"... everyone has one and they are desperately waiting to tell you about it."
Tweeted Andrew Nadeau, last year.
Why did I remember that? Probably because it has a cool balance of generality and specificity. (Really, why do you remember things?!)
But it sprang to mind when I saw a photograph — "A dugong, which is a notoriously elusive marine mammal, photographed in the Red Sea, near the Egyptian resort town of Marsa Alam" — submerged deep in the NYT Style magazine article "The 25 Travel Experiences You Must Have/A pair of internationally minded writers, a chef, an architect and a landscape photographer made a list of the most extraordinary adventures a person should seek out. Here are the results."
To experience them [the dugongs], you must fly into the nearest international airport, in the town of Vilankulo, and then organize a helicopter or dhow ride to one of the archipelago’s many resorts and lodges....
No, I am not going to do that, so I don't know what will happen to me, given that you say I "must" have this experience. I'm going to bet that I need not do this. And I was out even before I read "organize a helicopter or dhow ride." I'm not organizing anything.
Found in the shallow coastal waters of as many as 40 countries, the large and placid dugong (imagine a manatee with a wider, shorter snout) is intensely shy, and its population is considered “vulnerable”....
Well, then maybe what we "must" do is leave the creatures alone. Maybe just talk about them, as we try to make friends with those other intensely shy, vulnerable animals, the human beings.
Posts
36 comments:
If most people think about deep sea creatures at all, it's things like the Creature from the Black Lagoon that they imagine, not anything that's actually down there.
Unbridled immigration is wiping out the manatee in Florida. They are pretty cool, but we are just displacing them.
The Democrats’ favorite deep sea creature is Architeuthis, the giant squid, because it’s bloated, and has ten arms (including two very long tentacles), the better to grab onto things that don’t belong to it.
My favorite is the orca, a.k.a. the killer whale. No one messes with orcas.
"The 25 Travel Experiences You Must Have"
So, global warming isn't such a big deal after all?
"People talk about how hard it is to make friends as an adult but all you have to do is ask someone what their favorite deep sea creature is..."
"... everyone has one and they are desperately waiting to tell you about it."
You are showing interest in someone else and what they think.
If you are genuine about interest in what other people are thinking or want you will easily make friends.
The problem for most people is they are not interested and they don't know how to fake it.
The answer What is a dugong? was a stumper on Jeopardy recently, I think on one of these Tournament of Champions eliminations. Shoulda been had. I knew it.
From "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea".
And certainly before long the black object was not more than a mile
from us. It looked like a great sandbank deposited in the open sea.
It was a gigantic dugong!
And what did they do with that monster? They killed and ate it.
You must. You must. You must double your lifetime carbon footprint to be one of the NYT's cool kids.
There are secluded springs all over north central Floria where you can snorkel through the winter with manatees. The water stays a constant 70*F and the manatees are friendly.- just dont get between a momma and her baby. I'm hosting a small group of my Nova Scotian sailing brethren down for a February snorkel and alligator spotting boat rides. We're all in our late 60's and early 70's and bonded 5 years ago as we wandered thru Nova Scotia in my early surfer iteration of Van Life before it was cool. It's easy to make forever friends at any age. Just put yourself out there and be interesting and interested. And then stay in touch and visit.
My favorite sea creature? Gotta be Ursula Andress walking out of the surf
oh wait! DEEP SEA creature? Jacqueline Bisset, in scuba gear
but, that's about all i have to say
This article is the real reason The New York Times exists--lifestyles of the rich and famous. You absolutely have to do that thing that will cost you 50 G's. The woke vulnerable populations stuff is just window dressing to hide what's really going on inside.
I don't know if it's techincally a deep sea creature, but the octopus is the coolest animal on earth.
"The 25 Travel Experiences You Must Have"
I thought we must shrink our carbon footprint.
Obviously, there are things that are much more important.
You people are some of my best relationships.
I may be absent for 4 days or so.
Carry on.
I'd like to see the seabed diving under a continental plate.
How to Win Friends and Influence People
I don't remember anything about deep sea creatures in the book, but what ever works.
A cloud, with a range of sizes, shapes, and colors from dawn to dusk.
I don't have a favorite deep sea creature and if anyone asked me that question I would think they were being silly.
You can't try to make friends. You can try to make acquaintances and only time itself can potentially turn some of them into friends. The same people who actively try to make friends are the same people who think they have friends on Facebook.
Friends are rare and precious. They are not a commodity to be accumulated and counted.
I was about to chuckle at the proposition, but then I remembered how fascinating I find the coelocanth.
"People talk about how hard it is to make friends as an adult but all you have to do is ask someone what their favorite deep sea creature is..."
"... everyone has one and they are desperately waiting to tell you about it."
That's four misstatements of fact in a row.
I was just running through a scenario in my head where a stranger asks me what my favorite sea creature is. My first response would be to think I'm talking to an adult child, but then I'd probably shrug and say Great White Shark just to be cordial. I'd then want to talk about how much I love the movie Jaws, which could lead to a more interesting conversation. So, maybe it's not such a silly icebreaker after all.
The Democrats’ favorite deep sea creature is Architeuthis, the giant squid, because it’s bloated, and has ten arms (including two very long tentacles), the better to grab onto things that don’t belong to it.
Don't forget -- many squid species are cannibalistic.
Coelocanth...
My teen era book about its discovery mentions that initial curiosity about it was raised when a researcher discovered a local bike repair guy using an odd fish scale to roughen his innertube before gluing on a patch.
How's that for a conversation starter?
I have no favorite deep sea creature. Therefore the entire premise of this article is demonstratably false.
Favorite critter, though? None really deep sea, but I have to go with Eagle ray, then siphonophore, then grouper, then barracuda.
Jacqueline Bisset, in scuba gear
You are aware that she’s 78 years old, right? A damned good looking 78 year old, but 78 nonetheless.
Andrew Nadeau is not my friend nor ever will be.
“I don't know if it's techincally a deep sea creature, but the octopus is the coolest animal on earth.”
If you think so then My Octopus Teacher may be the movie for you. Currently free on Netflix. Even if you don’t think so, it’s a fantastic documentary.
@Narr, is everything okay?
Queen Elizabeth credited with frequently asking "how is the project coming along ?"
Works great at car shows and craft fairs.
Baby shark.
"You must. You must. You must double your lifetime carbon footprint to be one of the NYT's cool kids."
The NYT points a finger at people and says you are not cool until you spew carbon over the world seeing your creature. The NYT calls people who question spending millions of co2 equivalents on windmills "Climate Deniers." What a Democrat endorsed freak show.
Weirdness can take over a society, like the Japanese Samurai cult of 1930. The quality of the end is dependent on the graciousness of the people who defeat you.
The cross between a tropical bird and a dolphin.
"The 25 Travel Experiences You Must Have"
So, global warming isn't such a big deal after all?
Bear in mind the "you" of the headline refers only to NYT readers, not the rest of us rabble.
I was just running through a scenario in my head where a stranger asks me what my favorite sea creature is. My first response would be to think I'm talking to an adult child,
I am a New Englander - my first response would be to wonder why some stranger was addressing me and to feel my back pocket to make sure my wallet was still there.
tommyesq
Not confined to New Englanders.
"What's your favorite deep sea creature?"
I don't have one.
"Why not?"
I'm not 6
Post a Comment