From 9/27/01</font id=blue>
I can recall those rainy winter Saturday afternoons as a child sitting in the den with my father watching a good old John Wayne western and sipping hot chocolate. John Wayne would say, “I tell you pilgrim, if you don’t drop your weapon and skin out of here there’s going be trouble.” Right then, just as it was getting ready to get good, the TV station would cut to one of those 3 minute infommercials. “That’s right folks, and if you order now you will receive not 1 but 6 extra Ginsu knives plus a Solo-Flex home gym, the DR Field and Brush Mower, the complete set of Best of the Jackson Five on 8 track, and Oprah Winfrey’s latest book, How I Lost 150 Pounds and Gained 200 Pounds Back In 3 Days, all for only $19.95. But wait that’s not all…”
A couple of weeks back I stopped in to the Reel Johns to pick up some tackle for an upcoming trip. While I was talking to Ken Suggs and Dee Oliver I noticed a small white plastic device sitting out on display. I picked up the device and was checking it out, and finally I turned to Dee and said “Okay, you got me on this one, what is it?” Dee replied, “that is a shrimp peeler and de-veiner.” I looked at Dee and laughed, “You are pulling my leg right Dee?”
Immediately I started trying to think if we had had any recent rainy Saturdays. “Do you watch many John Wayne movies Dee?”, I asked. Dee looked at me like I was crazy and replied “No why?” Still puzzled I asked him, “Do you own any Ginsu knives?” Now he was really looking at me funny. Finally I asked, “What did you get for free if you ordered right away?” “The Jackson Five Collection?” Dee picked up on my strange reaction and realized that I was a skeptic.
“That’s okay Tim, I understand you are skeptical, but watch.” Dee pulled a headed shrimp from a cooler behind the counter, dropped the shrimp into the Shrimp Butler and slid the handle. He then removed the shrimp, and the device had split the shrimp perfectly down the center of it’s back. The vein was removed and it loo