Giant Isopods feasting on Doritos brand chips!
I came across this fascinating and funny photo in this SomethingAwful article. I used to read every animal, nature, and insect book I could get my hand on as a kid, but I’d never seen anything like this odd beast. I tried Googling “modern trilobite” and similar, but to no avail. Finally, I returned to SA and found the answer in the forums; they are Giant Isopods, crustaceans that live deep in the ocean. They are closely related to the woodlouse, a small critter that most people are familiar with; back East, we called them “sowbugs.”
Apparently, they’ve sparked a small Internet meme, inspiring clothing and music.
I’d love to know that backstory behind this photo. Who fed their three Isopods a bag of Doritos? And what’s their favorite flavor?
I waste a lot of time with Google maps. I’ve recently rekindled my fascination with London after finding the Hampton Court Palace maze on Google maps.
I think I also found the little pub across the street from the palace grounds that I enjoyed a few bitters at. The rear part of the pub had an outdoor patio right on the Thames; I crouched at the edge and touched it. (Yeah, locals are laughing at me because it’s dirty, but it seemed pretty exotic to a guy who spent his first quarter century living in Pennsylvania).
I’m not exactly sure which structure it was (the smaller one to the right or the larger to the left?) I don’t remember big umbrellas being that close to the water…but then again, I was last there in 1991.
How many birds can you name? Hopefully more than the developers of the “El Dorado” development back in the early sixties.
We live in a small neighborhood nestled in the southwest corner of Serra Mesa. The neighorhood is known locally as Birdland. I suppose the reason is because all of the street names are named after birds. You’d think that would be a theme you could easily apply to a massive neighborhood; bird names are not in short supply. Nonetheless, the individuals tasked with naming our streets seemed to have run out of real bird names rapidly. Coming into Birdland, we have Cardinal Road. A small cul-de-sac attaches to Cardinal Road named Cardinal Place. Cardinal Road the splits, with one side designated Cardinal Lane (which leads back to some storage facillities owned by the San Diego School District) and the other is named Cardinal Drive. This is not looking good already.
Let’s keep going. We have Finch, Bobolink (yes, that’s a real bird), Seagull, Whinchat, Hornbill,Goshawk, Redbird (which is actually a common name for a cardinal), Macaw, Blue Jay, Meadowlark, Peacock, Canary, Hummingbird, Nightingale, Teal, Kiwi, Pheasant, Starling, Teebird- wait, that’s not a real bird. As far as I can tell, the only thing named “Teebird” is a frisbe model. Talon? Yes, after twenty birds, we’ve apparently run out of real bird names. And how about “Sprig Place.” I’m not sure what “Sprig” has to do with birds.
