Crawfish or Mudbugs?

My neighbor, the one we call the Cranky Cajun, did his annual crawfish feast this weekend. This is the 4th year we've done this and after 25 years in Texas, I'm finally getting adept at cracking those things open and eating the good stuff (I DO NOT SUCK THE HEADS). I grew up in Iowa and in Iowa, one does not eat crawfish under any circumstances. They are bait. Pure and simple. You would no more eat a crawfish than a a peanut butter stink bait ball. (Its exactly what it sounds like...old cheese and peanut butter with some stale wheaties and a can of corn thrown in). Imagine my disgust and surprise at my first crawfish boil. However, I've gradually come around to the southern way of thinking. I've also managed to convince the Cranky Cajun that sausage, corn and potatoes aren't the only things to be boiled with crawfish. A few years ago, he let me throw in some mushrooms and asparagus (although he made me put them in a pantyhose leg so they wouldn't mix up with the other vegetables). The other neighbors, even those who do not eat the crawfish, asked for a repeat the following year and another tradition was born. These get-togethers inevitably bring up the subject of what people call these evil looking fish (Are they fish?) It seems divided along state lines. The Louisiana born folk usually call them mudbugs, especially those from the northern part of the state. The Texans among us usually call them crawfish, with an accent that cannot be imitated by someone like myself who grew up in corn country. Another thing about those Louisiana folk, they don't mind playing with their food before they eat it. The Cranky Cajun usually walks around with at least one crawfish attached to an earlobe, or shirt pocket or back jean pocket. All the Louisiana people want to examine the coolers of crawfish before they eat, because the degree of muddiness in the water means something to them about the flavor of the mudbugs. They allow their children to each pick one, name it and then race them. Since all of them inevitably end up in a pot of boiling water, you'd think this would permanently damage the children in some way, but I watched several children between the ages of 4 and 12 argue over whether the one they were currently tearing apart was Gerta or Boudreaux or Rocky.