December 28, 2004
i got you, Babe
12/28/04
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This is non-tampered, photographic evidence that there are people who will buy and eat pickled pigs lips. I know this because there is a jar, packed by the innocuously dangerous-sounding company "Farm Fresh Food Supplies," which was more than half-empty, signifying that various customers at our rest stop in Alabama have purchased and enjoyed this product.
I know they "purchased" it, because the price is clearly marked: $1.69, I assume, for a pair. There is also a set of tongs nearby, allowing you to access your pig's lips without threat of sticking your hand inside.
I've heard of pickled pig's feet, pig's knuckles, and the other detritus of the porcine body politic; I've been taught that truckers, predominantly of an elder generation, will suck on these body parts as they traverse our country. Yes, I find this disgusting, but I can get behind it as no more repellent than the acquisition of most meat in general.
But sucking on the lips of the pig for hours as you drive? Having your lips attached to those of a long dead - and, I'm told, stunningly smart - animal is a piece of macabre poetry that I didn't know existed. This is why it is important to get out of your house, to take long trips in the wilderness, and to consort, even briefly, with those ideas that would induce waves of horror in the small intellectual circles you call your own.
I am, I believe, a little bit wiser for the experience.
Posted by irw at December 28, 2004 10:28 PMThis is quite odd... just last night some guy I don't know interupted my viewing of UNC's domination over UNC-W at OCSC to ask me about pig lips. I don't think I will get into the details much here except to say that he claimed that there is a "big debate" over what part of the body the lips really are.
Coincidence?
...Oh, and the guy who brought all those disturbing images into my head during the UNC game was not a good Alabama boy... he was from Amsterdam.
>>This is why it is important to get out of your house, to take long trips in the wilderness, and to consort, even briefly, with those ideas that would induce waves of horror in the small intellectual circles you call your own.>>
Ann Coulter seems to share this very idea in her latest book. You should send her some pig's lips in solidarity.
Wow, that is odd. I'm a resident Alabamian and even I've never heard of such a thing. Hope you enjoyed the scenery, though. Which part did you drive through?
Tim-
Oh, the power of the internet... this is the very store:
http://www.stuckeys.com/store_detail.php?id=54
It's a Stuckey's stuck inside a gas station. I will say the vendors were particularly nice at this stop.
My prior significant other (before I met my beloved wife) was dorm buddies with Jay Stuckey, a scion of the Stuckeys chain...at Brown University in the 80s. She had a cassette of his punk rock band. Wonder if they served pig lips at the Brown cafeteria?
You wouldn't have to speculate on how they tasted if you'da plunked down $1.69 smackers for those lip-smacking lip-smackers. Now you'll never know what it's like to be kissing on Arnold's kisser. Next time, you know what you're gonna have to do, cowboy. Suuueeeeyyyyy...t.
Where stuckey's fears to tread:
Not just for good ol' boys, popular in Mexico too.
Pig lips are delicious. I'm from New Orleans, pig lips with a bag of chips is a great snack. You really shouldn't know it until you've tried it.
Everyone should experience a few things in New Orleans:
Mardi Gras
The French Quarters
Beignets-french donuts
Crawfish
Pig lips
I think everyone should experience alligator-on-a-stick, too.
I once gave a jar of pickled pig lips as a "gag" gift, and I always keep a jar on the shelf for those times that arrive when you need a spur-of-the-moment gift.
I gave a card and a jar of lips to someone for her 40th birthday celebration. She opened the card before the gift. I wrote on the card: "If anyone gives you grief about turning 40, sock 'em and give 'em a big, fat lip!!!"