"which indicates stress"
Yeah, no shit they're stressed. Sound travels really far under water, and whales are smart and know that it's other Minkes whales they are getting it. Hell, each whale has it's own song, so they'd even know which whale was copping a bunch of exploding iron in their guts.
It would be like a gritty World War 2 dogfight where the British are getting a paste-ing early on in the movie.
"Sorry lads, I'm going into the drink!"
"Bilbo's been hit!"
"Break right Frodo! Jerry's on your tail!"
"Left wings on fire... can't hold her st..."
"Hell's bells! I've lost my wingman!"
"Nooooooooooo....!"
Imagine hearing that for fourteen years! Maybe they're not just stressed but sprinting the fuck away from any ships they see.
Maybe we'll know for sure when they look like Lisa Ondieki and stop ovulating.
Any japanese 'scientists' reading this will surely go harpoon themselves in shame and embarrassment. I've been invitied to dinner to entertain a little old japanese lady next week. Maybe I'll print this out to give to her along with a little clip-on koala bear.
ermmm... harry? Your Freudian slip is showing....
I certainly don’t regularly blow up the neighbourhood dogs to ensure the increased health of the neighbourhood cats (that I secretly want to blow at a later date)
Can't fault your logic there, Harry. Life would be so much simpler if people 'fessed up to why they do dumb shit: 'cos it's fun!
Alternatively, there's always Ahab's justification: "I hate the whale because it is fucking evil, ok? Because I fucking said so!"
I don't know about freaking me out when I'm in the loo at ten o'clock at night, but I swear, they give me the irrits the way they sing in the bath when I'm trying to go to sleep.
maybe they need a bigger tub?
Yes Laura, I guess there is the "I'm a raving loony" defense and would explain why Japanese 'Research' vessesls have "You don't have to be mad to work here, but it helps!" stickers on the side.
Fyodor is quite right. The ship should have been called something like the 'Picard'. Now that is an inspiring name!
"Kill the whale, sir?"
"...Make it so."
"Photon torpedoes, Harpoons, or the lobster on my forehead?"
"I'm a traditionalist. We'll stick with harpoons."
"Kraddkazhhrrgh [trans: Hot diggity dog!]"
Laura,
Was that before or after he threw the eskimo overboard for interfering with the ship's goat? Just askin'.
Agree with Harry [no surprise there]. In fact, Laura, I believe The Wrath of Khan counts as an adaptation of Moby Dick, even down to Ricardo Montalban's funky white 1980's big-hair 'do.
"Yes Laura, I guess there is the "I'm a raving loony" defence"
Actually that is extrememly ironic, because we know whales are really good at bio-accumulating mercury which, went the whale is eaten, sends entire Japanese Villages mad.
viz The Mad Hatter.
Fyodor, it was just before Gary Coleman was nailed up in the coffin while comatose but still very much alive. There is no goat in Moby Dick, I don't know where you got that bit from fella.
I always thought that was a moment of great pathos in the book: the under-sized coffin sliding into the cold grey waves, all the while a plaintive voice screaming, "whadju talkin' 'bout, Willis?!!!".
Don't you remember the goat being slaughtered by Queequeg in the traditional Kokovokan manner? It forms part of a stew prepared by the harpoonist for the crew to stiffen their manly resolve in the face of the GREAT WHALE. Ahab eats one of the goat's eyeballs to provide the spiritual "third eye" he needs to track the fiendish albino leviathan.
I think you just like books with strange place names. I've just finished Crytonomincon or however it's spelt and am reading some chick lit to speed recovery from all that frickin maths.
Sulawesi...
Djibouti...
Trondheim...
Ithaca...
Orinoco...
What's not to like?
last night I was kerb-crawling the wool section at Lincraft and noticed a brand of wool called "Angola."
Talk about stress. I bet those Angolan sheep shear themselves!
Fyodor, you screwed up the lyrics again!
For those who don't know Fyodor and I are members of a Beach Boys tribute group but we often get mistaken for socialist/environmental revolutionary piss artists.
It's: "Garuda, Jamaca oh I wanna take you to, Bermuda, Bahama, come on cheesy momma."
no wonder we get mixed receptions.
"Garuda"
We get sponsored by an airline.
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