interview Head of State to have feet eat by flesh-eat fish on national television. This kind of thing only happen to women.

Stories like this just sort of amaze me. I realize there's this spa culture of pedicures and manicures and facials and whatnot out there, but I just don't get it. I have a stylist who gives me an awesome low maintenance haircut every 2 months. Once in a blue moon when my eyebrows escape the control of my tweezing, I go to the local beauty school and have them waxed for $7. That's really all I ever need other people (or fish!) to do for me.

Am I the only woman like this? Has everyone else bought into this weird idea of pampering oneself by paying other people to attend to one's personal hygiene? I just don't get it.

The thought of having fish nibble on the dead skin of my feet makes all the hair on my arm stand straight up. I cringe thinking of it. If it were given as a gift, I'd definitely regift...and fast.

As to spa days, Lurker, I'm with you. I have done a few, usually as a big day for one of my friends.

I'd rather spend the day lounging around the pool with friends drinking than lounge around the same pool and have to go get up and get my toenails done and then my pores cleaned by a bored woman who wants to sell me a $100 lip treatment balm.

I don't find it that fun, let alone rewarding.

If the process is effective, why not? Some doctors are already using maggots (grown in a sterile environment) to clean wounds, since they only eat dead tissue and do a very good job of it. I have a horror of bugs, so I'd find the maggots revolting, but the main problem I see with the fish treatment is that it would probably tickle.

Next thing you know they'll be inventing leeches.

Leeches are used these days to drain blood from swollen faces, limbs and digits after reconstructive surgery. The FDA has classified them as live medical devices.

Fish pedicures are trendy right now in Asia. Some of the modern Japanese Onsen (Japanese baths) have them. I didn't have to pay extra for mine--I just had to wait in line for a while, because every group of people could only go for 15 minutes--and then there was a fifteen minutes downtime for the fish. The fish do get satiated, you see! Anyway, I had to persuade my 8 year old son to go for it; he was worried that he would be devoured "Piranah" style. When it was our turn, however,my children scarcely got a nibble, and I got a few cursory munches(it does feel like tickling) since an old man was sitting next to us and the fish were just swarming around his scaley, peeling feet. I understand they're doing things a bit differently in the States and are separating people for hygenic reasons. Good thing, too. Otherwise, eveyone would get the once over from their neighbors to see if their disreputable feet would be luring all of "their" fish!

Shouldn't that be "Carp Pedes"?

I understand foot massages, but is this procedure supposed to make your feet feel better or look better, or is it just the latest way by which people are separated from their money?

As for the animal rights aspect, I suppose if the fish are well cared for, then eating peoples' feet is fine (and even a wee bit of karmic justice), but it is not cool that 7000 fish died. If this is going to become another exploitative industry where live animals are treated like disposable goods, then forget about it.

I'd be scared to poison the fish.

Reading the PETA article, the problem is that the water is heated beyond the fish's optimal range. Carp are not tropical fish, but here they are in water heated to 94 degrees Fahrenheit for the client's comfort. Carp don't like temperatures much higher than the low 70s. Fishermen are counseled not to "catch and release" carp in the hot summer months, as water temperatures above 70 make it harder for the fish to recover from the shock, and even more fish than usual die instead of survive.

Apparently the salon in question cooked hundreds of fish till they died, then ordered more.

I have no problem with fish eating dead skin off my feet if it's not harmful to the fish. If I was dangling my feet in a pond and the fish thought my dead skin cells a good snack, it's good for me and it's good for the fish. It's the rest of this situation that doesn't work - switching from one tank to another, heating them up, and unapologetic mass slaughter.

Once again animals suffer and die due to human recklessness. The only silver lining here is that carp are expensive (as far as I know), and for too many people who value greed above compassion, that might be the only thing which saves future carp from those others' terrible fate.

When I started reading the linked article, I shuddered and was totally grossed out.

But as I read a little more (and saw how tiny and cute the fish are!) I started thinking, "I wonder if there are any salons in California that do that?"

Weird, intriguing, downright fascinating. I just might be in.