From "The tongue-eating louse does exactly what its name suggests" (NPR).
This tongue-eating louse is a good metaphor. You know the kind of people who would like to detach other people's tongue and become their tongue. And the way they feast on mucus.
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Alas, no comment section on NPR. I was curious to see how many comments would reference DJT.
Well...that's a f***** gross way to start the week.
I'm sure there's a way to link this to politicians or Woke activists. I just can't think of it at the moment. A brain-eating louse? Sure. Joe Biden, Terry McAuliffe. Others. But tongue eating louse?
That's truly one of those natural world things I could have lived my life and been fine not knowing about. Living here by the Gulf, fresh snapper is a favorite. Apparently they're a fave of these isopods as well. I'm going to have to start looking in the mouths of the whole ones on display at the fish counter. Oh...lookie here! What's he got in his mouth?
Temujin said...I'm sure there's a way to link this to politicians or Woke activists. I just can't think of it at the moment.
How about social media companies? They cutoff the tongues of people they don't like by suspending their accounts and then speak for them by adding commentary to the account page "explaining" the suspension.
This metaphor kind of puts me to mind of the whole Chappelle 'controversy.' What exactly what is about his special that triggers the trans mafia so bigly. Was it when Dave told the story of his beloved trans friend, the one who defended Chappell on Twitter based on her personal experience with Dave, and was then excoriated by the Twitter brownshirts, the onse who enforce the cancel culture, for two weeks after, up until the time she killed herself? Was that what set them off so much that they had to speak for her now that she was dead and explain to everybody that nobody ought to be allowed to hear Chappelle's comedy any longer? Because if that's not a case of louses destroying somebody's tongue and then taking over to speak for that person, I don't know what one is.
Whenever I read the word "parasite," I always think of the Democrat Party.
"A brain-eating louse"
Stick with tongue. Those who are getting others to say what they want said are not going to the trouble of taking over the brain. The brain can wither away on its own, enclosed in its skull-box, ineffectual, unfed, un-aired.
The louse is related to pillbugs — those crustaceans you find under rocks.
Sounds like the NeverTrumpers.
Fortunately, I do not know the kind of people who would do that.
Dear Ann, you didn't have to tell us that. 8-(¹
Dear Ann, you didn't have to tell us that. 8-(
Seems like it needs the “insect politics” tag. It seems to be a parable about the tiny radical minority of agitators on campuses that anoint themselves as the spokesmob for a time causing havoc and damage like Oberlin or Evergreen, although examples are plentiful. Eventually cooler heads prevail and the Trustees’ lawyers have to spend endowment or insurance money to pay the victims of these spoiled louses.
I prefer the "mind control" parasites.
Zombie cicadas were in the news not too long ago. The parasite fungus replaces the insect's abdomen. It also causes males to behave as females when another male is nearby. When a male attempts to mate with the infected male, it too is infected.
My favorite parasite is the lancet liver fluke. In one stage of its life-cycle, it causes an infected ant to leave the nest at sundown, climb a blade of grass, chomp down at the top, then hang there until dawn. If a grazing animal doesn't eat the grass, the ant returns to the nest & repeats until it dies.
Metaphor away!
Apart from a steady supply of tasty mucus, what's in it for the louse, I wonder?
You wouldn't think a life in the mouth of an Atlantic Croaker would be something to aspire to and it can't be easy to get there, but compared to life of a pedestrian louse, it clearly has it's appeal. Travel, for one thing. Constant companionship for another. And social status.
When the down and out lice see you go by in your fish, it's like people on the street watching someone ride by in a limo. You've made it while they're still struggling over whatever scraps of fish mucous might drift down to them. Sweet.
Just occurred to me, other stages of the lancet liver fluke life-cycle are also ripe for metaphor.
When a grazing animal eats an infected ant, the fluke moves to the liver (hence the name). After some changes, it moves to the bowel & is pooped out.
A snail comes along & eats the poop. The parasite undergoes more changes then moves to the snail's "lung". The lung is irritated & produces mucus. Eventually, the snail ejects the mucus through its air hole. Snail snot balls are like candy to an ant.
'Alas, no comment section on NPR. I was curious to see how many comments would reference DJT.'
We went to a play last week ('Jesus Christ Superstar').
It was very good. I was curious to read a review so I looked it up and the most prominent hit was from a local NPR affiliate.
In the first paragraph there were snide references to Trump and white people.
And a lot of whining about 'why is this play running now?'
Not a single line about the music, the singers, the acting, the sets, etc.
Lefties are fucking delusional and members of a cult.
gspencer said...
Whenever I read the word "parasite," I always think of the Democrat Party.
Ding, ding ding!!!! Same here!!
This tongue-eating louse is a good metaphor. You know the kind of people who would like to detach other people's tongue and become their tongue. And the way they feast on mucus.
You mean like mail in ballots?
It seems to me that the best Althouse posts are short pithy straight lines for the real comedians on this site. It is early but I am still waiting.
Sounds like Chuck.
Lord of the Rings has a character that resembles this.
This really is breakthrough news. I myself vow to use every effort to introduce into our culture the meme of the tongue-eating louse. Its Ick Factor is off the charts, certainly rivaling that of the brain-eating amoeba (Naegleria fowleri). And, as Prof A points out, a tongue-eating louse is the perfect descriptor for a whole range of parasites, especially in politics. Biden’s speech writers, for example.
"Seems like it needs the “insect politics” tag."
It's not an insect. It's an arthopod, Subphylum: Crustacea, Class: Malacostraca, Order: Isopoda, Family: Cymothoidae
Genus: Cymothoa
Insects are Subphylum: Hexapoda, Class: Insecta
"Isopoda is an order of crustaceans that includes woodlice and their relatives. Isopods live in the sea, in fresh water, or on land. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons, two pairs of antennae, seven pairs of jointed limbs on the thorax, and five pairs of branching appendages on the abdomen that are used in respiration." So, basically, more disgusting than insects.
"Malacostraca (New Latin from Ancient Greek μαλακός malakós (“soft”) + όστρακον óstrakon (“shell”)) is the largest of the six classes of crustaceans, containing about 40,000 living species, divided among 16 orders. Its members, the malacostracans, display a great diversity of body forms and include crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill, prawns, woodlice, amphipods, mantis shrimp and many others, less familiar animals. They are abundant in all marine environments and have colonised freshwater and terrestrial habitats. They are segmented animals, united by a common body plan comprising 20 body segments (rarely 21), and divided into a head, thorax, and abdomen."
Thanks for the biology facts. So this thing is like a shrimp from the Dark Side?
Baby Fish Mouth!!!
With someone else I’d call it nitpicking to cite the crustacean’s family tree but you’re just thorough. Still a pillbug is a bug and close enough to insects to warrant the same reaction. Yuck!
So that’s what’s happened to Biden!!
Fish up our way have lamprey…
They're all bugs.
I wonder if Ann found her way to this story via SMBC. The author's wife studies behavior modifying parasites.
If anyone cares for more info, I thought this video was a tad silly, but still very informative -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TLKdCQ22zI
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