Side note:
A furlong turns out to be more than just an oddly named submultiple of a mile.
It turns out to derive from “Furrow-long”, or the distance you plowed with your team before turning around and starting back.
A “square furlong” is an acre.
So the description in Moby Dick is of a cephalopod covering multiple acres.
Heavens yes!
I just read it (I got a library of classics with my e-reader) and while there are several noteable sections of dialogue (including the one immediately recognizable to Star Trek fans), most of the book is description - not description of the action, or the scene, or anything directly related to the story.
Along that line, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera are much the same, so it may have been the norm for the period.
CAUTION: If you enjoyed the Disney version of Hunchback, DO NOT READ THE ORIGINAL!
Slight correction / amplification:
The spermatophore, which is in appearance and action like a cross between a tampon and a party popper, is inserted into the female’s mantle cavity. When the protruding “string” is pulled, it ruptures and releases the sperm. This is not the strangest reproductive method among the cephalopods - there is an octopus that modifies the tip of one tentacle into a sperm carrier. When the male “gives his hand in marriage”, the female takes it. And leaves with it.
Maybe that’s where the Japanese got the idea. :eek:
What? You thought my net ID being a Celtic sea god was an accident? I wrote a term paper on the subject in college. 
Quoth MacLir:
Nitpick: A square furlong is ten acres. This is why parcels of land are so often a multiple of ten acres, and the standard farm size of 40 acres is a square a quarter-mile on a side. Four of these form a quarter section, 1/2 mile on a side, with the sides usually marked by a grid of roads. In developed areas, this half-mile or mile spacing will give you the major roads, with smaller roads usually spaced a furlong apart. In turn, 36 square-mile sections (in a 6x6 square) will form a township, though the distinct identity of those is often lost when they get swallowed up by big cities.
An acre is 1 furlong by 1 chain (or 4 rods). Handy diagram
It wasn’t Lucas, but a truly terrible author.
Watch the scene and Obi-Wan’s reaction. Solo was attempting to mock the stupid dirt farmers.
There’s a billion things to make fun of George Lucas for, but that line isn’t one of them.
-Joe