I’ve only had caviar a few times. I’m pretty sure the stuff that cost ~$3 in Hungary in 1994 wasn’t legit, but I’m counting it. It was delicious – though bright orange. It was some sort of egg. Maybe just eggs from the nyekladhaza tok where I frequently swam.
I had it at some party too. I forget where. But then someone mentioned whatever it was that they were serving was caviar, and like the time I couldn’t pass up eating free lobster at Larry’s 50th birthday party in Madison, I ran over there just to try it. And then consumed probably more than my share… It was good. It’s basically salt with a gelatinous texture and a hint of fish flavor, but… as you can already tell, there is a reason I’ll never be a food critic. (Speaking of which, perhaps, and just perhaps, food critic and taste-testing is one of the most stable professions to be in right now? It will take a while for a Tesla bot to outdo a human on that, I imagine. Then again, people like me think fish eggs are delicious – maybe we humans are the crazy ones?!)
I spent my teen years living on Lake Superior – literally, as in it was 20 meters across the street. My city decided to subsidize and build a giant freshwater aquarium celebrating Lake Superior and local fish – The Great Lakes Aquarium.
I don’t bring this up to imply that city planners and politicians trying to get reelected should never be allowed to make long-term public business decisions on behalf of the community – though I do mean that. Rather, even though everyone an aquarium showing trout and walleye that are in almost all 15,000+ lakes in Minnesota would not draw a crowd just because they added a large sturgeon to the tank, the mascot they created for the aquarium became one of my all-time favorites! If they had t-shirts with this mascot, I would buy five. (I tend to hoard clothing items I really like and worry I’ll never get replicas of. It’s weird!)
Alas, like a scene from a Robert Zemeckis movie, if he created Back to the Future, as I can’t be bothered to check my memory on this, the Surgeon General has been erased… from history! (In other words, I can’t be bothered to go look up the director of a movie, but I can spend an hour searching Google and Wikimedia for images from before the digital camera era of a person in a giant sturgeon costume dressed as a general. He has now become merely a mythical and legendary mascot even though I recall shaking the General’s hand one day at a community event. (Perhaps this is how UAP/UFO observers feel when no one believes them?)
Without further ado, a map for National Caviar Day – which I will note, seems somewhat strange, because I don’t think the market for caviar is huge in the US, and you might as well go all out with an international day, but whatever, maybe the former-Duluth mayor that thought it was a good idea to build a freshwater aquarium is now in charge of the US Caviar Lobby Group?
Happy National Caviar Day everyone! Long live the Sturgeon General!
P.S. I found a drawing of the Sturgeon General in an archived Lake Superior Magazine article, where the journalist actually sat down and interviewed the Sturgeon General himself. A fascinating read and look at 1990s, pre-internet marketing in many ways.
Article is linked here, but this is not the Sturgeon General I remember! This is a mere caricature of his greatness!
View map here
Web Mapper Prompt
Create an interactive web map titled **“Black Pearls: A Global Atlas of Caviar and Sturgeon.”**
The map should celebrate National Caviar Day while presenting caviar through four connected themes: geography, sturgeon biology, aquaculture, and conservation. The experience should feel luxurious and refined, but it must remain educational, scientifically responsible, and transparent about data quality.
### Core concept
Begin with a dark global perspective of the northern hemisphere showing major sturgeon rivers, inland seas, coastal habitats, aquaculture regions, and documented caviar-producing locations. Avoid making political boundaries the dominant visual element. Instead, emphasize river systems, watersheds, species ranges, and production geographies.