Amid all the political commentary of the past week, I have failed to post anything about a significant developent in my life which occurred last weekend: I bought a fish.
He’s a Betta fish, and he’s the one on the right in the photo above. (The fish on the left is Becky’s female Betta, Capone.) And yes, he’s a he — the first male pet in the heretofore X-chromosome-dominated animal kingdom of the Brendan & Becky house. Toby, Sasha, Butter, Ozzie, Harriet and Capone, meet the man of the house: Gimli.
Yes, his name is Gimli. :) It was the first thing that came to mind, and I’m sticking with it.
And lest you think that Betta fish, which cost roughly $3.00 at Wal-Mart, are silly pets to have, think again: it turns out Bettas can be downright heroic. :)
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Categories: My Life
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January 31st, 2004 at 6:55:34 pm
Heroic, aye. And if you put a Betta Legolas in with him, they’ll kill each other.
January 31st, 2004 at 7:47:12 pm
Har har har YAAAY
Hurrah for Gimli the Dwarvish Fish!
& Hurrah for Dory too! That betta is heroic to the maxx. :) The fish should get a lifetime dues-paid-up membership in the Firefighters’ Union. :) “…Each of them [the schoolchildren] wrote a story from the fish’s point of view, how his Friday night went.” Oy! such a Friday night, it coulda gone betta. :)
But uh, like, poor bold Gimli & his fair Capone! One’s heart goes out. Pyramus & Thisbee. Two degrees of Bowl Separation. Something there is that does not love a Wall. (Never mind about Arafat!) “Fish got to swim, birds got to fly…” / “And there’s nothing for me but Maria…” / (Fish eggs, Fish eggs, jolly jolly Fish eggs…) “Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I’ll no longer be a Capulet…” / “FER-GIT THET S_ _T! HERE COMES BUTTER BAGGINS!!” (Boom! DOOM!) (Apologies to Tolkien & Mel Brooks)
WAW haw haw haw…shtoppit, I’m Pettinato Killeen me here. :)
February 1st, 2004 at 12:14:29 am
Just to be technical, not all of your pets are dominated by X chromosomes. In birds (as well as many reptiles), the sex chromosomes are the Z and the W–they’re named differently because they are derived from entirely different ancestral chromosomes than the mammalian X and Y are. And, to further complicate the matter, female birds have a Z and a W, while male birds have two Z chromosomes. It’s all part of the fun of Biology: The Science of Exceptions.
February 1st, 2004 at 8:04:18 am
Mike - X cellent! W onderful. :)
“Just to be technical” is just to Live. Commentposting denizens of this blog (like all mentating mammalians) love “just to be technical”. Even those of us derived from questionable ancestral chromosomes. :)
Also we like to see Brendan get Corrected. It enhances his Section on Humility. You guys make up for my Failures as a Fadduh. :)
The Science of Exceptions rules!
Of course there was Ernest Rutherford who famously said “In science there is only physics; everything else is stamp collecting.” :) But those guys always propound the Theory that they know Everything. They really DO think they Are the Grand Unification. / Anyways they’ve stumbled across a helluva lotta Exceptions of their own since old Ernie’s time. That Standard Model, oy! such a mess. Renormalizations R Us. “Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynmann.” :)
February 2nd, 2004 at 12:21:19 am
So now, in a house formerly full of females + Brendan, how come this mostly female animal kingdom is the Brendan and Becky house, and not the Becky and Brendan house? I myself have never been one to insist on lady’s first (ask David…) …but you do seem a bit outnumbered here…