[QUOTE=runner pat]
Whatever you do;
DON’T pick it up! 
[/QUOTE]
My Spysweeper blocked access to that website. That almost never happens, so I regard it as a bad omen. Does that make the above a bad post?
[QUOTE=Cluricaun]
Sort of, take those, make the body narrower and white instead of black, make the rooty fringe pale brown and you’re close too.
I like saying rooty fringe.
[/QUOTE]
This is kelp, too, but you can’t see any “rooty fringe.”
I just can’t google-fu anything else that matches your description.
I think I may have seen what you’re talking about. When all dried out, it looks kind of like a bunch of poker chips on a string or something. If that’s the case, I believe it’s the vertebrae of some sea creature who’s name escapes me.
[QUOTE=Brown Eyed Girl]
This is kelp, too, but you can’t see any “rooty fringe.”
I just can’t google-fu anything else that matches your description.
[/QUOTE]
That’s much closer! Does kelp have a skeleton like inside?
Could they be conch eggs ?
[QUOTE=Polycarp]
The normal English plural, FWIW, is penises. There are a few technical usages for which penes is preferable, but either is normally correct; in common speech penes appears affected, as if showing off pedantry.
[/QUOTE]
But penii is never correct. And neither is octopi.
[QUOTE=Crotalus]
Could they be conch eggs ?
[/QUOTE]
Nope, but I’ll say that those are pretty cool looking. I’m beginning to think that I got all excited over normal everyday kelp. Sometimes they shouldn’t let midwesterners travel.
[QUOTE=acsenray]
And neither is octopi.
[/QUOTE]
Noooo! That is my favorite! Can I still say hippopotami?
[QUOTE=Cluricaun]
Nope, but I’ll say that those are pretty cool looking. I’m beginning to think that I got all excited over normal everyday kelp. Sometimes they shouldn’t let midwesterners travel.
[/QUOTE]
Actually, I’m not too sure it was kelp either. My guess is it was likely some type of seaweed, quite possibly Sargassum (washed in from the Sargasso Sea in the middle of the Atlantic), but I’m not sure. And just because it’s ordinary algae, doesn’t mean it isn’t fascinating. Biological diversity is such an interesting topic to start with.
I enjoyed trying to figure it out, though; sort of like a Google treasure hunt.
quietly wishing I’d stuck to it in school and followed my youthful dreams
[QUOTE=acsenray]
But penii is never correct. And neither is octopi.
[/QUOTE]
You mean that pi is not the plural of pus? And *i * is not the plural of us?