Musashi wrote on Wed, 21 Mar 2007 15:03:03 GMT:

M> I've cleaned eel more times than I can remember. If you're
M> used to cleaning fish in general
M> it's easy in principle. The only difference is the degree of
M> slime which requires that the head be nailed
M> to the cutting board. Also the fact that an eel caught 6
M> hours ago is likely to be
M> still alive and is going to do everything it can to avoid
M> getting nailed to that board.

That reminds me of when my grand-father caught an eel and
several other fish and my grand-mother decided to clean them.
She said the eel had tried to bite her and did not speak to
Grandpa for weeks! Mind you, his natural experiments often got
him into trouble. He would also make wine from a lot of
different fruits and once bottled a batch before fermentation
was complete. Grandma did not talk to Grandpa until two weeks
after the bottles stopped exploding!

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not