria can thrive.
Most bacteria are intolerant of high salt levels. The Atlantic is the saltiest of the five ocean basins. The Gulf’s salinity can swing wildly, dropping significantly if there is a lot of rain water being added by rivers feeding into the Gulf.
I’ve been to Massachusetts and Gulf waters, many times, mostly fishing. There’s a big difference in the waters and the types of oysters which grow in the different ecosystems.
Though oysters are raised in Virginia, where I live, I only consume raw oysters from Massachusetts to Maine, and then, only during the cold months. The old saying is months with an “r” in them. But, as things warm up, I stick to the winter months.
I don’t think that’s still true, since we have refrigeration and oyster farms now. I eat raw oysters all year and have only encountered a couple of (noticeably) bad ones over the course of my life. And I’ve never gotten sick from an oyster or any raw seafood.
I was in-house and got annual visits from a couple of law firms we employed for local JP work. They always brought gifts.
My family still uses about once a week a 10-set of beautiful ironwood chop sticks, 10 years or so after a particular annual visit.
When we took them out for dinners they always wanted something different - take us for Indian, take us for Cuban or Jamaican food, they said. The CN counsel visiting were similar in their requests.
Thanks Robert. Guess I need to start buying Dodge instead of various Fords and Hondas!
Maybe they meant baklava and are worried about getting things sticky. Nah, just whacko major with a minor in illiteracy.
Exactly re your last sentence.
Rewatching Yellowstone. Beth and Rip are a match made in heaven. For those of you not familiar with this show, Beth is a cool tough smoking corporate raider and Rip is a cowboy. My favorite food related scene so far (which is not available on YouTube) is the tuna helper one. She’s not much of a cook and tells him she didn’t have any hamburger so put tuna in the Hamburger Helper. He says why didn’t you just use Tuna Helper. She said you mean they make a Tuna Helper? He tells her that’s a conversation for another time.
Priceless.
True. If you have farms up north, they’ll be able to provide a superior product, year round.
Warmer waters, with less oxygen, will have a negative impact on flavor and can lead to more crumbly shells. Warmer waters, rich in CO2, can become acidic, making calcium sequestration in shells an issue. I once got VA farmed oysters in Sept- never again. The shells were fragile, making them hard to shuck, and the flavor was sub par. It’s funny the “Atlantic” oyster is properly the Virginia oyster. I’m not sure which one is farmed these days, but the VA farmed ones didn’t look at all like wild, MA types, which had very hard, whiter shells.
The absolute best oysters I’ve ever had came from MA. We used snorkels and masks to harvest wild, huge oysters (Crassostrea virginica) from a tidal creek, close to the ocean. The currents were treacherous; we had to secure our footing, handholds on big rocks. Blue Mussels were also gathered. Yum!
I very rarely eat Gulf oysters. I think the last time was at Peche in New Orleans, and they weren’t great. But I still wouldn’t worry about getting sick from eating them. The CDC reports that about 100 people a year die from Vibrio bacterial infection, compared to 49,915 who die in car accidents. And yet people don’t think twice about getting into a car.
I think you’re right, overall. But still I stick to Atlantic vs. Gulf. And I’m on both sides about twice a year.
Just can’t get over the chance. Even though I KNOW it’s small.
I currently live on the Gulf Coast. The oysters are large and not very briny. They are okay fried. I like the kumamotos in the northwest raw, and of course New England oysters. As a kid we lived on the Chesapeake. I hope their oysters make a comeback.
Went to get the medical certificate to renew the driver’s license.
As they were filling in the forms they gave me a bottle and said to bring urine. I had already emptied myself before going there. So I bought a bottle of water and drank half of it. After 5 minutes I was set.
Anyway I got it at the end. Next is the biggest challenge. That’s to go to the license office and get it. Maybe next week.
We’re keeping all our fingers & toes crossed, trust!
Sis-in-law is celebrating her post-retirement, 
cracked open a bottle of Dom P, and is happy today wasn’t her 1st day “back.” She’s happily charting a new course for herself, after 40+ years of teaching. Now she can focus on her amazing garlic and tomato crops full time. 
Please tell her I said " well done".
