Mercy Leroux

Happy soon-to-be summer! As a native New-Englander, let’s have a light-hearted post today.

Lobsters, I like them. They’re cute and I have a dream of breaking into the grocery store aquarium and rescuing an entire posse. I’d name one Lord Clawdon, 1st Marquess of Tastings.

I also like lobster rolls (I didn’t say I was morally consistent all the time). Except they’re, y’know, incredibly expensive and if I am lucky I indulge in one every few years.

Which brings me to my favorite “insult” for the British soldiers.

Lobster.

It’s a bit of an odd insult. I get the red color matched their uniforms. I understand Josiah Quincy’s point during the Boston Massacre trials, that “to be compared to the most despicable animal, that crawls upon the earth, was touching indeed a tender point.”

But still, why was being compared to a very expensive, succulent gourmet cuisine such a problem? What makes adorable, prized, delicious lobsters despicable?

Well… because they weren’t gourmet. In Revolutionary times, lobsters were cheap. Like, really cheap. In fact, these little critters were were so abundant, they were considered pauper food.

Now it makes sense.

(Just wait 250 years, y’all, and then “lobster” shall be closer to a compliment than not.)

Next week, we’ll post the cover art and preorder links for Stubborn Things!