Eating bugs

I saw Jay Leno last night. I'm usually a Letterman girl, but I was buried under a pile of notes and books and didn't bother to dig out to change the channel when Leno came on. But, I digress. One of Leno's guests, Andrew Zimmern, came with a host of bizarre foods (bugs, testicles, etc.) for Jay and the other guest, Dan Rather, to try. Mr. Zimmern talked about how trying these foods is one way to experience different cultures.

This all reminded me of the last time I chomped on a fried bug. It was during undergrad in Dr. Steve Smith's cultural anthropology course. I was not a sociology major, but this was one of my favorite courses. One day, Dr. Smith passed around a can of fried insects. Unfortunately, I don't remember all of the specifics. I think that they were crickets and a favorite snack food of Japanese kids. They were salty. Although I'm a little fuzzy on the details, I am grateful for the experience. It represents the best of my liberal arts education. I learned to think about things--bugs and other cultures--differently. Hell, I just learned to think.

Dr. Smith and the creepy-crawly snack prepared me well for my future. I thank Mr. Zimmern for reminding me of the lesson.
And, more importantly, I thank Dr. Smith for teaching me.