Trivial Pursuits: Fish out of water
By:
Jamie Hult, Staff writer
Best thing about my job, number one: Getting and telling people’s stories.
Best thing about my job, number two: Being thrown into totally alien environments on a semi-regular basis.
Such was the case Monday night.
Covering the Wild Game Feed was weird for me for a few reasons. First of all, I came home smelling weird (like 30 different animals all cooked together), and secondly, I was the proverbial fish out of the proverbial water of the whole wild game feed thing going on at 212.
I’m at home at libraries. Swimming pools. Thrift stores. Play places for kids with stuff for them to climb on and you follow them around. A wild game feed – not so much.
I grew up in the South, where hunting isn’t a thing. And my diet – no judgment here – consists primarily of bagels, coffee, ice cream, cereal and more carbs.
Basically, the most unusual animal I’ve ever eaten is bison.
I’m also one of the most animal-loving, anti-hunting people I know, except for vegetarians who avoid meat in support for animal rights. They’re probably more anti- than I, since I occasionally eat a turkey sandwich or chicken something.
I’ve tried being a vegetarian. When my daughter, Greta, was 5 and in preschool, she decided she wanted to stop eating meat. We said OK. I joined her, and we did protein shakes and ate a lot of peanut butter and eggs.
Greta kept it up for five months until she caved at preschool. She wanted the chicken patty the other kids were having. We went back to normal. I went back to my usual diet of bagels, coffee, ice cream, cereal and more carbs, plus the occasional turkey sandwich or chicken something.
I wasn’t sure what to expect at the Optimist Club’s Wild Game Feed, and I was floored by the enthusiasm, the crowd and, yes, even the food.
I tried the walleye, and it was fantastic.
