Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
If you get Penguin to go with The Albatross as the title, I’ll buy you that drink that Hemant won’t!
And I’m only half joking. Albatrosses are gorgeous birds, amazing athletes, calm and serene, faithful to their friends, in it for the long haul, are only minimally hindered by gravity, and have an undeserved bad reputation. Sound like any class of people you might know?
OF COURSE YOU DON’T GET BLOODY COMMUNION WAFERS WITH IT… ALBATROSS!!!
Coleridge and superstition aside, I was not aware that they have a bad reputation – what is it based on?
On the other hand these birds (and I absolutely agree with your assessment of how amazing they are) are faced with serious problems caused by us. Many adults are killed as by-catch by the longline fishing industry (they go for the baited hooks before they sink), the chicks choke on plastic garbage that the parents mistakenly bring back as food (see http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/midway/#CF000313%2018×24 for some rather disturbing pictures) and the nests get predated by introduced rats.
After all these years I finally looked up the lyrics to that song. I thought one line was, “You had one eye on the mirror as you watched yourself go by”. When it’s actually, “You had one eye on the mirror as you watched yourself gavotte”. I didn’t know what a “gavotte” was, so apparently I replaced it with “go by”. But now I know.
I’ve heard that song a million times and it’s always been ‘go by’ (I thought). Never noticed a clash of rhyme with ‘yacht’ and ‘apricot’; but the other verses don’t rhyme all the way through either. Huh. I might just stick with the version I know.
That is so awesome!! 😀
If you get Penguin to go with The Albatross as the title, I’ll buy you that drink that Hemant won’t!
And I’m only half joking. Albatrosses are gorgeous birds, amazing athletes, calm and serene, faithful to their friends, in it for the long haul, are only minimally hindered by gravity, and have an undeserved bad reputation. Sound like any class of people you might know?
b&
Damn that ancient mariner and his rime with its weird spelling. Go tell your slanderous tale to some other wedding party! 🙂
They also taste like bloody seabird, what other bleedin flavor do you think it would taste like, it’s a bleeding albatross!
That has a Pythonian flavour to it. Or am I just suffering a brain fade?
Or Derek and Clive?
nothing yet fading with respect to your brain 😉
Do you get communion wafers with it?
OF COURSE YOU DON’T GET BLOODY COMMUNION WAFERS WITH IT… ALBATROSS!!!
Coleridge and superstition aside, I was not aware that they have a bad reputation – what is it based on?
On the other hand these birds (and I absolutely agree with your assessment of how amazing they are) are faced with serious problems caused by us. Many adults are killed as by-catch by the longline fishing industry (they go for the baited hooks before they sink), the chicks choke on plastic garbage that the parents mistakenly bring back as food (see http://www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/midway/#CF000313%2018×24 for some rather disturbing pictures) and the nests get predated by introduced rats.
Albert Ross.
They also pick up a lot of human rubbish & die as a consequence
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=albatrosses+ocean+garbage&client=firefox-a&hs=Scs&sa=X&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=N5CRU42UBJSy7AbM1oDADw&ved=0CCUQsAQ&biw=1618&bih=922
In that vein, I’ll leaf you alone. Loved it!
Ha! This is brilliant!
And you’re where you should be all the time…
Excellent.
Brilliant!
Ha ha!
Brilliant! xkcd material.
After all these years I finally looked up the lyrics to that song. I thought one line was, “You had one eye on the mirror as you watched yourself go by”. When it’s actually, “You had one eye on the mirror as you watched yourself gavotte”. I didn’t know what a “gavotte” was, so apparently I replaced it with “go by”. But now I know.
I’ve heard that song a million times and it’s always been ‘go by’ (I thought). Never noticed a clash of rhyme with ‘yacht’ and ‘apricot’; but the other verses don’t rhyme all the way through either. Huh. I might just stick with the version I know.
The rhyme of gavotte, apricot, and yacht has been my favorite in pop music since the first day I heard it.
I don’t get it 🙁
ASCII Venn diagram?
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[ All people ]
[ -------------------------- ]
[ [ ] ]
[ [ the set of people ] ]
[ You [ who "get it" ] ]
[ [ ] ]
[ [ ] ]
[ -------------------------- ]
[ ]
[ ]
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ASCII Venn diagram fail. Strips the excess spaces.
Line up the columns of square brackets.
That’s not confusing at all.
My prototype sarcasm detector did not flicker in the slightest at that.
You took the words right out of my mouth (fingers).
Love it. Sorry to hear it’s an albatross! Maybe all books get like that at the end of the process?
The Albatross will be the best thing since Coleridge’s ‘Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner’:
‘It is an ancient Mariner
And he stoppeth one of three.
“By thy long gray beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?”‘
But the wedding guest must needs listen; and we WEITeans must needs read ‘The Albatross.’
Instead of the cross, the Albatross about my neck was hung.
My favourite line!
Aha! “The Albatross” is a joke. Should I be ashamed to admit it took me a few hours to realize that?
In my defense, I thought “The Albatross” was a very appropriate title for a book about religion.
Same here.
The song *is* about him, though. So even if he’s vain, he’s correct. And it’s James Taylor who it’s about, right?
I thought it was Warren Beatty.