twenty questions: Seattle version

Hey, honey.  You know in Seattle, there's a sound?

Yeah?

Why do they call it a sound?

It's really deep.

Is a sound just like a bay?

Yeah, but deep.

Is the bay around the bay area shallow?

They dredge it.  They dredge it by the bridges.

They do that so the boats don't get stuck?

Yeah.

Otherwise, the bay would fill up?

It gets a lot of silt from the San Joaquin River and Sacramento River.

Oh.  Is that bad?

Well, silt can create more land.

And that means there can be more room for people?

No--you can't really live on silt.  It shifts around too much in earthquakes.

You use it to grow stuff'?  You use it to grow marsh-mellows?

No!

How about marshMALlows?

[laughter]

Are there marshmallows in marsh-mellows?

I dunno.

Okay, so the clams.  When we were at that rainforest place where the clams are shooting the water out, where was that?  Was that right by Seattle?

It wasn't that far.

Are those clams all over the place?

Yeah.

Is there pollution?

Probably.

Do the clams taste good?  Did you eat them?

Yeah, I ate them.  But then I stopped because I didn't know how old they were.

You were afraid to eat an old clam named Ming?

Yeah!

Are you not wanting to eat old clams because they've had a lot of years to accumulate toxins, or out of respect for your elders?

[laughter] Both!

I had clam chowder before, and the clams just tasted like chewy nothing.  I think it was the ingredients around the clams that made them taste good.

***

Can't even remember why I was asking about this.  The special clams, Seattle.  I'd like to go up there again.