Neither Fish Nor Flesh
Here's how Answers.com defines a popular idiom about fish, fowl, and flesh:
Also, neither fish nor flesh; neither fish, flesh, nor fowl. Not one or the other, not something fitting any category under discussion. For example, They felt he was neither fish nor fowl--not qualified to lead the department, yet not appropriate to work as a staff member either. This expression appeared in slightly different form in John Heywood's 1546 proverb collection ("Neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring") and is thought to allude to food for monks ( fish, because they abstained from meat), for the people (flesh, or meat), and for the poor (red herring, a very cheap fish).
Today the economic blog of the Middle East Media Research Institute has a fascinating and utterly tragic post about fish and flesh in today's Baghdad. It is entitled "Consumption of Fish in Iraq and its Drawbacks"
Consumption plays an important role in economics, environmentalism and geographical analysis, but we are not about to engage our readers in the full theory of consumption. Rather, we wish to highlight one type of consumption that illustrates the many tragic dilemmas facing the Iraqi people.The name Baghdad invokes many romantic associations for the people of the Middle East. Among Iraqis, Baghdad has also been famous for a particularly tasty local fish—the masgoof –a delicate fish freshly brought from the Tigris River, broiled to perfection on wood fire, and served in the many restaurants on Abu-Nuwas Street, a street named after one of the great jesters of Khalif Harun al-Rashid, the khalif who built the city of Baghdad. Abu-Nawas Sreet was once famous for its restaurants, entertainment establishments and cabarets.
One effect of the violence in the country has been a debate, from both a religious and public health perspective, about the consumption of the fish from the Tigris. The fish in the river are now engaged in a feeding frenzy, for the waters of the Tigris are now rich with floating corpses –the mutilated, sometimes beheaded remains of torture victims.
It is rumored in Baghdad that clerics have issued fatwas (religious edicts) against the consumption of flesh-eating fish. Other clerics have been less restrictive by permitting the consumption of a fish if no human body parts are found inside it. Following their instincts most Iraqis have stopped consuming the fish altogether.
So now, in Iraq, it is no longer the price of the fish or its quality, but what might be found inside it that determines the propensity of its consumption. An interesting twist on the theory of consumption.
One can only begin to wonder what PETA, the radical vegan and animal rights organization, would make of this sad state of affairs. They previously asked Pamela Anderson to implore US citizens to end "Kentucky Fried Cruelty" and to "Give Fur the Cold Shoulder." Maybe now PETA could have her ask ordinary Iraqis "Give Masgoof the Finger (Not a Finger.)" Better yet, she could implore the militiamen, insurgents, and terrorists to "Find other Fish to Fry."
Links: Carnival of the Insanities