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NEW ORLEANS - Patrick "Deep Dish" Bertoletti looked down at the litter of empty oyster shells in front of him and savored the sweet taste of victory. For Crazy Legs Conti, the bitter taste of defeat could be washed away only by beer. The Acme World Oyster Eating championship belt _ leather, with a silver dish featuring an oyster on the half-shell _ hung on Bertoletti's skinny hips. The 22-year-old Chicago resident took the title Saturday...

NEW ORLEANS - Patrick "Deep Dish" Bertoletti looked down at the litter of empty oyster shells in front of him and savored the sweet taste of victory. For Crazy Legs Conti, the bitter taste of defeat could be washed away only by beer. The Acme World Oyster Eating championship belt — leather, with a silver dish featuring an oyster on the half-shell — hung on Bertoletti's skinny hips. The 22-year-old Chicago resident took the title Saturday by slurping 35 dozen of the big bivalves in eight minutes. "I could probably do a couple dozen more, especially if they were charbroiled,"...

For more than a century, oysters were so plentiful in the waters off New Jersey they were hawked on street corners the same way pretzels or hot dogs are today. But the industry fell on hard times when overharvesting and two strains of disease nearly wiped out the population in the 1960s and again in the 1990s. The steep decline took with it whole communities that depended on the oyster for survival. In recent years, Rutgers University scientists working with disease-resistant oysters and employing new technology have nursed the industry back to health and brought it to the brink of...

MCKINNEY, Texas -- The Collin County Health Department on Friday reported that a Dallas resident died earlier this week after consuming raw oysters at a restaurant in Plano.Oysters can be contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio vulnificus. This bacterium is naturally present in marine environments and does not alter the appearance, taste, or odor of oysters.Among healthy people, ingestion of V. vulnificus can cause vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. In immunocompromised persons, particularly those with chronic liver disease, V. vulnificus can infect the bloodstream, causing a severe and life-threatening illness characterized by fever and chills, decreased blood pressure (septic shock), and...

Biologists have discovered giant invasive oysters that could threaten efforts to restore native oyster species in San Francisco Bay. Government staffers and volunteers removed 256 of the exotic mollusks last week after searching the mudflats between the Dumbarton Bridge and the San Leandro Marina, biologists said Thursday. Scientists have not identified the species, which grow up to 9 inches long and in a variety of shapes. They don't know how the exotic oysters got here or how they could affect the bay if their population expands. Biologists are concerned the monster oysters could take over the best habitat and form...

Excerpts: "What we captured in 2001 was the loss of those mussels and implications for an entire ecosystem," said Brown University ecologist Andrew Altieri, who with biology professor Jon Witman wrote the study published in the March issue of Ecology. "That's instructive for what historic and future losses might be for the Chesapeake." Altieri calculated that the [mussel] reefs were processing the [Narragansett] bay's entire water volume once every 20 days, even though they covered less than 1 percent of the bay floor. Within days, a hypoxic episode triggered by warm weather, low wind and the usual nutrients contributed to...

It doesn't matter what you call them, cooked right, testicles are a treat! If you have any family jewel recipes I've missed, send me a mail.

WELLFLEET — If it’s determined that the decline of the eastern oyster on the Maryland and Virginia coastline represents a “significant portion” of the subspecies, the oyster could be added to the federal endangered species list, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service spokesperson Marta Nammack said Monday. A ban on oystering would significantly affect this town, where shellfish — oysters, in particular — are its biggest industry. Wellfleet oysters are a world-famous delicacy that accounted for more than $2.5 million of the town’s aquaculture, or shellfish farming, industry in 2002. About 100 families in town rely primarily on oysters...

Red tide may be the least of Cape shellfishermen's worries this summer. In May, the National Marine Fisheries Service decided that the Eastern, or American, oyster is a candidate for endangered species status based on a petition they received in January. The agency has until Jan. 11, 2006, to decide. Fisheries service spokeswoman Teri Frady said yesterday her agency was in the process of putting together a panel of experts to study the issue. Eastern oysters are harvested in New England and on the Cape, accounting for more than $1.2 million in revenue for the Cape and islands aquaculture industry...

New Orleans - Sam Uglesich grew up among mariners and fishermen off the coast of Croatia on rocky Dugi Otok, whose name means "long island," surrounded by the azure waters of the Adriatic. Twice he set out for the United States. The first time, he jumped ship in New York, but was caught and sent home. The second time, he made his break in New Orleans, then as now a more permissive city, and got away with it. Naturally enough, he opened a seafood restaurant in his adopted city, specializing in the local shrimp, soft-shell crabs, lake trout and oysters....

Casanova, the 18th century lover who used to breakfast on 50 oysters, has been vindicated by a study that proves they really are aphrodisiacs. And spring, the scientists say, is the time of year the shellfish have their greatest aphrodisiac quality. The team of American and Italian researchers analysed bivalve molluscs - a group of shellfish that includes oysters - and found they were rich in rare amino acids that trigger increased levels of sex hormones. The link was announced to 15,000 scientists in San Diego, California, at a meeting of the American Chemical Society last week. It generated possibly...

In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of “word for the day”. Rules: Everyone must leave a post using the “word of the day”; in a sentence. The sentence must, in some way, relate to the news of the day. ;-) Practice makes perfect.....post on.... gimcrack \JIM-krak\, noun, adjective: gimcrackery; noun 1. A trivial mechanism; a device; a toy; a pretty but useless or worthless object; a gewgaw. 2. Tastelessly showy; cheap; gaudy. The pages in the campaign paper trail released thus far give details on...

The first strike this summer in a much-anticipated “carpet-bombing” campaign to restore native oysters in the Chesapeake Bay has turned out to be a big dud. One million baby oysters, costing about $78,000, were scattered on an artificial reef in June in the Great Wicomico River , near the Virginia-Maryland border, and almost all of the transplants were devoured in one day by a school of cow-nosed rays. The kite-shaped cousins of sting rays, also known as skates or bullfish, are found commonly in the Bay during summer months. “We didn’t really know anything about the cow-nosed ray,” said Doug...

Clarification: Cows Vs. Oysters Story Mar 24, 2004 The Associated Press MARSHALL, Calif. (AP) - In a March 17 story, The Associated Press reported that in 1998 about 170 people got sick after eating raw oysters from Tomales Bay. The story suggested that the origin of the virus was cow manure in runoff from dairy ranches washing into the bay. While the exact source of the -like virus was never determined, scientists believe it came from human waste dumped from a boat or a leaky septic system, according to Gregg Langlois, a marine biologist with the California Department of Health...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Gulf of Mexico oystermen hope that California Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger will repeal his state's ban on raw Gulf oysters that have not been treated for bacterial contamination. Gulf oystermen have threatened to sue California over the ban that was imposed on an emergency basis in April and made permanent in September to prevent deaths from an oyster-borne microbe. "We're going to see if we can get the new governor's administration to concern itself with the issue," said Mike Voisin, chairman of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force. "What I've heard from the Schwarzenegger crew is that they...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.Environmentalists Hope New Breed Will Revive Chesapeake's Shellfish Industry ACCOMAC, Va. -- One million disease-resistant Asian oysters, bred to grow plumper and faster than their native counterparts, are being introduced to the Chesapeake Bay in hopes of reviving the bay's suffering bivalve industry. Stan Allen, a geneticist at the Virginia Institute of Marine sciences, on Monday released fingerling oysters from orange nylon onion sacks into Folly Creek, a bay tributary. Allen has bred the Asian oysters, or Crassostrea ariakensis, to have three chromosomes, which renders them sterile and gives them a growing...

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In an effort to be inclusive, this thread is for nonmetrosexual males (and likeminded women) to advise queer guys on their outfits, decor, vehicles, hairstyles, homes and hobbies. I've outfitted the thread with keywords toward this end.Enjoy.