The concept of the red herring has a wide variety of potential origins. There is no such thing as an actual red herring, and as such they will not be found hidden beneath your aquarium sand. Since the Middle Ages the phrase in its literal sense meant a kipper cured with particularly strong brine (which gives it its distinctive red colour).
However, don’t go preparing your breakfast herrings over your aquarium heaters just yet (for one thing it’ll disturb the other fish); the phrase has plenty of other meanings. One of the term’s alleged origins is in the training of scent hounds. Scent hound puppies were said to have first been taught to follow the distinctive red herring smell. When later taught to follow fainter scents (such as those of badgers and foxes) the red herring was used as a decoy to confuse the dog, thus teaching it to follow the original scent and ignore any subsequent distractions. Fleeing convicts being pursued by hounds were also alleged to have used the overpowering red herring smell to mask their own (although this was examined and disproved by the Discovery Channel’s show MythBusters). The latter two stories are widely regarded as false, however.
What might be considered the stereotypical “red herring” usually pops up in detective fiction. Distracting attention from a more worthy clue, the deceptive red herring is humorously referenced in most aspects of popular culture from video games to films.
So, if you want to employ some elaborate fish tank lighting to shed some light on your own red herring then please do. Perhaps you can convince your guests that the creature actually exists (or else simply serve it to them).
How Red Are Your Herrings?
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