Lethal Dose

As I mentioned earlier, it’s National Shrimp Day (I really want to find out who the person is that decides these things, like hurricane names.) Anyway, I’ve always been intrigued by Elvis’ movie affection for shellfish and I got around to thinking if I could interview him “on the other side,” I would ask him questions like:

“Do you really like clams? Were you thinking of anything in particular when you were singing ‘Do the Clam’? … and did you know that it was co-written by Ed Wood’s pal, Dolores Fuller? Did you ever get to meet Ed? Did you ever have a clambake at Graceland or Beverly Hills? If Ed Wood had shown up in an angora sweater, would you have let him stay?”

“What about the ‘Shrimp Boat Song’? Or ‘Crawfish’ … do you even like shellfish? You also covered ‘Jambalaya.’ If you had lived, would you have considered covering ‘Rock Lobster’ or ‘Pulling Mussels from a Shell’? How about ‘Crab Man’ from ‘Porgy and Bess?’”

“Did you ever buy Lisa Marie Sea Monkeys?”

and the one question no one has ever been able to answer:

“What is “Polk Salad” that Annie picks a mess of and brings it home and cooks it for supper, ’cause that’s about all they had to eat? I know “they did alright” so it wasn’t poisonous, but what is it?”

PS. Reader Frank sends this link about the Polk Salad Capital of East Tennesee.