Althouse: Freckles, the manta ray, asks for help...

July 13, 2019

Freckles, the manta ray, asks for help...

51 comments:

mockturtle said...: At least twice my help has been solicited by animals. Once it was by birds when a snake was eating their eggs and once it was a doe when a bear was killing her fawn. In both cases it was too late. Another doe once cried out to my husband for assistance when some poachers were putting her fawn into the trunk of their car.; 7/13/19, 1:02 PM
Achilles said...: Freckles, the manta ray, is very upset that Democrats have declared an insurrection against the United States.

And Freckles the manta ray is very interested in why the thousands of seditionists on video are not being tried for sedition.

Freckles the Manta Ray is upset and is asking for help.; 7/13/19, 1:13 PM
Achilles said...: Freckles thinks that because they have declared themselves as combatants for the country of Mexico this is probably treason, not sedition.; 7/13/19, 1:15 PM
MayBee said...: Did they get the hook out?; 7/13/19, 1:16 PM
n.n said...: Get out of my pool.; 7/13/19, 1:35 PM
Big Mike said...: YouTube is full of videos where animals appear to be approaching humans to ask for help. I am also aware of anecdotal stories that aren't captured on video where animals looked to humans for help. I have no idea how widespread this phenomenon might be. And it has not escaped my notice that what we interpret as “asking for help” is something totally different.; 7/13/19, 1:38 PM
Carol said...: Yeah did they get it out? This is killing me!; 7/13/19, 1:47 PM
clint said...: @Achilles-

I think for it to be treason, it would have to be in support of an actual enemy of the U.S.

Mexico isn't.; 7/13/19, 1:51 PM
Achilles said...: clint said...
@Achilles-

I think for it to be treason, it would have to be in support of an actual enemy of the U.S.

Mexico isn't.

The people of Mexico aren't.

The globalist elites that run Mexico and own the NYT's are. Specifically they are the enemy of the founding principles of America.

They are all enemies of the principles that the US was founded on.

Freckles the Manta hates the enemies of freedom.; 7/13/19, 2:02 PM
Wince said...: "Freckles, the manta ray, asks for help..."

But remember, that consent can be withdrawn at any time.; 7/13/19, 2:08 PM
Big Mike said...: And it has not escaped my notice that what we interpret as “asking for help” could be something totally different.

A better way to phrase it.; 7/13/19, 2:14 PM
whitney said...: You know, it was probably over a year ago but I Bobcat with a broken leg showed up at a Waffle House in the city I live in. Animal groups were called they took him and fixed his leg, he's been released . I thought at the time that Bobcat probably knew they can help me; 7/13/19, 2:35 PM
johns said...: It looks to me like the Ray is saying “look what you people did to me!!”; 7/13/19, 2:43 PM
Leland said...: Alternate headline:

Injured Manta Ray, fearing for its life, plays dead as divers approach. Is there a connection between Possums and Mantas?; 7/13/19, 2:44 PM
rhhardin said...: A lady caller to WJR Detroit asked ranger Bob about a Robin that hopped up on her picnic table and squawked at her. Thinking he might like some water (it was a drought), she fetched a bowl of water and the Robin drank from it and flew away.

Ranger Bob thought somebody might have raised the Robin and it was tame.

I thought "That's my Robin!" I raised it from eyes-closed featherless and it hung around for a few months begging for blueberries. It would land on my head when I got home from work (we never worked out the extended finger protocol), and I'd offer it a blueberry from the pill box I carried.

Then one day it went away and I assume went to Detroit.

In about two weeks from hatched it starts to recognize you and issues personal greetings and demands.; 7/13/19, 2:55 PM
Rob said...: If the beast knew they'd named it Freckles, it might not have been so docile.; 7/13/19, 2:56 PM
rhhardin said...: You can easily raise wild rabbit babies from eyes-closed furless but they don't imprint on you like birds. Rabbits are always in escape mode, though they'll tolerate bottle-feeding as a cease-fire.; 7/13/19, 3:01 PM
rhhardin said...: The probable reason for escape mode in baby rabbits is the evolutionary best-chance mode: escape if the nest is disturbed. The odds being better that the mother can find you nearby than that you can survive whatever found the nest eating you.; 7/13/19, 3:03 PM
Bob Boyd said...: If a male dolphin approaches asking for help, don't be fooled.; 7/13/19, 3:07 PM
Bob Boyd said...: I thought at the time that Bobcat probably knew they can help me

Maybe the bobcat thought, "Fuck it. If Ima die anyway, I might as well die having a waffle."; 7/13/19, 3:11 PM
MayBee said...: Our neighbor had a fawn in her front courtyard last night. We had seen a dead doe last week, and were unsure whether this was her baby. I went out and got goat's milk and bottles for the fawn, but then we were all convinced the baby would be better in a treed area where the mother could find it. Sadly, baby didn't live til morning. Now I wish just once I could have held that baby bottle for the fawn.; 7/13/19, 3:18 PM
Hagar said...: If wild animals don't try to get away from you, they are probably sick with Tularemia or something like.; 7/13/19, 3:20 PM
Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...: Achilles @7/13/19, 2:02 PM: “Freckles the Manta hates the enemies of freedom.”

True.

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez is an enemy of freedom, and thusly Freckles the Manta hates her.

https://youtu.be/iPaH9GjtSFo

Logic, no?; 7/13/19, 3:32 PM
Robt C said...: FYI, for those who asked: They did get the hooks out. Freckles was pleased.; 7/13/19, 3:58 PM
FullMoon said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/13/19, 4:13 PM
Big Mike said...: @Hagar, I'm not so sure about that. I think animals -- mammals at least -- seem to have a sense for who the human sucker is. You're making me recall an incident when I was at Oracle OpenWorld a bunch of years ago. I was successfully making my way past the panhandlers when I started to pass a guy with a large boxer and a hand-lettered cardboard sign asking for help getting home to Idaho. I had almost made it past when the dog lifted his head and caught my eyes with his -- he knew who the sucker was. I gave the guy a fiver and told him to feed his dog. He did the usual "Thank you and God bless," and for all I know he put the fiver towards a fix. But I like to think that he and the dog got home to Idaho.; 7/13/19, 4:39 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Yeah, Ted Bundy did that, too.; 7/13/19, 4:46 PM
The Godfather said...: For what it's worth, manta rays have HUGE brains. https://oceana.org/blog/manta-ray-brainpower-blows-other-fish-out-water-10.

They may even be smarter than Sen. Warren. Maybe the Democrats should open up their primary.; 7/13/19, 4:54 PM
Chuck said...: I love stories like this; I don’t have any idea how many of them I would miss but for Althouse’s skillful curation of fascinating Internet flotsam and jetsam.

I was going to post the comment that “Steve Irwin could not be reached for comment,” but he died in an encounter with a Stingray, which is different from a Manta Ray. Which I looked up, not wanting to post anything in error.

{#20}; 7/13/19, 4:56 PM
mockturtle said...: Chuck, you've been a very good boy! Keep it up. :-); 7/13/19, 4:57 PM
Ralph L said...: At my old job, we had 3-5 cats in&out of the office and lots of ferals in the truck shed (the boss stupidly fed them). One feral had kittens in the warehouse (we had two cat flaps). She had her next litter in the office closet, then spent several years sleeping on my desk most of the day before a car hit her on the main road.; 7/13/19, 5:08 PM
FullMoon said...: Chuck said

"...... not wanting to post anything in error."

Damn, he even developed a sense of humor. Crazy, man, crazy !; 7/13/19, 5:16 PM
Swede said...: Total set up.

Freckles the mantra ray was leading them into a trap where a gang of string rays was waiting to kick their asses.

After waking up from their beating, they discovered their valuables missing, their pants down around their ankles, and an unpleasant taste in their mouths.

White liberal do-gooder divers will fail to learn their lesson.; 7/13/19, 6:18 PM
Howard said...: Blogger Swede said...

Total set up.

Freckles the mantra ray was leading them into a trap where a gang of string rays was waiting to kick their asses.

After waking up from their beating, they discovered their valuables missing, their pants down around their ankles, and an unpleasant taste in their mouths.

White liberal do-gooder divers will fail to learn their lesson.

Sounds like good times in the 80's on 14th Street in DC.; 7/13/19, 6:28 PM
Howard said...: Blogger Chuck said...

I love stories like this; I don’t have any idea how many of them I would miss but for Althouse’s skillful curation of fascinating Internet flotsam and jetsam.

Please note Chuck is flirting in Eddie Haskell territory, which is a ruse to be rude to Althouse while sounding syrup sweet. Judges?; 7/13/19, 6:29 PM
The Vault Dweller said...: I wonder what Manta Ray tastes like? I bet it is tough.; 7/13/19, 6:40 PM
wildswan said...: Once I was sitting in a park in DC eating a sandwich and not sharing. A squirrel came up and tapped on my ankle, and when I looked down, it sat up waiting to be fed. Which I did, in case it was rabid. Now I suppose I would think about how even the squirrels in DC want something from the taxpayer and I would try to teach it to fish. Out in the Chesapeake Bay, I guess. But what if a hook got stuck in a fish that got away and I didn't jump in and try help the fish and the whole thing where I fade away from the scene with the squirrel looking at me was on someone's Iphone? And then I had to face my 15 minutes of internet infamy just because of a squirrel that couldn't fish. Maybe I should start with 8 oz. tuna in cans and work up to bigger fish out on the Bay. Or I could get Robert Mueller to show me how to run a fishing expedition with lots of squirrels the right way. $40 million and no hooks in anything. There's glory for you.; 7/13/19, 6:52 PM
madAsHell said...: Chuck, you've been a very good boy! Keep it up. :-)

You're not anticipating the wave of entitlement after the penance has been served???

I usually don't read anything Chuck (as opposed to chuck), but he seems to think he can go Svengali on Althouse, and change the discourse.

I don't know why ANYONE would engage Chuck.......cuz the pig likes it!! Like a pig, Chuck shits on many threads.

Start your own fucking blog, Chuck, and then count the commenters.; 7/13/19, 7:04 PM
Yancey Ward said...: For once, I agree with Howard- that Chuck comment was a disguised insult to Althouse. Well played, Chuck.; 7/13/19, 7:19 PM
ccscientist said...: Animals I have seen videos of asking for help: 2 whales, a dolphin, a bear (cubs fell in lake), a crow, a fox. All intelligent but how could they fathom that a person could and would help them? It is crazy.; 7/13/19, 7:22 PM
Anchovy1214 said...: Years ago my wife and I sold everything and bought a 51' ketch. In the Revillagigedo Islands off the west coast of Mexico we encountered Manta ray's that would let you ride on their backs. They did not like SCUBA, the bubbles scared them, but we snorkeled to them and they actually came up under us so we could ride. My wife said she was never going to wash her hands again.; 7/13/19, 7:28 PM
Fernandinande said...: For what it's worth, manta rays have HUGE brains.

I did not know that!

"The encephalization quotient of Mobulaswas higher than unity, therefore it can be concluded that the actual brain mass is greater than expected by the given body mass. M. japanicahad the highest percentage (61%) of telencephalic mass from all batoids, while the brain mass of M. birostriswas the highest of all fish studied so far. The gross morphology of the enlarged Mobulid telencephalon and cerebellum prominently resembled to that of Sphyrna mokarran (great hammerhead shark). A structural dimorphism of the highly foliated cerebellum was detected between genders of the M. japanica, albeit with a small sample size."

Their brains look like dog turds and oranges. FIg 2.; 7/13/19, 7:31 PM
Narayanan said...: Are the species that float in SPICE fumes and fold space-time relationship to Freckles?; 7/13/19, 8:47 PM
Josephbleau said...: I believe that practicing Ophthalmological Surgery without a license is a punishable offense in AU.

I wonder what Manta Ray tastes like? I bet it is tough. It tastes like inexpensive scallops in the Eastern US.; 7/13/19, 8:53 PM
Rick.T. said...: You can call me Ray
Or you can call me Jay
But you doesn’t has to call me Freckles.; 7/13/19, 10:20 PM
Nichevo said...: Yancey Ward said...
For once, I agree with Howard- that Chuck comment was a disguised insult to Althouse. Well played, Chuck.

7/13/19, 7:19 PM

Wasn't his deal never to reference either Althouse PR President Trump? Isn't this a violation?; 7/13/19, 10:21 PM
Nichevo said...: OR not PR; 7/13/19, 10:21 PM
Chuck said...: Blogger Nichevo said...
Yancey Ward said...
For once, I agree with Howard- that Chuck comment was a disguised insult to Althouse. Well played, Chuck.

7/13/19, 7:19 PM

Wasn't his deal never to reference either Althouse PR President Trump? Isn't this a violation?

1. My comment was intended as nothing more, and nothing less than, a compliment. Period, full stop. I don’t have any idea how anyone could interpret it differently.

2. I slipped, in complimenting the blog hostess. I mentioned her name when I should not have. I’m imposing a 2-comment penalty on myself. This one doesn’t count, and my next post will be #19.; 7/13/19, 10:37 PM
Fen said...: Please note Chuck is flirting in Eddie Haskell territory, which is a ruse to be rude to Althouse while sounding syrup sweet. Judges?

Instant replay clearly shows he had both feet in bounds. 1st & 10, move the chains.; 7/13/19, 10:37 PM
Yancey Ward said...: "I slipped, in complimenting the blog hostess. I mentioned her name when I should not have. I’m imposing a 2-comment penalty on myself. This one doesn’t count, and my next post will be #19.

I guess it is for Bay Area Guy to adjudicate the matter. I didn't see the terms in their origin, just a description a 3rd party relayed to me when I asked why Chuck was numbering comments.; 7/13/19, 11:40 PM
Chuck said...: Yes indeed I do think it is for Bay Area Guy to determine my fate. It was an unthinking, unintended — but sadly clear — screwup on my part. I could have and should have written the comment without the name or reference.; 7/14/19, 6:02 PM