I went to a function at the Aquarium near my home last evening… and I overheard this conversation:
Insert thick Brooklyn Accesnt here
Look at the fish! See Billy, Look at the big fishy!
Oh…WOW!! Daddy…Look at the Big Fish…What kinda fish is it?!
It’s a Dolphin Fish…Billy…
Phlosphr thinks to himself: Ok I’m not going to go and correct the gentleman, if he wants to tell his kid this dophin is a fish…fine! No biggy…
Ok I just can’t do that! I worked in an large aquarium for quite a while during my undergrad…and I truly believe people should be informed right?
So going against my instinct I walked over and informed the man and his son that these dolphins, and infact all whales, dolphins, and porpoises are mammals and there fore have mammary glands, fur covering their entire body, and give birth to live young. So not fish…but mammals.
Dumbfounded the man look at me and said…“Ohhh…really??? thats nice…”
And walked away…I shrugged and walked the other direction towards the Pinnipeds. …
Was I wrong to inform this man? Shouldn’t people want to teach their children correct info?
[ol]
[li]Little Billy might have been a little too young to understand.[/li][li]Little Billy might barely have a grasp on which end of his anatomy to insert a peanut butter sandwich into, & can’t deal with the concepts.[/li][li]Hi Opal! [/li][li]Big Daddy might not appreciate being made to look like a dinglefwat in front of Little Billy. Little Phlosphrmight be really lucky that Big Daddy didn’t poke him in the schnozzola, if Brooklyn’s rep is anything close to true.[/li][/ol]
May I just say that the adverb ‘duncical’ may look awkward on the page, but has a very excellent ring when spoken aloud. Thank you, Phlosphr. Oh, hey, you wanna buy a vowel?
Hi Opal should only be used when the list consists of two entries, hence it being the third term. I would have thought a 99’er like yourself would have known that.
As for the Brooklyn Dolphin man, If people still think dolphins are fish and not mammals then by gosh, we’ve gotta fight that ignorance. Good on you Phlosphr
Well, no, they don’t have fur covering their entire body. In the cetacea, hair is generally only sparsely found near the lips in teh form of coarse bristles, and almost nowhere else. In some species, it is only found on juveniles.
I just wanted to add that if the kid was 10ish and could not identify a dolphin on sight, the fight against ignorance is lost with regard to this family…
In the interest of full disclosure and ignorance-fighting, it should probably be pointed out that there are, in fact, “Dolphin Fish”, which are well and truly fish. See also here.