# Why is a crossbook like a starfish **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 1, 2021, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-a-crossbook-like-a-starfish/929432 "2021-01-01T09:25:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-a-crossbook-like-a-starfish/929432/1 "2021-01-01T09:25:18Z")
I have no idea what this means. Its a rare case where I remember a dream, and thought I would post it to see if the masses could come up with post hoc answer. I’m not claiming anything deep or meaningful, I just thought it would be a fun exercise to see if anyone could relate the two. When I woke, I thought i was dreaming that it was a “Cross word book” but no, I clearly dreamt “Cross book” which means something about betting that I never knew before. [Crossbooking - Gambling Separate from Table Stakes](http://pokerterms.com/crossbooking.html) Anyway, Why is a crossbook like a starfish? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-a-crossbook-like-a-starfish/929432/2 "2021-01-01T09:30:08Z")
Wait, so are you saying you saw or heard something about “crossbook” in a dream in which it was also somehow connected with a starfish? There’s that famous account of a dream in which the question arose of how a raven is like a writing-desk. Maybe this is similar? In your dream, did this happen at some kind of tea party? ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-a-crossbook-like-a-starfish/929432/3 "2021-01-01T09:39:57Z")
sadly my memory has faded. I just remember in my dream a guy asking the question. WHen I woke, I thought of the raven/writing desk idea. No tea parties or anything that I can remember. just some dude in a toga asking me the question. Note that I had never heard of a ‘crossbook’ before and had to look it up this morning. I really thought it meant ‘crossword book’ and would go with that as a possibility, since my conscious self was unaware of the term before. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-a-crossbook-like-a-starfish/929432/4 "2021-01-01T10:21:07Z")
My guess is that ‘crossbook’ is a dream version of Bible, Christian religious book. Starfish? Depends what associations it has in your mind. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-a-crossbook-like-a-starfish/929432/5 "2021-01-01T11:06:33Z")
They both walk about on a large number of tube feet supported by hydrostatic pressure? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2021, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-a-crossbook-like-a-starfish/929432/6 "2021-01-01T23:28:26Z")
Now that some committee or other has renamed the starfish, “They both don’t exist.” (Apparently, we’re supposed to call them “Sea Stars” now. Pfui.) ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2021, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-a-crossbook-like-a-starfish/929432/7 "2021-01-02T00:59:29Z")
They both have radial symmetry? (If the book is square) Brian ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2021, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-a-crossbook-like-a-starfish/929432/8 "2021-01-02T17:08:37Z")
Presumably because neither one can whistle. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2021, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-a-crossbook-like-a-starfish/929432/9 "2021-01-02T20:13:44Z")
> [@N9IWP](#): > > They both have radial symmetry? (If the book is square) > Brian Does the typical 5-legged ~~starfish~~ sea star have radial symmetry? ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2021, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-a-crossbook-like-a-starfish/929432/10 "2021-01-02T20:58:08Z")
> [@](#): > > Among animals, only the echinoderms such as [sea stars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_star), [sea urchins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_urchin), and [sea lilies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_lilies) are pentamerous as adults, with five arms arranged around the mouth. Being bilaterian animals, however, they initially develop with mirror symmetry as larvae, then gain pentaradial symmetry later.[[11]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symmetry_in_biology#cite_note-11) Another thing in common (besides being made of matter and being macroscopic) is they are both made from cells (well, the book was made from tree cells) Brian ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2021, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-a-crossbook-like-a-starfish/929432/11 "2021-01-02T21:00:22Z")
except if you accept the definition of Cross book…rather than Cross word book; since a cross book is an action, not an actual physical thing. I’m glad I put this into MPSIMS… ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2021, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-a-crossbook-like-a-starfish/929432/12 "2021-01-02T21:06:57Z")
> [@Wiki as quoted by N9IWP](#): > > only the echinoderms such as [sea stars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_star), [sea urchins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_urchin), and [sea lilies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_lilies) are pentamerous as adults I’d expect to find pentamerous adults among the Letters to Penthouse too. There are pentamerous flora too. Cut an apple in half along the “equator” and the seeds inside will be seen to be in pentamerous arrangement. So: Why is a starfish like an apple? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2021, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-a-crossbook-like-a-starfish/929432/13 "2021-01-02T22:37:26Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > So: Why is a starfish like an apple? ER doctors have probably removed both? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2021, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-a-crossbook-like-a-starfish/929432/14 "2021-01-02T22:43:43Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > ER doctors have probably removed both? @Sigene, are you still glad you put this thread in MPSIMS? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-a-crossbook-like-a-starfish/929432/15 "2021-01-03T03:15:52Z")
According to Kurt Vonnegut, they both kinda look like Assholes?