soft as silk

So Alan's cousin Walter came to visit us lately and was entertaining us with stories of his international travels. One story was about in Thailand (or something) there were street vendors that sold cups of boiled silkworms, and people would eat them like popcorn while walking around down town and hanging out and things. Maybe it's the people I consort with, but I never know if someone is telling me the truth, or trying to get me to buy a big load of the stinky stuff. (or maybe it's because I, myself, so often wind a yarn of untruth in the name of entertainment)--anyway, I thought it was gross and moved on.
I do happen to love silk and especially the raw silk, it feels great and smells like tea. Lately I have been wondering how silk is made. When I was in kindergarten, our class had "pet" silkworms, and they wove cute little silken cocoons, but surely, this can't be the way silk is commercially produced--can it?!? Well, after some diligent research (I use the term loosely--more like 10 minutes on google) I have found out, that is indeed the way silk is made. Now, don't think you're getting away without hearing all fo the gory details.... These are called worms, but look like one of those giant green horned (nasty) caterpillars that hang out all over our tomato vines in California, except they are whitish. They only live for a brief time, when they molt a bunch and eventually spin their glorious silk cocoon. Now the good stuff: if the worm finishes this process, they turn into a worthless moth (no-really completely worthless, they can't fly or anything) and eat their way out of the cocoon. When this happens, it breaks the valuable thread that the cocoon was. SO---before this can happen, they boil the whole damn thing, thus killing the worm and making the silk thread easier to unravel. Then they eat said worm, or possibly sell them to folks on the street, great sorce of protein it is said. You can also grow your own silk worms--if their plight saddens you deeply enough that you are moved to activism...and then let them hatch and use the holey cocoon to spin yarn or whatever. That being said, I do think it's a little sad, but I still like silk, so there you have it.
Here's the funny part, here we are, well into out second month of a near vegan diet, and I thought everything was going well. I mean, sure, we have eaten a few "new" things (read as wierd, but tasty). Tonight, as I was "researching" silkworms on the internet, Alan walk in and turns a bit green. "What are you doing?" he asks slowly. "I'm learning about silkworms", I cheerfully reply. "Why" he wants to know. "I was wondering about the origin of silk" says me. "ok" he says, and then drops the bomb....."I was afraid we were going to have to eat them". As if I'm actaully that crazy.. (well, today I'm not) Just one last thing I would like to leave you with before I go. It is a website I came across in my studies, you HAVE to check it out. I will want to talk to you about it later, so do it. (and be glad we live in America, where a quarter pounder is about the grossest thing going) https://www.thailandunique.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_13&products_id=29
I'm out-j
ps--leave some comments already, I know you're stalking me and trying to hide it--loser