(no subject)

[podling]

I actually had 2 posts all thought out and such, but that will have to wait. For now, ponder this... I am afraid of whales.

Not afraid as in I'd never go on a whale watch or to Sea World or anything, just kind of freaked out by their simply ginormous size.

Someone else's journal (I forget whose) said something about what animal they were afraid of, and they said none. And I thought, "am i?" And the immediate thought was, "WHALES!!!" (followed closely by "SHARKS!!!", but I digress) Then I was thinking, "Why whales?" I mean, it's extremely unlikely that death by whale is waiting for me. Whales aren't somewhere lying (floating) in wait for the moment I come by. Whales do not actually have it in for me. And from what I hear, whales aren't really fond of people as food. However... they're huge. Their hugeness is intimidating. They could smoosh me and not even notice. It's unlikely I'd be somewhere in the path of smooshness, but at the same time, they *could* without any kind of attention paid whatsoever. And so I examined the roots of this, and came up with two instances. One is having seen on tv (back when I had tv) an orca accidentally killing one of their human co-performers at some Sea World-ish place. The other, and probably the more freaky experience, was seeing the big blue whale at the Museum of Natural History. Gi-nor-mous.

Comments

Yes, I know I'm a freak

[packardgoose.livejournal.com]

When a friend of mine went diving off the coast of Fiji in college, he was given a large inflatable plastic rescue beacon. The beacon, essentially a small pink float with a 6ft pink spire, had a bad reputation among the experienced divers. On several occasions a diver signaling for rescue with one had been killed by a whale. Apparently, whales mistook the 6ft pink spire for a whale-penis and attempted to mate with the unwitting diver. Unfortunately for the diver, whale mating takes the course of the female lunging out of the water and onto the other whale, or in this case, diver. Consequently, most of the dive party was hesitant to use the beacons.

Re: Yes, I know I'm a freak

[podling]

You obviously should read that book 'Fluke'. Really you should. I'd offer to lend it, but sidruid lent it to me and I gave it back already. Though it's pretty cheap in trade paperback now. It's by Christopher Moore. Go!!!