Lobsters Invade Maine Libraries, Kill Submarines

The secret life of Vera,
revealed

The public libraries of midcoast Maine chose The Kite Runner for last year's community read. This year the official selection for the 2006 Midcoast Maine Community Read was THE SECRET LIFE OF LOBSTERS.

Over the course of the winter, the libraries circulated about 600 copies of the book. This month, they hosted several weeks of lobster-themed events. On March 15th I gave back-to-back talks at two of the libraries.

What a blast! The library buildings were decorated inside with all manner of lobster of paraphernalia -- including actual lobster traps.

March Madness:
30 lobster-themed events

One of the children's librarians -- Vera -- marked the occasion by wearing her lobster hat and earrings and a bright red outfit. She was boiling over with enthusiasm. And the library staff were all equipped with SECRET LIFE OF LOBSTERS lapel badges.

Eighty people came to the first talk and 120 attended the second. I showed them my collection of underwater videos of lobsters and we talked about lobster love, science, and fishing.

After the evening talk, a young man with a military haircut approached me and explained that he was based at the nearby Brunswick Naval Air Station, and that he flew in a squadron that hunted submarines -- Commander Patrol and Reconnaissance Wing Five, to be exact.

He told me he was nervous. I'd made a joke during my talk about how I tried to avoid accummulating lobster paraphernalia. Well, he'd brought something to give me.

Sub killer

He need not have worried. Take a close look: it wasn't paraphernalia. It was one of the best lobster gifts I'd ever received: the patrol wing's squadron patch. What an honor.

Remember the scene at the beginning of THE SECRET LIFE OF LOBSTERS -- true story -- when a lobster attacks a nuclear submarine? Wow.