Plate o' shrimp

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Sunday, November 15, 2009

Two weeks ago I had never heard of seabuckthorn. Suddenly, it's everywhere.

I mention seabuckthorn at work, and my colleague brings in a bottle of the juice for me to try. (It smells kind of funny, but tastes quite nice.) Next, my friend in Finland informs me that she's just purchased some baby food in seabuckthorn flavor. Frank comes home from the grocery and reports having seen seabuckthorn wine. Then an e-mail from my Armenian friend: "Do you know that sea-buckthorn is quite common in ... sunny Armenia?! The well-made juice of it is fantastic!" Frank brings home the latest UB Post and there, on the front page, is a picture of school children receiving bottles of seabuckthorn juice to ward off Swine Flu. And finally, a trip to the market today revealed a new product for sale. What could it be? Bags of seabuckthorn berries.


It rather puts me in mind of the 1984 cult movie "Repo Man" when Miller says:

"A lot o' people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch o' unconnected incidents 'n things. They don't realize that there's this, like, lattice o' coincidence that lays on top o' everything. Give you an example, show you what I mean: suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, "plate," or "shrimp," or "plate o' shrimp" out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconsciousness."

Throughout the rest of the movie, "plate o' shrimp specials" show up everywhere. As you may know, I don't see many movies, but Repo Man is one of my favorites.

See my 2 other posts on seabuckthorn:
King of Fruits?
Swine flu diet