[LINK] The humble MusselCam

[rfmcdonald]

I was quite surprised to learn of the existence and the global popularity of Charlottetown restaurant Flex Mussels' MusselCam.

It's called the MusselCam -- and it's about as exciting as watching paint dry.

But the Prince Edward Island webcam focused on the development of a single mussel has been named one of the top-25 most interesting webcams worldwide.

"The MusselCam is astounding in that it just sits there," said Justin Camerlengo, director of marketing at New Jersey's EarthCam (www.earthcam.com), which compiles the top-25 list. "I keep going back to it myself to see if it's grown any."

To be sure, the MusselCam website notes, "mussels grow very, very slowly." The site urges visitors to "check back often."

[. . .]

The MusselCam comes courtesy of Flex Mussels, a restaurant in Charlottetown specializing in the bivalves. Garner Quain, co-owner of Flex Mussels, said there are between 800 and 1,000 visits every day to the site, set up three years ago, at www.flexmussels.com/musselcam.html.

Quain said webcam sites like his -- and another popular site that has a webcam trained on a wheel of cheese -- are the original "anti-cams."

"I think there's a kind of fascination in seeing something that's live and motionless," Quain explained.

"You're watching paint dry or you're watching a wheel of cheese age. I really don't know what the appeal is."