Anti-Caturday post

It’s no contest. The sea pig has everything a mere cat lacks: it’s cute and adorable, it’s pink, and it’s got tentacles. Once you’ve gone holothurian, you’ll never go…uh, I’m sure the local poet will be along to provide a catchy rhyme.

(Also on Sb)

32 comments on this post.
  1. Zeno:

    The sea pig is one day late for Garbanzo Day!

  2. abadidea:

    The closest rhyme I can think of is Epicurean.

  3. ChasCPeterson:

    Why, I was just extolling the many virtues of the sea-pig yesterday in class. What could be cooler than a bilaterally symmetrical motile animal with radially symmetrical sessile ancestors with bilaterally symmetrical motile ancestors with possibly-radially-symmetrical sessile ancestors? They have reinvented walking legs. Essentially scaled-up tardigrades without the exoskeleton. So, so cool.

    Almost as cool as yer pelagic swimming sea cukes.

  4. Father Ogvorbis: It's Good for You. It Builds Character:

    The closest rhyme I can think of is Epicurean.

    Golgafrinchian?

  5. Cuttlefish:

    An adventuresome, bold Epicurean
    Thought he’d whip up some friend holothurian
    His attempts, though, at makin’
    Delicious sea-bacon
    All failed. So sea-pigs, stop worryin’

  6. abadidea:

    Honored to have been of assistance, Mr. Cuttlefish, but would sea-pig count as one of those excessive delicacies Epicureans are admonished to avoid? :)

  7. Viva:

    You know, that thing made me think of the burgess shale fossil hallucigenia. that is a good thing! Fossilized animals are cute by definition. Especially ordovician sea scorpions.

  8. tushcloots:

    Sea pigs don’t piss on everything, either.
    How to stop cats pissing on your car

  9. Baktru:

    Meh not too impressed by the sea pigs. Sea Angels however are kind of cute:

  10. Defaithed:

    While I tapped at a text editor, Cuttlefish beat me to the poem. Here’s my attempt anyway:

    ==
    Ode to Eating Sea Cuke

    Just stop your worryin’
    and go holothurian;
    the texture is burry ‘n’
    nice.

    It’s no worse than durian;
    a true Epicurean
    eats them with curry ‘n’
    rice.
    ==

    Ahem. Sorry, I guess I’ll leave it to the pros. But for the record, I have eaten raw sea cucumber, smothered in hot sauce, at a Korean restaurant (and dang it if “Korean” doesn’t *almost* make for a good additional rhyme…).

    Mmm, rubbery stuff. Not as crunchy as jellyfish.

  11. llewelly:

    Cuttlefish | 8 October 2011 at 2:03 pm:

    An adventuresome, bold Epicurean
    Thought he’d whip up some friend holothurian
    His attempts, though, at makin’
    Delicious sea-bacon
    All failed. So sea-pigs, stop worryin’

    (Emphasis mine.)
    Er, friend?
    “Adventuresome, bold Epicurean” tried to cook a friend?
    I’ve heard tell of people cannibalizing a fellow raftmate when lost far out to sea, or a fellow pioneer when trapped by deep snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains, but eating a friend for the sake of “adventure”?

  12. Brian:

    Perhaps in his haste, Cuttlefish was too fried to properly spell-check his post.

  13. RFW:

    The French composer Erik Satie wrote Embryons desséchés (“Desiccated embryos”), a suite of three short pieces for piano. The first is D’Holothurie, “Desiccated embryo of a Holothurian.”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK2PfFtQPWM

    Music to stroke your pet cephalopod or holothurian by.

  14. Glen Davidson:

    Wait until they become accessories for socialites like Paris Hilton

    We’ll see them all over the place. Smaller and more convenient than a dog, and clammier too!

    Glen Davidson

  15. happiestsadist:

    Aww, they’re all pink and adorable!

    I love the cat purring in my lap, but I kind of also want a sweet little sea pig in a tank.

  16. Kent Damgaard:

    I don’t think Satie is right, this looks more like it needs some old Barry White tunes :)

  17. CriticalDragon1177:

    PZ Myers,

    What is the point of these Anti-Caturday posts anyway? What does the word Caturday mean anyway?

  18. 'Tis Himself, OM:

    But do sea pigs barf all over the bath mat, leaving a present for you to discover as you stumble barefoot towards the toilet at oh-dark-hundred?

  19. dexitroboper:

    Caturday: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=caturday

  20. Troy Britain:

    Wow, a deuterostome… Who are you and what have you done with P(‘protostome’)Z Myers?!

  21. pj:

    @CriticalDragon1177

    Saturday is Caturday for cat lovers. There are three possibilities that I can think of for Anti-Caturday:

    1) PZ opposes all cuteness
    2) PZ tries to keep up his appearances as a baby-eating atheist internet overlord
    3) it’s a willy-waving contest with non-blogger Jerry Coyne who has Caturday regularly in his non-blog Why Evolution Is True

  22. CriticalDragon1177:

    Dexitroboper,

    Oh so, Caturday, means funny pictures of cats? Interesting.

  23. Tethys:

    um..I could very well be wrong but I think Caturday started on icanhascheezburger.com

  24. vltava:

    Caturday, like most everything on the Net, started on 4chan.

  25. John Morales:

    pj, I can think of more.

    (Your (1) is confuted by this very post, BTW)

  26. pj:

    I admit I didn’t read the actual text this time. So anti-cuteness is refuted. Other possibilities:

    - PZ hates cats (but it would shameful for a biologist to hate an entire species IMO)
    - PZ wants to challenge fluffonormative views of cuteness

    What do you have, John Morales?

  27. Ragutis:

    Cute, but it’s no “Barry the worm”.

  28. Katkinkate:

    Another alternative: PZ likes to be a contrarian. That’s not a problem though. I do myself at times. It’s quite fun. Does anyone know what the little swimming things are under the beastie?

  29. John Morales:

    pj,

    What do you have, John Morales?

    An unfettered imagination, and no need to speculate. :)

  30. chimaera:

    Not all sea pigs are as cute as this one…

  31. WMDKitty:

    I just snatched your “anti-caturday” icon. Love it.

  32. scotthatfield:

    Once you have gone holothurian,
    You will desire no other friend.