Houses and Stinkfish, Number 6: Here Be Dragons!
Today's walk was far from home. I needed to charge the car for our trip out of town. Yes, we have an electric car because we love Mother Gaia (but hate Elon Musk).
Unfortunately, I had to charge the car at a mall. A mall! Like we are still living in the 20th century! Have I mentioned we drive an electric car? And, as you know, this is Thanksgiving week here in the US of A and there is nothing worse than being in a mall just before Thanksgiving! Every store has a Squanto outside ringing a bell and you are expected to drop a handful of mashed potatoes in his bucket. 1
Everyone at the mall was wearing Pilgrim outfits. Here's a store that sells nothing but Pilgrim hats and shoes:
In other words, no cool houses. And all the pavements at the Mall were free of contractor stamps, aka stinkfish. Instead, how about a picture of a fish?
You'll immediately recognize an Osteoglossum bicirrhosum or silver arowanna. A native of the Amazon river basin, the silver arowanna can grow up to 90 cm or 35 Freedom Inches. A still picture really doesn't do the creature justice as its movements show off its iridescent scales best.
Arowannas are fascinating fish. They are tremendous leapers with the ability to catch prey right off tree branches. They are also "mouth brooders." The female lays her eggs and then goes about her business. Once the fry are hatched, it is the male who watches over them. If a predator swims by, papa opens that great big maw, the little tiny babies swim in and he keeps them safe until danger passes. I really appreciate nature's good dads. And gender is a spectrum.
There are African and Australian arowannas as well. The Asian arowana (Scleropages formosus) is also known as the "dragonfish" and is considered a good luck charm, something that has both benefits and drawbacks for this rare fish.
Many consider the Asian arowanna to be the most beautiful of the arowannas, but I think that deep red color is trying to hard. Give me the simple beauty of the silver arowanna any day.
To the best of my knowledge no arowannas are particularly stinky; but they are dragon-like.
While the mashed potato bit we all can admit is hilarious, I hope we all recognize that the Squanto aspect is offensive. The real story of Tisquantum is as tragic as pretty much all of the "first Thanksgiving" mythology. And the Treasure Chest cartoon here is from 1962 and is the kind of nonsense taught to children of my generation as fact. Just trying to suck the joy out of a post that is meant to be lighthearted.
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