Althouse: Sidewalk snowfish.

April 5, 2024

Sidewalk snowfish.

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Found — not tampered with — this morning, at 6:56.

26 comments:

MadisonMan said...: Melt faster please.; 4/5/24, 7:42 AM
Kevin said...: It’s having a whale of a time.; 4/5/24, 7:54 AM
Mr. O. Possum said...: Is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation, when beholding the white depths of the milky way? Or is it, that as in essence whiteness is not so much a color as the visible absence of color; and at the same time the concrete of all colors; is it for these reasons that there is such a dumb blankness, full of meaning, in a wide landscape of snows- a colorless, all-color of atheism from which we shrink? And when we consider that other theory of the natural philosophers, that all other earthly hues- every stately or lovely emblazoning- the sweet tinges of sunset skies and woods; yea, and the gilded velvets of butterflies, and the butterfly cheeks of young girls; all these are but subtile deceits, not actually inherent in substances, but only laid on from without; so that all deified Nature absolutely paints like the harlot, whose allurements cover nothing but the charnel-house within; and when we proceed further, and consider that the mystical cosmetic which produces every one of her hues, the great principle of light, for ever remains white or colorless in itself, and if operating without medium upon matter, would touch all objects, even tulips and roses, with its own blank tinge- pondering all this, the palsied universe lies before us a leper; and like wilful travellers in Lapland, who refuse to wear colored and coloring glasses upon their eyes, so the wretched infidel gazes himself blind at the monumental white shroud that wraps all the prospect around him. And of all these things the Albino whale was the symbol. Wonder ye then at the fiery hunt?

Well, do ye wonder, ye?; 4/5/24, 7:57 AM
Scott Patton said...: They opened for Primus in the '90s.; 4/5/24, 8:00 AM
lonejustice said...: Snow Fish is also a real thing:

https://www.bigfridgeboy.com/en/content/26401/delve-deeper-snow-fish-that-you-need-to-know; 4/5/24, 8:04 AM
rehajm said...: Fudgie?; 4/5/24, 8:14 AM
BudBrown said...: Mjög svalt; 4/5/24, 8:28 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Frigid snapper?; 4/5/24, 8:29 AM
Bob Boyd said...: I assume it fell out of the bottom of passing snowman's pantleg during the night.; 4/5/24, 8:33 AM
tim in vermont said...: Mr O. Possum had the same thought I did.

[H]ow shall we define the whale, by his obvious externals, so as conspicuously to label him for all time to come. To be short, then, a whale is a spouting fish with a horizontal tail.; 4/5/24, 8:48 AM
Narr said...: Very like a whale.; 4/5/24, 8:50 AM
Narr said...: Very like a whale.; 4/5/24, 8:50 AM
Breezy said...: Until I read the post title, I saw a small doe lying in the grass. Where you see a fishtail, I saw the head of a brand new baby doe.; 4/5/24, 9:15 AM
Wince said...: Found — not tampered with — this morning, at 6:56.

I dunno, seems fishy to me.; 4/5/24, 9:27 AM
wendybar said...: I am pretty sure we just had a small earthquake in Ocean County New Jersey. My Mom and I were sitting in our living room, and our floors and seats started trembling. My black cat got startled awake and was looking around like something was going on. Weird feeling. Can't imagine a LARGE one.; 4/5/24, 9:28 AM
Will Cate said...: Your word-of-the-day is ichthyomorphic.; 4/5/24, 9:34 AM
David53 said...: A descendant of Moby-Dick.; 4/5/24, 10:10 AM
Iman said...: Baby Beluga!; 4/5/24, 11:41 AM
Iman said...: Baby Beluga!; 4/5/24, 11:41 AM
Ann Althouse said...: If we're going to talk about Moby-Dick, I must say that there's a whole riff about how the tail is horizontal and not — like the "fish" in the photo — vertical.

"To be short, then, a whale is a spouting fish with a horizontal tail. There you have him. However contracted, that definition is the result of expanded meditation. A walrus spouts much like a whale, but the walrus is not a fish, because he is amphibious. But the last term of the definition is still more cogent, as coupled with the first. Almost any one must have noticed that all the fish familiar to landsmen have not a flat, but a vertical, or up-and-down tail. Whereas, among spouting fish the tail, though it may be similarly shaped, invariably assumes a horizontal position. By the above definition of what a whale is, I do by no means exclude from the leviathanic brotherhood any sea creature hitherto identified with the whale by the best informed Nantucketers; nor, on the other hand, link with it any fish hitherto authoritatively regarded as alien.* Hence, all the smaller, spouting and horizontal tailed fish must be included in this ground-plan of Cetology. Now, then, come the grand divisions of the entire whale host"

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick: or, the White Whale (p. 97). Kindle Edition.; 4/5/24, 11:44 AM
Ann Althouse said...: A whale is a fish?

Obviously not, but "mammal" is a word that does not appear in "Moby-Dick."

"[I]n what internal respect does the whale differ from other fish. Above, Linnaeus has given you those items. But in brief they are these: lungs and warm blood; whereas, all other fish are lungless and cold blooded.

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick: or, the White Whale (p. 97). Kindle Edition.; 4/5/24, 11:46 AM
Rusty said...: Ann Althouse said...
Hey! You're allowed license. So are we.
It looks like a whale. From the top. Maybe with spinal problems. OK?; 4/5/24, 11:47 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?

By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.

Methinks it is like a weasel.

It is backed like a weasel.

Or like a whale?

Very like a whale.; 4/5/24, 11:51 AM
Kevin said...: I must say that there's a whole riff about how the tail is horizontal and not — like the "fish" in the photo — vertical.

Yes, but this "fish" is out of water.

What say Melville about that?; 4/5/24, 12:16 PM
tim in vermont said...: "all other fish"

Love that.; 4/5/24, 12:56 PM
Skeptical Voter said...: You see a snow fish. I see a snow goose. Differences are what makes the world go round.; 4/5/24, 12:59 PM