Neither more nor less

Thursday night Con Edison was at work out front of Ray's Candy Store .Using an assemblage of hardware suggesting a harvesting machine fancifully melded with a serious set of chomping steel mouth parts and a drilling rig , the work crew pulled an old 3 inch cable from a conduit below avenue A and chopped it into foot long pieces . The chopped cable pieces , mostly copper , were dumped into a large container on the bed of a heavy truck to be hauled away and sold as scrap . This copper scrap to be melted down and recycled .

Inside Ray's store , Ray was busy packing Belgian fries for a customer and telling his friends that would listen a sharks tale .

Ray claimed that while serving as a boiler fireman 3rd class in the Turkish Navy he often caught and ate shark . In the bowls of his ancient retired British navy destroyer that had been passed on to the Turkish navy , down in the boiler room everything was hot . Ray said that many things were in fact too hot to touch . A sailor had to be careful ; thoughtful and deliberate in his moves in this little boiler room world or he could be cooked . It was hot and Ray used that heat at times to cook fish .

Ray told his listeners of how before he went on duty he often left a line and baited hook over the side trolling. Later when he had some time free he went to check the line .Ray and a sailor with an ax pulled the line up the side of the ship . When a sizable fish , usually a shark , was pulled on deck the sailor with the ax severed with a blow from his primitive but sharp edged tool the head , with it's large mouth and sharp teeth , from the silver gray fishy torso .Care was necessary ; the shark could chomp on the incautious right there on the deck and wiggle free with a mouthful of sailor , overboard , returning to it's briny world .

The headless shark was taken below to the boiler room . Somehow , Ray wasn't clear about this , the shark was placed in or near the white hot heat of the boiler's firebox . In 10 seconds the fish was removed . The outside was charred black , the deep interior , the guts , was cold and inedible but the fleshy part in between was perfect for consumption .

All as told by Ray on Thursday night in his candy store.