Noodle Soup Not So Tasty...

I have always prided myself on providing what I think are off-topic, interesting attention-getting posts here on my blog - I shall not disappoint today.

Just when you thought I would be commenting on the death of uber actor Jerry Orbach, or the devestation from the recent tsunami that continues to tear a hole in the pavement as people's jaws drop, I have a startling revelation that may just open your eyes.

Today I found out what "noodling" means:

Do you know? I didn't think so.

Is it perhaps a new kind of "soup terrorism" taking the nation by storm - creating lines the likes of which have never been seen by St. Louis Bread Companies?

No.

Perhaps it's yet another slang term for doing the nasty, the ol' blanket drill, diving in the dark, giving attention to the plumbing, having a bit of the giblet, horizontal refreshment, tooli -- you get the drift.

No. That's not it either.

"Noodling" or "hogging" is the art of catching fish with your bare hands - something I knew nothing about until my recent visit to USAToday this afternoon during lunch hour.

The state of Missouri has apparently OK'd this "act" in several counties and according to the article:

"The commission agreed to a June 1-July 15 season, during which handfishers who have bought a $7 permit can use only their bare hands and feet to catch a daily total of five catfish. Fish under 22 inches long must be thrown back.

Handfishing will be legal only along specified stretches of the Fabius, St. Francis and Mississippi rivers."

What's the hullabaloo all about? Apparently conservationists are concerned that fish that are of the appropriate "sexual age" are going to be taken during the process which will significantly effect the population of Missouri's rivers. I suppose I can see that.

Where else but on this big o'l blue call, can you charge someone $7 for for a license putting their hands in dirty river water?

Ahhh, American ingenuity and commerce at work.