18 thoughts on “Slimehead and chips, please”

  1. Yet one further indication that there are too many people on the planet, which is another thing you never hear the creationaries talk about.

  2. Hey, now wait a minute – I have an idea.

    Never mind the ‘endangered species’ act. What is needed is a new law that says once an edible species is in danger of extinction, its name will be mandated to change to something disgusting.

    We could even have scatological naming contests!

      1. Yes, I wholly agree. And do this not only for edible species but all endangered species. And in many cases it will not be necessary to think up new common names, but only to translate the scientific names back in to what they really mean in simple English. For example, just start calling the endangered Cryptoprocta ferox by what its name really means, the hidden asshole, and be done with it.

  3. …and the Chilean sea bass was the Patagonia tooth fish. I don’t know, I just never cared for orange roughy.
    I hate to to tell you what the Kiwi Fruit was originally called.

      1. Hempenstein, if you have a chance check the urban dictionary. Chinese gooseberry was the other name.

    2. Jef-
      No could find. UD & Wikipedia only refer to CG & melonettes, which I don’t think is what you refer to.

  4. It’s done not only to individual species, but to habitats. Prior to having nearly its whole surface covered over by high-rise hotels and associated establishments, Hog Island in the Bahamas was renamed Paradise Island.

    1. Oh, don’t make people look it up. The common name is: the slippery dick. I’m sure you can say that here and it wont be deleted. Because this is a science blog, and that really is the common name of this fish. But of course, the fish is slippery by virtue of a natural mucus coating; and not KY lubricant.

      1. Meanwhile, somewhere in the bowels of Google a spike in the search of “Halichoeres bivittatus” was recorded today.

  7. Some time ago I went to one of these ‘eco-looky’ supermarkets (Sprouts, Whole Foods, etc.), and noticed that they sold Atlantic Salmon (all supermarkets do, but it really is very bad) as well as Orange Roughy. I told the fishmonger the reason why he should not offer the latter (overfished, very old before they spawn, going extinct), and his only reply was “Keep the customers happy, that’s the most important thing, right?” He didn’t mean it as a question, but in his profound ignorance about his own livelihood, he is just plain wrong on that one.

  8. At least Atheists are totally immune from attack on this point.
    Apparently our diet consists entirely of sacrificed babies with a little barbecue sauce.

    (BTW: I had a similar conversation at my fish shop when I saw Orange Roughy for sale.
    I told the manager that judging by the size of the specimens, they could well have been born during Queen Victoria’s reign.
    He seemed taken aback, but not for long, and came up with the tired old commercial justification.)

  9. Such a pity – if it were still called “slimehead” I might get an excellent frying fish for cheap.

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