Culture

But what about Loch Ness?

I’m a little behind on my fun blog reads, due to travel and Shabbat and Pesach, but if you haven’t yet seen this conversation, it’s great.
An interview with Ann VanderMeet (bat/bar mitzvah teacher; editor of of Weird Tales, co-editor of New Weird and Steampunk) on which imaginary or fantastical animals would be kosher.

ET – A: “…..?” EM: “It had cloven hooves.” A: “It’s a humanoid.” EM: “It looked like a pile of dung. It seemed to chew cud. Would any alien be automatically un-kosher?” A: “I guess it really depends on the alien–like a plant?” EM: “An alien that comes down to Earth.” A: “No, because they wouldn’t be considered an animal.” EM: “What if they looked just like a cow, but with a brain?” A: “Cows have brains.” EM: “Arggh!” A: “But cows don’t travel to other planets using their brains.” EM: “My point exactly!” A: “Anything intelligent is not kosher.”
Mermaid – A: “No, for the obvious reasons.” EM: “What if you marry one? Is that kosher? Will a rabbi marry you?” A: “Kosher is a term about eating, not about sex.” EM: “I’m not talking about sex–I’m talking about marriage!” A: “If the mermaid is Jewish, the rabbi will probably marry you. But only if you’re Jewish too. But you’ll definitely have to find the right rabbi…”
Mongolian Death Worm – A: “No, because you cannot eat anything that crawls on its belly.” EM: “Does that mean an injured kosher animal that is crawling along isn’t kosher any more?” A: “Yes, because you can’t eat an animal that’s been injured or is sick.” EM: “It’s a wonder you haven’t all starved to death.”

The full list can be found here. There’s also a great deal of comments/discussion over at Boing Boing.
I’m in the mountains now; I’ll see if I can find a sasquatch to snack on…

4 thoughts on “But what about Loch Ness?

  1. If you do meet Sasquatch, it’s more likely that he’ll be nibbling on you rather than the other way around. Then again, people aren’t kosher either. Try telling that to Sasquatch.

  2. Thanks, Siviyo. Last Trumpet’s posting of this only just showed up for me. (I’ll have a stern talkin’ with my RSS reader now.)
    And roskhl, so far no Sasquatch sitings. But if I do spot him/her, I’ll blog about it (after I sell the story to a tabloid for big money).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.