The Big Oyster 2 Flashcards
right side (oyster anatomy)
the flat top shell of an oyster
“And unlike clams and mussels, their two shells are different annd they always rest on the deeper more curved one. To a scallop this would seem to be upside down, but this distinction makes it possible for oysters to be shipped live with the cupped side down, which keeps the liquor, the natural juice from seeping out and keeps them alive in their shells.”
MD I’m like an oyster and I sleep on my left side and my right side is the flat top part
left side (oyster anatomy)
the curved bottom shell of an oyster
Humans, insects, fish, and even most bivalves are symmetrical. The oyster is, too, until it attaches the left shell, which then becomes misshapen like a poorly shod foot, sagging to form a cup in which the animal can rest.” (47)
MD - I am like an oyster, I sleep on my left side.
detractor
n. a person who disparages someone or something.
“Colder water tends to produce oysters that fans call more flavorful and detractors call too strong.” (47)
MD - The word tractor was taken from Latin, being the agent noun of trahere “to pull”. Detract - opposite of pull, to push away by disparaging
picture of a tractor pulling, the colder water oysters finding them more flavorful. The detractors does the opposite, push them away saying they are too strong.
micron
n. a unit of length equal to one millionth of a meter, used in many technological and scientific fields.
“american oyster, begins as a fertilized egg about fifty microns or two thousandth of an inch in diameter-a creature invisible to the naked eye.”
MD
centimeter - 1/100, 1 hundredth of a meter
millimeter - 1/1000, 1 thousandth of a meter
micron - 1/1,000,000, 1 millionth of a meter
nanometer - 1/1,000,000,000, 1 billionth of a meter
50/1,000,000 = 1/20,000 of a meter
When do oysters spawn?
centigrade
n. another term for Celsius
“Spawning occurs when water temperature rises above twenty degrees centigrade, sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit, which usually happens in New England in midsummer, and slightly earlier in New York.” (48)
MD - CEntigrade = CElcius
oysters shoving their gametes out of their shells shove sh- 6 v - 8 at 68 degrees Fahrenheit
cilium (sing), cilia (plural)
n. a short, microscopic, hairlike vibrating structure. Cilia occur in large numbers on the surface of certain cells, either causing currents in the surrounding fluid, or, in some protozoans and other small organisms, providing propulsion.
“It takes only a few hours for a fertilized egg to become a swimming larva. The larva moves through the water with fast-swimming threadlike organs called cilia.”
MD -
hamstring
v. cripple (a person or animal) by cutting their hamstrings.
” ‘A fresh oyster on the half-shell is no more dead than an ox that has been hamstrung.’ If the oyster is opened carefully, the diner is eating an animal with a working brain, a stomach, intestines, liver, and a still-beating heart.” (52)
MD - hamstring bean - cutting making it crippled. hamstring a string bean. severe its hamstrings to make it immobile.
ecology
n. the branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.
“In his brilliant study of the role of oysters in Chesapeake Bay, published in 1891 before the word ecology was in use, William K Brooks said, “In the oyster we have an animal, most nutritious and palatable, especially adapted for living in the soft mud of bays and estuaries, and for gathering up the microscopic inhabitants and turning them into food for man.’ “ (55)
MD Mercy, Mercy me (The Ecology) - Marvin Gaye sings about “fish full of mercury”
mantle
Mantle
Two fleshy folds of tissue that cover the internal organs of the oyster and are always in contact with the shells but not attached to them. Its principal role is the formation of the shells and the secretion of the ligament as well as playing a part in other biological functions (i.e., sensory reception, egg dispersal, respiration, reserve stores, and excretion).
“the mantle that sends out warnings to the oyster brain also creates the shell. It produces a first pearly layer of shell and throughout the animals’s life constantly creates new shells, each a little larger than the one before. That is why an oyster shell looks like many paper-thin layers pressed together.” (56)
acrid
adjective
having an irritatingly strong and unpleasant taste or smell: acrid fumes.
“The smoke of burning lime was thick and acrid, and an increasing number of New Yorkers believed that it could not be healthy to be breathing it in.” (80)
applejack
n.
an alcoholic drink distilled from fermented cider.
“It was sometimes claimed that alcohol was a substituted for the increasingly foul New York drinking water, which came from wells and natural streams until the first pipelines were installed in 1799.” (86)
Lake Champlain
a lake in North America, east of the Adirondack Mountains. It forms part of the border between the states of New York and Vermont, and its northern tip extends into Quebec, Canada.
bushel
n. a unit of measure for volume used for dry goods.
dredge
n. an apparatus for bringing up objects or mud from a river or seabed by scooping or dragging.
“An oyster dredge dragged a heavy bar along the bed with a netting basket behind it.”
sedentary
n. characterized by much sitting and little physical exercise.
“This is because farmed animals, including fish, have been penned into a sedentary way of life and are being fed food rather than foraging in the wild.”
