Living in the Dark

In a the most recent issue of Smithsonian, there is an article entitled "Creatures of the Deep!" The article shows pictures from a new book called The Deep by Claire Nouvian, which details life in ocean depths of 650 feet and beyond. The pictures are of newer-ish-ly discovered microorganisms that live in the deepest waters of the sea. This article is funny because it profiles such fantastically named creatures as the Gulper Eel, droopy sea pen, ping-pong tree sponge, the Yeti crab (which looks like a tiny crab with these silly long front claws that appear to be covered in white Christmas tinsel); as well as my personal favourites, the Googly-Eyed Glass Squid and the Pigbutt Worm. You may think I'm making these all up, but I am not. Which leads me to the following conclusion: Either these scientists are bullied high school nerds all grown-up and exacting their vengeance on the world by naming newly discovered creatures the mostly ridiculous names they can come up with OR they are bullied high school nerds all grown-up studying ridiculously-named sea creatures because since they're already nerdy, it can't get any worse.

Hello, I'm Dr. Dorky McFly and I'm a marine biologist. I make the big bucks studying Googly-Eyed Glass Squid and Pigbutt Worms. No it's true! Please stop laughing!

Seriously. Pigbutt worms??

**********************
On Sunday morning, the Little Goat and I were sitting in church on the pew in front of a collection of Little Old Church Ladies. At some point while we were sitting there, the LG received the strangest compliment she may ever hear: "Oh, my! Just look at those STRAIGHT eyes!"