Crab misunderstands name of event

"To Serve Crab"

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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http://twitter.com/johnbaichtal John Baichtal

I think the subtext here is that the crab is a cannibal.
- L_Mariachi
  
  Crabs are cannibalistic.
  - http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
    
    I was going to post that.
    
    I have no idea if it’s true but a coworker told me about how his cousins in Maryland would hold crab fights like how you’d hold a cockfight.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Drop/100000929402049 Robert Drop

Are we sure we’re not misunderstanding the sign? Perhaps a bunch of hungry humans will show up only to be fed to crabs. Disturbingly grinning crabs, no less.
- rattypilgrim
  
  Not to worry. A red Dungeness crab is a boiled Dungeness crab. They’re grey while alive.
  - http://twitter.com/kramski Kramski
    
    So… it’s a boiled grinning crab holding a knife. … I am distrustful of your claim we needn’t worry.
    - rattypilgrim
      
      Yikes! I never thought of that. You know what that would lead to—zombie Rotarians!
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        Is there another type of Rotarian?
      - rattypilgrim
        
        True. “Zombie Rotarian” is redundant.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Drop/100000929402049 Robert Drop
    
    Even worse – being fed to zombie crabs. (Though based on the color, it actually looks more like a red rock crab rather than a Dungeness.)
  - Preston Sturges
    
    Same as Rotarians.
- waetherman
  
  That’s exactly right; this is not a “crab fest” or a “crab feast” or “crab boil” – it’s a crab feed, for which the crab is clearly ready (not prepared, which leads to another set of confusions).
  - http://twitter.com/ErnestValdemar Ernest Valdemar
    
    When I was a kid, we were driving out in the country and passed a farm with a hand-painted sign that read, “Rabbits for Sale — Live or Dressed.” I begged my parents to buy me a bunny in a costume.
    - Petzl
      
      Reminiscent of scene in “Roger and Me” where he sees sign “Rabbits for Sale – Pets or Food”
http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby

I’m not sure if this is better or worse than all the fried chicken places with Roosters wearing chefs hats on the sign.
- cub
  
  http://www.hulu.com/watch/2317
- http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
  
  When my family raised chickens they’d eat (cooked) chicken we threw out, and one time I found them eating a pigeon that died on the property.
  - bobtato
    
    My tip for enjoying your life that little bit more is: Don’t ever google “chickens” and “cannibalism”. Tl;dr: they’re not as cute as you think.
    - http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
      
      I figured out that most* farm animal will try cannibalism pretty much out of pure boredom/ignorance; but pigs are only too eager to try it.
      
      *cows like getting at the stomach contents of cow-corpses.
      - http://www.xradiograph.com/ OtherMichael
        
        Oh come on, who _hasn’t_ tried cannibalism out of boredom?
        
        And don’t trust those that say “But I never swallowed.”
    - Ryan Lenethen
      
      I got one of those facebook guilt like photos the other day, showing the differances between different chicken producers. One of them was if they cliped beaks or not. There is a reason why they clip beaks of chickens in close proxminity. They are not doing it to just be mean. I watched a TV show on it one. Disturbing to say the least. Chickens it seems are a bunch of jerks.
theophrastvs

i’m quite sure that there was a web-page devoted to cannibalistic advert images – with a special section on self-cannibalism (zB) …but damme if i can find it.
- C W
  
  “Suicide food”, I believe.
  - theophrastvs
    
    yeah, that has to be it – thankee, but i recall it being more graphical and less …sermonic [shrug]
inkfumes

It’s a Cookbook! It’s a Cookbook!!!!
http://www.karljones.com karl_jones

I am reminded of a passage from Creation by Gore Vidal.

Our narrator is a Persian on embassy to the kingdoms of India, much shaken when the princes of two kingdoms depose — that is, murder and seize the kingship from — their respective fathers:

Although I found it curiously abominable that India’s two most powerful Aryan kings should be murdered by their sons, Prince Jeta seemed not at all perturbed. “We have an old saying, ‘Princes, like crabs, eat their own parents.’ ”
http://blog.doomsdayzen.com agonist

A Malaysian colleague once sent out a heated email in which she referred to a bad situation as being “total crab”. I immediately added it to my lexicon.
niktemadur

Looks like the crab is wearing a bib, but it’s actually a Rotary Club flag.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Drop/100000929402049 Robert Drop
  
  Since it’s also holding a fork, that appears to be a Rotary Club bib.
  - niktemadur
    
    How could I have missed the fork? Seriously, I didn’t see it.
    Oh, I lost it in the foreground twigs.
equack

This is common regional/dialect usage in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region. I can see how it would sound funny to someone who had never heard it before. When I was in high school near Philadelphia the teachers would sometimes host “feeds” where they would provide snack foods for their students. A feed is a party where food is served and (typically) alcohol is not.
- http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
  
  It sounds strangely utilitarian to me
ImmutableMichael

Flickr has a group devoted to just such photos…
http://www.flickr.com/groups/cut-me-wicked-servant/
bolamig

Crab is pretty classy. I’m used to seeing pancake feeds at suburban churches.
rattypilgrim

It’s deep into crab season in Sonoma County, Ca. where Sebastopol is located. This month there are at least 11 crab feeds hosted by different groups as fund raisers.
http://www.eileengunn.com Gunn

This must be why one so rarely sees crabs in Sebastopol: zero survival skills.
bolamig

Some might say the whole capitalistic system that the Rotarians promote is in the end, from an entropic/heat death perspective, cannabilistic.
bolamig

I think the word “feed” is used in an an ironic way, sort of a hipsterism for boomers. Like we’re too cool to call it a meal, dining, or especially fundraiser. Slumming.
baronkarza

Guy walks into a diner and asks the waiter “Do you serve crabs?”
Waiter says “Sure, siddown, we serve everybody!”

No applause, just throw money.
- allium
  
  Let me just warm up the trebuchet…
  - http://www.karljones.com karl_jones
    
    Trebuchet is a dish best served cold.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      I always fancied those flying hay bales flambé.
Preston Sturges

Attack of the giant crab (Mysterious Island)

http://youtu.be/EzFLvR4TaOI
brucearthurs

And don’t forget Attack of the Crab Monsters.

(Omighod! Russell Johnson was in that movie! No wonder the Professor could build so many things on Gilligan’s Island! He had experience!)
dr

We were there yesterday and saw the sign; it inspired us to get a crab for dinner last night. I don’t know whether the crab was expecting something rather different out of the meal.
howaboutthisdangit

http://books.google.com/books?id=EjZQfRCXxGYC&pg=PA89&lpg=PA89&dq=pearls+before+swine+crab+feed&source=bl&ots=gYZdlxAyAr&sig=0rS85Om0grszVOIRGXTdch4_E4o&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Li4ZUfrYL4iqyAGNz4CwCw&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=pearls%20before%20swine%20crab%20feed&f=false