Over the weekend, a rare and beautiful lobster was saved from imminent demise: Found in a tank at the Red Lobster in Manassas, the lucky crustacean was plucked out before becoming a main dish. Staff noticed the unique pattern on the shell and, after dubbing their new friend Freckles, arranged to move the special specimen to the Virginia Living Museum in Newport News. It turns out it’s more than just a dazzling shell—Freckles is a calico lobster, one of the rarest in the world, an estimated one in 30 million.
This was, obviously, big news. One in 30 million! So why wasn’t it treated as such by the media? Only a few outlets reported the story, among them Fox 5 and food-culture site the Takeout. The Washington Post? Nope. DCist, Washington City Paper, the Washington Examiner, and Washington Business Journal? All of them slept on the near-miraculous discovery of this creature. And it pains us to admit this, but Washingtonian also missed out of this must-cover event. We have published five stories about cicadas in just the past week, yet we (until now) completely ignored the plight of Freckles. Freckles: We wish you the best in your new home, though we, the Washington media, will probably not really keep following your speckled journey. Sorry, just gotta be honest.
Rosa is a senior editor at Bitch Magazine. She’s written for Washingtonian and Smithsonian magazine.
