Myo Nyunt, a doctor and former political prisoner, described the new members as "fishy and suspicious".
He had lost the board's trust, it was said, by spending millions on a new office, signing fishy consulting contracts and displaying a political tin ear.
It's no wonder that omega-3 fatty acids are poised to become the oat bran of 2007, as food scientists micro-encapsulate fish oil and algae oil and blast them into such formerly all-terrestrial foods as bread and tortillas, milk and yogurt and cheese, all of which will soon, you can be sure, sprout fishy new health claims.
If they drop it, they need to start over again with a new, rank lil' fishy.
A few firms cling on, such as CCS, a specialist in dog fish, and Russell Grant, an offal trader, which has found new markets for its fishy slop in west Africa.
What this elevator speech doesn't convey, however, is the fervor of locals who believe in their precious, artsy, fishy, idiosyncratic New Bedford; launch point and home to Herman Melville, Frederick Douglas and a roster of other historic figures.
Installation artist Nina Nichols is showing off her new "squid light", a brightly fishy addition to one of her latest works, which looks like an aquarium tank for humans.
Paul Greenberg's new book, "American Catch," explores the fishy problem of why Americans have all but stopped eating seafood from their own waters.
FISHY: I just got a new aquarium, and I love to play around with my fish.
In The New Yorker, Elizabeth Kolbert called it "confounding," "exasperating" and "fishy".
