flotsam

[radiantfracture]

It's a good thing that Friday is a strong podcast day, because I am sick. To be precise, I am sunk down at the bottom of a viral swamp, squinting blearily at the distorted image of the real world on the surface.

I spent most of the morning trying to mark a single English paper from within my aquatic den -- my tentacles drifting away from the paper, the pen floating from my hand, my amorphous being turning a hapless slow somersault of thought.

* * * * *

That reminds me: last weekend the family visited the Shaw Centre for the Salish Sea, where I saw a real Giant Pacific Octopus, innumerable moon jellies, massive sea nettles, and other bright radial beings. I realized, as I watched them pulse and flex, balloon and shrivel, that I know most of these creatures only from videos and Haeckel's inimitable drawings¹.²

The aquarium is one of the modern low-impact ones, so it doesn't remove creatures from their ecosystems permanently -- the collection rotates.

These beings were all one thousand times more beautiful and wondrous to meet in person. The octopus has toys that she plays with, including a basketball. I am pretty sure that even with the aquarium's attention to ethics she should not be in a tank, but I was very glad to meet her.

If I could think of an acceptable octopus-based nickname, I would adopt it.

{rf}


Notes

1. And yet I imitate them.
2. Plus that one startling swim off Hornby Island during a jellyfish bloom

Comments

[anne]

That's the best description of grading while sick I've ever seen.

[radiantfracture]

[Wobbly thumbs-up that halfway through gesture falls apart into supplicating hand and then vanishes]

It's possible I'm a tiny bit feverish.

[anne]

Would that I could make you tea.

[lb_lee]

Gosh, we visited the coast so often as kids, I have a hard time imagining a life without avoiding jellyfish! o_o And hordes upon piles of Portuguese Man O'War and cannonball jellies (which we knew as "cabbageheads").

Octopus are the coolest though!

[radiantfracture]

I guess, upon reflection, that I have seen them washed up on the beach several times, but not in aquatic action.

[radiantfracture]

Portuguese Man O'War

Now that is a serious sea critter.

[lb_lee]

They are small and pretty! And also super venomous so no touching them!

(We were there once for a Portuguese Man O'War bloom, but the cabbageheads bloomed way more often, IIRC.)

[dhampyresa]

it doesn't remove creatures from their ecosystems permanently

That's so cool!

[sabotabby]

OMG octopus.

I want to go to the Ripley's Aquarium, since apparently you can actually pet the octopus, but I don't know if it's cruel or not.

[radiantfracture]

Googling now

Nothing so far about cruelty, just barbs and venom

Side note: A key linguistic letdown was discovering that "octopi" is not the plural of "octopus", though "octopodes"is pretty good.

www.hawaiiandiving.adventures suggests that "Octopus can be respectfully tickled out of their holes and played with."

[elusis]

If an octopus doesn't want to be petted, they will most definitely not allow it.

Manta rays seem to like to be petted at least some of the time. They will rise to meet your hand.

[radiantfracture]

Thank you! That sounds as though you're speaking from experience?

[elusis]

With the rays, yes. I'm speculating about the octopi, based on seeing them do stuff like sneak out of their tanks to poach fish from other tanks and then sneak back in again.

[sovay]

I spent most of the morning trying to mark a single English paper from within my aquatic den -- my tentacles drifting away from the paper, the pen floating from my hand, my amorphous being turning a hapless slow somersault of thought.

That's beautiful, although I am sorry you felt ill enough to need to describe it.

The aquarium is one of the modern low-impact ones, so it doesn't remove creatures from their ecosystems permanently -- the collection rotates.

I didn't know that was a thing. Nice!

If I could think of an acceptable octopus-based nickname, I would adopt it.

The Greek for octopus is πολύπους, the many-footed. I don't know if that helps, but I've always found it euphonious.

[radiantfracture]

Thank you for the Greek!

Maybe just manyfoot or somesuch... hmm.

[radiantfracture]

Right, I'm trying it out. Thank you.

[thewayne]

Hope you're feeling well soon! I didn't know how sick I'd been this year with sinus infections until post-surgery and I truly started feeling better. But I'm a special case.

Under bad circumstances I got to visit the jellyfish exhibit at the Omaha Zoo a couple of years ago. Even though the blue lighting is cool, they still look quite spiffy when you convert the images to black & white. Thinking back, it's been rather a long time since I've been to a full aquarium, possibly since 2001 or so when I was last in Monterrey. I really should make another trip some time.

[notyourwendy]

I remember when the Vancouver Aquarium had a jellyfish exhibit a few years ago. No lie, I had to be dragged away from the tanks to see anything else.

[radiantfracture]

Ah, I wish I'd seen that. What sorts of jellyfish did they have?

They're so much better than I thought they'd be. Frailer and stronger and weirder.

[notyourwendy]

I can't for the life of me remember anything other than 'moon jellies' and random descriptors: the big ones and the tiny gooseberry ones and the spotted upside down ones. The ones that were kind of purple and the ones that looked like the spokes of a bicycle attached to the inside of a spare tire.

Apparently there's a jelly cam! https://www.vanaqua.org/visit/live-cams-jelly-cam

Just recently encountered in Ursula K. LeGuin's The Lathe of Heaven:
"Hanging, swaying, pulsing, the most vulnerable and insubstantial creature, it has for its defense the violence and power of the whole ocean, to which it has entrusted its being, its going, and its will."

[radiantfracture]

Apparently there's a jelly cam!

That is excellent! Life models.