Comments for Wave Without A Shore

Comment on And they think there might be alien life on other planets… by CJ

CJ — Sat, 18 May 2013 13:29:29 +0000

The Parktown Prawn looks somewhat like our (smaller) Jerusalem Cricket. Glug! I had rather pick up a grasshopper any day. The Crickets have sharp leg spurs.

Jane has a ‘thing’ about cricket sounds…they have to be tracked down. When we fed crickets to our skinks, and a cricket would escape, it would be a hunt…for sure.

I also grew up during a) a major drought b) a bloom of grasshoppers that ate every bush in town and tore up grass c) a bloom of rats, big ones, one of which did in our cat d) a bloom of rattlesnakes…They were probably interconnected events, but down in Lawton, it was bad. I recall opening the back door of our house and having 30-40 rats duck for cover in the hedges and bushes. The snakes were the scariest, because they were quiet, but the rats were yucky, and the grasshoppers ate the bushes so badly they looked like skeletons.

Comment on And they think there might be alien life on other planets… by weeble

weeble — Sat, 18 May 2013 11:34:26 +0000

Oh there are some VERY strange looking fish out there, they’ve only started to cover them with that list! I think one of the most memorable from my observer days was a long skinny thing about 3 feet long and maybe as big around as a soda can… This thing had a mouth that would open almost 8 inches and TEETH that looked like they could slice a finger off! Darned if I can remember what they were called, but I know I cut the jaws out of one and dried it, then sent it back home to entertain my little brother.

Comment on And they think there might be alien life on other planets… by GreenWyvern

GreenWyvern — Sat, 18 May 2013 10:06:48 +0000

Parktown Prawn: “You lookin’ at me? Who you lookin’ at? I walk on your face, you ugly mammal!”

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Libanasidus_vittatus01.jpg

Comment on And they think there might be alien life on other planets… by GreenWyvern

GreenWyvern — Sat, 18 May 2013 10:04:20 +0000

If ever an insect can be said to have an ‘attitude’ it’s the so-called ‘Parktown Prawn’ found in the Johannesburg area of South Africa. It’s actually a species of cricket, named after the Johannesburg suburb of Parktown, and ‘prawn’ because of its bright orange color.

They are the most excessively and disgustingly HORRIBLE insects – sorry, I know that have a right to exist too, but they really are! They can be 3 inches long, or maybe 4 with their long gangly legs, and they look like this.

But their appearance – which no photo ever seems to do justice to – is the least of it.

The worst thing is when you go bed at night and switch off the light, and after a few minutes you hear a loud scraping, rustling sound behind or under the furniture. You switch on the light, and it immediately stops. You look around, but you can’t see anything. You switch off the light, and just as you are about to go to sleep again, the noise starts up again. Then you know it’s a Parktown prawn walking around like it owns the place.

And you CAN’T just leave it. If you do, the chances are that you will wake up with a jolt in the early hours of the morning to find a Parktown prawn walking heavily over your hand… or over your face.

They are NOT scared of humans.

If you try to catch it, it will jump. They can jump about a yard high and two yards in distance.

And if a Parktown prawn gets the idea that you are after it, then instead of jumping away from you, it will jump aggressively right AT YOU and cling tightly to your clothes with its barbed claws. It will grab you by the collar and stare you in the eye.

Yes, they have an attitude.

And even worse, they have the ability to discharge their stomach contents at will, in the form of a thick, black, sticky goo which has the most intense and disgusting smell you can imagine, and which is very difficult to get off clothes or carpets. And it will do that if it decides it doesn’t like your ugly face.

That’s why they are bright, shiny orange. Most animals and birds will give them wide berth, as they are NOT nice to eat, due to the horrible-smelling black goo.

Cats, however, are an exception. Cats consider them to be better fun to play with than mice, and will bring them into your house so that you can share in the amusement of a contest of wills with a large pushy insect.

Comment on And they think there might be alien life on other planets… by BlueCatShip

BlueCatShip — Sat, 18 May 2013 08:25:57 +0000

That’s a pretty cool observation. And possibly a good band name.

Comment on And they think there might be alien life on other planets… by paul

paul — Sat, 18 May 2013 06:34:18 +0000

If’n octopi lived longer than a couple years they’d rule the world!

Comment on And they think there might be alien life on other planets… by paul

paul — Sat, 18 May 2013 06:32:41 +0000

I suppose one of the clues I was touched by ASD, if I’d known how to interpret it, happened in my 20′s as I was driving down the street (7th?) in Long Beach, CA, and for no explicable reason it popped into my consciousness, “Metronome and monotreme are anagrams!”

Comment on And they think there might be alien life on other planets… by CJ

CJ — Sat, 18 May 2013 05:19:24 +0000

Btw, the leafy sea dragon is one of the most beautiful creatures you’ll ever see swimming. But there are so many…the oarfish is another. And cuttlefish have to be seen to be believed: their color changes are fascinating. So is the mimic octopus, that can shape-and-color-shift amazingly into what it isn’t.

Comment on And they think there might be alien life on other planets… by P J Evans

P J Evans — Sat, 18 May 2013 04:33:50 +0000

Gills. (My sister sent me a knit-your-own-axolotl pattern. I also have a pattern for making a yeti crab.)

Comment on And they think there might be alien life on other planets… by P J Evans

P J Evans — Sat, 18 May 2013 04:31:29 +0000

this one is down the street from me. Some on the building (and it's not the only one in the area with panels), and a bunch more over part of the parking.