WASHINGTON – Rep. Bob Ehrlich, R-Timonium, may have lost the bet, but he didn’t lose his manners.
After he delivered two dozen steamed Maryland crabs Friday to Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Fla., as payoff for an ill-fated wager on the Orange Bowl, Ehrlich stayed around long enough to give Putnam a quick lesson in crab-peeling, Maryland style.
So Friday afternoon found Putnam, decked out in a glowing Florida-orange hat and tie, and his staff enjoying crabs in his Capitol Hill as he happily gloated over the University of Florida Gators’ 56-23 bowl game victory over the Maryland Terrapins.
“We have crabs in Florida, too! You people in Maryland are so singular minded,” Putnam said as he and several staff members peeled and gobbled their prize in an office side room. “But these are particularly good. The seasoning is excellent.”
For his part, Putnam had bet a supply of cooked alligator tails that the University of Florida would defeat the Terrapins in the Jan. 3 game.
The crabs were delivered from Ross’ Crab House in Dundalk to Putnam’s congressional office in Washington. Ehrlich aides said Ross’ Crab House has been a favorite haunt of the congressman for years.
Crab house owner John Ernst, who once played high school football against Ehrlich, donated the two dozen crabs for this year’s wager.
“We do that for all Bob’s bets,” he said. Even when Ehrlich won a Super Bowl bet last year with New York Rep. Vito Fossella, whose Giants lost to the Baltimore Ravens, “we gave him the crabs anyway — as a consolation prize,” Ernst said.
While the Terrapins could not uphold the state’s honor against the Floridians, the state’s crabs were able to exact a bit of revenge Friday.
“One of the staff thought the `mustard’ in the crab was real mustard,” Putnam said, referring to the yellowish, sometimes greenish fat at a crab’s center. “I think she’s in the bathroom now, washing off her tongue.”