Follow my thoughts...Houghton to Orange Roughy.

I was trying to explain how far Houghton is from Milwaukee. So I was looking at Michigan on Google maps. And Mackinaw caught my eye...

My Wisconsin-native coworker is adamant that Mackinaw and Mackinac are pronounced differently. Which is irritating for 2 reasons.
1. They aren't. Both are pronounced "naw".
2. I'm from Michigan. She's from Wisconsin. Mackinaw is in my state so it is pronounced the way I say. I'm not even getting into the proper spelling of Cheboygan...

So I then went to http://www.m-w.com/. Which also has the handy tool of pronouncing words for you. Which proves the correct pronunciation is naw" Listen here yourself: http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?ggmack02.wav=Mackinac It's silly I have to prove this, but...

I also searched Mackinaw. And found out there is such a thing as a Mackinaw Trout. Which is described as 'a large dark North American char '. Char? They just aired an episode of Iron Chef where they were cooking Arctic Char, I wonder if they are related...

So I search Arctic Char. Same genus, different species. But the wiki entry also refers to 'the Monterey Bay Aquarium "Seafood Watch" program. So I look that up...

And find this very cool Seafood choice guide. http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_regional.aspx Which makes me very happy as I can remember a few eat/don't eat fish rules, I can rarely keep them straight and this comes as a printable pocket guide too. Did you know...

Orange Roughy is on the avoid list. See the notes from the site below.

Orange Roughy
This deep sea fish, once known as the “slimehead,” grows very slowly and doesn’t reproduce until it’s 20 years old.

Consumer Note: Orange roughy live 100 years or more—so the fillet in your freezer might be from a fish older than your grandmother!

Health Alert: Environmental Defense Fund has issued a health advisory for orange roughy due to high levels of mercury.

Summary: Unfortunately, years of heavy fishing have decimated orange roughy populations. Although fishery management plans are now in place, it’ll take decades for this slow-growing fish to recover. Another concern with orange roughy is the way it’s caught—by bottom trawling. This fishing method can damage the seafloor habitat, and we don’t know what impacts that damage might have on fragile deep sea ecosystems.

Have a nice day.

I had to ruin another person's day today. She was sure the qwerty in the qwerty keyboard was the inventor's last name. Because her 3rd grade teacher said so. I think teachers get bored and make crap up all the time. Or maybe it's just this: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/09/03/state/n182420D74.DTL&type=science Actually my Mom used to have fun doing that to me. The inventor is C.L. Slope by the way and he invented in in Milwaukee.