The last Title had to go so...

*needle scratch*

Cormorant fishing in Yangshuo near Guilin, Guangxi, China. Christian Vaisse

Most cormorant fishermen are essentially historical re-enactors, who post for photos for money. Sort of like the Elmo guys in Times Square, if they dressed up as pilgrims.

Lao Huang, photographed here by Peter Yan, actually grew up doing real cormorant fishing for a living. He's now retired, and does this more as a hobby (although he does make a good income from breeding the birds). As such, he's one of the few remaining authentic links to this pre-industrial fishing technique.

More photos and an interview with the photographer

If the food came out of a can before the cooking, can it be recanned again or does that start edging into silly unsafe food conditions...

I, local family's resident literature fine arts and weird dead animals dork, have been having ENDLESS fun at his expense on this

Me: Well I'd have to do some research to be sure but if it didn't have a practical purpose and it wasn't a spiritual thing then my best guess is that it was either a novelty that had suddenly been introduced and found appealing, or it came to represent an important facet of the culture that suddenly gained relevance

Him: So why did it stop

Me: Fashions swing from one extreme to the other. People seek out what is desirable and unique, which is almost always unique because it's not produced or available very much. If enough people jump onto that bandwagon, demand goes up, so whoever can invent a way to get more or make more will make a killing. Once this innovation meets demand, the rhing will become commonplace, and no longer new or exciting. If it happens to be perfectly suited to a particular niche or image then it will become timeless as long as that niche or image is relevant, but the majority will move in the opposite direction once they hit the greatest possible extreme.

Him: That's stupid

Me: War is stupid. Ask grandma why she doesn't throw out old nylons and keeps turning old rags into bath mats

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2) Her work is all really awesome! And she’s got a ton of short stories available for free online. Some of my favorites:

“Bluebeard’s Wife” -- what would happen if a woman Bluebeard married just didn’t look in the room?

“The Dryad’s Shoe” -- an aroace Cinderella who has zero interest in the ball or the prince but does love gardening

“Jackalope Wives” -- takes the skinshifting conceit of selkies and applies it to jackalopes (folkloric horned rabbits) in the American Southwest. Also stars the absolutely iconic Grandma Harken, whose left to clean up the mess when her grandson tries to catch himself a jackalope wife. This one won a bunch of awards and there’s an audio version read by LeVar Burton.

“Sun Moon Dust” -- a young farmer inherits a sword bound to the souls of three warriors, all ready to teach him to be a hero... but he has no desire to be anything but a farmer. A very sweet M/M story!

“The Seventh Bride” which I love

you tricksy woman!!!