Are We There, Yeti?
I'm so pleased that they're referring to Kiwa hirsuta as the yeti lobster. I'd worried after seeing news reports saying the critter was "just shy of 6 inches long--about the size of a salad plate."
I mean, you remember what happened with the baby panda at Washington's National Zoo. Reporters kept writing that he was "the size of a stick of butter" at birth. This inspired the baby bear's many worshippers to call him "Butterstick," despite the zoo's insistence on his official Chinese name, Tai Shan, which means "Peaceful Mountain." Happily, though, as the Washington Post reports, the name "Butterstick" has stuck.
Hey, I'm all for calling him "The Stick"--that is, when we're not calling him "that furry little black-and-white cookie of cuteness." I'm just not sure it's a good idea for lovers of all things homarine to call the blind white lobster "Salad Plate." (Anyone have a better idea?)
UPDATE: I just looked at the National Geographic pic again, and realized that in the text it's being called a yeti crab, not a lobster. In which case, the creature would not be homarine, but cancrine (as in the astrological sign Cancer). But the AP story the other day said it was a "lobster." So, is this a crab or a lobster? Or do they know? And is the one in the photo a boy or a girl? Wah! Inquiring minds want to know, and we want to know nownownownownow.
I mean, you remember what happened with the baby panda at Washington's National Zoo. Reporters kept writing that he was "the size of a stick of butter" at birth. This inspired the baby bear's many worshippers to call him "Butterstick," despite the zoo's insistence on his official Chinese name, Tai Shan, which means "Peaceful Mountain." Happily, though, as the Washington Post reports, the name "Butterstick" has stuck.
Hey, I'm all for calling him "The Stick"--that is, when we're not calling him "that furry little black-and-white cookie of cuteness." I'm just not sure it's a good idea for lovers of all things homarine to call the blind white lobster "Salad Plate." (Anyone have a better idea?)
UPDATE: I just looked at the National Geographic pic again, and realized that in the text it's being called a yeti crab, not a lobster. In which case, the creature would not be homarine, but cancrine (as in the astrological sign Cancer). But the AP story the other day said it was a "lobster." So, is this a crab or a lobster? Or do they know? And is the one in the photo a boy or a girl? Wah! Inquiring minds want to know, and we want to know nownownownownow.
posted by Martha at 7:43 PM
3 Comments:
Yes! Food and money, it seems, are universals. (Dime-sized, the diameter of a quarter,the width of a penny, thumbnail, etc.)
And I agree about the yeti lobster. He (she? does anybody know??) is DEFINITELY too significant to be called Salad Plate. A dollar just shy of six inches. A "sea dollar," maybe? Nah. But you're right -- definitely not a salad plate . . .
Oh, and I remember very well seeing blind, white fish in an aquarium in Mammoth Cave, bumping up against the glass repeatedly.
And ooo, ooo, Sunbelt, you just gave me an idea for one of the next "Today's Word" entries -- so thanks for that, too!
Gee, I don't know how you tell the sex of a crab or lobster. I guess reading the box doesn't help (as it does with napkins).
But, just learned from Wikipedia (which I love) that not only crabs but also lobsters are decapods. Nice pictures, too.
Hahahaha. Good point about the napkins, Daz. (And nice decapod pix on that Wikipedia page - tx!)
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