Yet another lobster tale...

One afternoon, my good friend Dwayne and I (Yes, he is a character in yet another lobster tale.) were standing transfixed by the amazing expense of live lobster in a tank at a super market in British Columbia (west part of Canada), when we were approached by a friendly and eager young store clerk who asked us if we needed any help. 

We explained that we were just looking and, as she was rather cute, we carried on the conversation a bit further into the topic of lobsters and the cooking of them. 

She told us about how she learned to make lobsters "go to sleep," before putting them in the pot, as she felt uncomfortable just putting them in whilst still moving about. This involved curling the lobster's tail under itself and stroking it until it stops moving. 

"Dwayne," I asked, "if I remember correctly, those tiny paddle-like legs on the underside of a lobster's tail are its gills, are they not?" Being a brighter fellow than myself, with a biochem degree to prove it, I can usually count on him to at least have an educated guess about such things. 

"Yep," he affirmed, just moments before sprouting a wicked grin, showing that he just realized the implications of the situation. 

Alas, the poor cherubic store clerk's face flooded with dismay when I asked her, "Did you realize that, when you curl the lobster's tail under like that, you're effectively suffocating the lobster to death before plunking it in?" 

Dwayne and I can be such bastards...