Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Confession: The following post is shamelessly recycled from an email I once sent to Marty; I just remembered it and thought I'd reproduce it here - a throat clearing cough.
Me: I really like that thing Herman Melville wrote about the fish.
Some guy: Moby Dick. It’s a whale, dude. Whales aren’t fish.
Me: No, they’re not. But “fish” is notoriously imprecise. Anyway, I wasn’t talking about Moby Dick, I meant the Maldive Shark.
About the Shark, phlegmatical one,
Pale sot of the Maldive sea,
The sleek little pilot-fish, azure and slim,
How alert in attendance be.
From his saw-pit of mouth, from his charnel of maw,
They have nothing of harm to dread,
But liquidly glide on his ghastly flank
Or before his Gorgonian head;
Or lurk in the port of serrated teeth
In white triple tiers of glittering gates,
And there find a haven when peril's abroad,
An asylum in jaws of the Fates!
They are friends; and friendly they guide him to prey,
Yet never partake of the treat--
Eyes and brains to the dotard lethargic and dull,
Pale ravener of horrible meat.
Some guy: Truly, you are a remarkable man.
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Me: I really like that thing Herman Melville wrote about the fish.
Some guy: Moby Dick. It’s a whale, dude. Whales aren’t fish.
Me: No, they’re not. But “fish” is notoriously imprecise. Anyway, I wasn’t talking about Moby Dick, I meant the Maldive Shark.
About the Shark, phlegmatical one,
Pale sot of the Maldive sea,
The sleek little pilot-fish, azure and slim,
How alert in attendance be.
From his saw-pit of mouth, from his charnel of maw,
They have nothing of harm to dread,
But liquidly glide on his ghastly flank
Or before his Gorgonian head;
Or lurk in the port of serrated teeth
In white triple tiers of glittering gates,
And there find a haven when peril's abroad,
An asylum in jaws of the Fates!
They are friends; and friendly they guide him to prey,
Yet never partake of the treat--
Eyes and brains to the dotard lethargic and dull,
Pale ravener of horrible meat.
Some guy: Truly, you are a remarkable man.
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