BS: Meet The Giant Squid!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Little Robyn
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 04:22 PM

Somewhere there's a web site to watch the dissection live but my little computer can't manage that. But a Google search should find it - it was on telly last night.
Robyn

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 09:40 PM

Well then, let's get kraken!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 09:14 PM

All the best puns have already been exhausted in this thread if you reread it.

And there will be bigger Krakin coming on line in the future, maybe even in your neighborhood.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Gurney
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 07:45 PM

'Come all ye punsters bold, and draw near, and draw near...'

or

'Whale meat again, don't know where, don't know when, but....'


The enormous squid caught by a Kiwi boat in the Antarctic is being dissected here as we speak. It took several days to defrost.

I think they were longlining for Peruvian Toothfish when they got it. In a documentary about the fishery, I saw the results of predation by squid (so they said) showing two-foot chunks bitted out of the hooked fish.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: ClaireBear
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 07:24 PM

Cheney would NEVER be welcome in the hot tub at the Mudcat tavern...or was it the Jell-O pit? Anyhow, it'd never happen.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: bankley
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 06:53 PM

oh, I thought that this was about Cheney...

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Donuel
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 01:31 PM

I must confess that yesterday while at the Tyson's Chinese buffet,

I ate a baby squid.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: GUEST,The Giant Squid
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 08:42 AM

Aargh! Poor old Harry.

We were wondering what happened to him.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: open mike
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 09:50 PM

Last month (Febr, 07) there was a record-breaking colossal squid caught near New Zealand (or Aukland?) possibly 990 pounds-nearly
300 pounds heavier than the record.

A colossal squid is caught in the Ross Sea, in Antarctic waters, ...
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2910849.stm

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: MMario
Date: 12 May 06 - 02:13 PM

yes - an acknowledgment would be nice. I have to say though - I have never, *EVER*, recieved an acknowledgement of a donation except to my church - with the exception of one chairty that told me that if I donated X dollars more they would furnish a reciept.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: GUEST
Date: 12 May 06 - 02:10 PM

I like squid and cheese!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 04:51 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 15 Oct 04 - 09:53 PM

It certainly calls for another rusty nail!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: michaelr
Date: 15 Oct 04 - 08:23 PM

It's the stuff of serious worry, I'd say. Oceanic climate change could be more dangerous than ozone depletion. Anyone seen "The Day After" or whatever it was called?

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Oct 04 - 06:20 PM

I heard this on the news yesterday. All sorts of warm water stuff is winding up hundreds of miles north of where they normally hang out. It's the stuff of stories and folksongs, seems to me!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 15 Oct 04 - 04:21 PM

Them squids are on the move! Thanks for the update, Rapaire.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Oct 04 - 03:29 PM

They're...they're...BACK!!

Jumbo Flying Squid Found Off Alaska

SITKA, Alaska (AP) -- A large Humboldt squid caught offshore from Sitka is among numerous sightings of a species seen for the first time in waters of the Far North, and the first of the species recovered from British Columbia waters.

The 5-foot Dosidicus gigas, or jumbo flying squid, was shipped this week to California to be kept for research at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.

The squid was one of a number caught with a dip net by fisherman Alan Otness and his crew on Sept. 18 as they baited longline gear at night. They brought back some of the creatures for examination by experts.

Eric Hochburg, curator of the Santa Barbara museum, said the species is usually found off Baja, Calif., and farther south.

The farthest north the species has been reported until this year was off the coast of Eugene, Ore., in 1997, said James A. Cosgrove, manager of natural history at the Royal British Columbia Museum. Before that year, the farthest north it was seen was near San Francisco, he said.

Until this summer, there have been no other sightings in the north, Cosgrove said.

"It's unprecedented," he said. "It speaks of a fundamental change in the ocean along the coast."

The museum is keeping a 6 1/2-foot, 44-pound Dosidicus gigas in a formaldehyde tank. The purple-bodied cephalopod with eight sucker-covered arms and two curly tentacles was caught Oct. 2.
        
Since news of that discovery was made public, Cosgrove has received seven reports of sightings since late July of jumbo squid in northwest waters from Oregon to Alaska. Beside the Sitka catch, the squid were spotted near Yakutat and Kodiak Island.

"We'll try to get a handle on are they moving north with warmer waters, and then do they die out as they head north, or does the cold water constrain their northward movement?" Hochburg said.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Jan 04 - 05:19 PM

Be my guest, Long John:Grog Song

Now, I think I'll surf for more giant squid stories.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: GUEST,Looooooooooooooooooooong John Sliver
Date: 12 Jan 04 - 11:23 AM

Ah, that does a man good, that does! Now, where was I? Ah, yes, I was tellin' ye about Captain Chance and how he suffered because he couldn't, wait, let me think of a word that won't offend the ladies present...ah, micturate. Well, mateys, one day, when we were seventeen long weeks from landfall at Hilton Head, Cap'n Chance's eyes turned yella. Bright yella. Awful, it was, to see him starin' at ye out of bloodshot yella eyes! One day, a hurrycane overtook us. We worked in hightops, takin' in sail, waves as high as the mainmast washin' o'er us, and the sea took three good sailors, too, that day, Thumbless Harry, Crawler, and Whalespit Jim, good men and women all.

More grog fer yer old ghostmate? NO!!??? Screw ya for a bunch of dirt-eating, land-lovin', swabs! No grog, no rum fer a thirst old ghost who...WATER?!?! Water's fer sailin' on, and beside, whales SHIT in water!

I'll finish no stories until I get me grog.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Jan 04 - 02:43 PM

Long John-

Here's a refreshing tribute to you!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: GUEST,Looooooooooooong John Sliver
Date: 10 Jan 04 - 09:58 AM

Arrrh!!! Welcome back, Mateys! Old Looooooooooooooong John needed a cup o' grog an' his shipmates come ta supply it!!

Mighty fearsome things, the colossal squids and the giants are. 'Course, we never called 'em those names. Nay, we had our own names fer 'em.

I remember on time, when I was ghostin' on the old "Thundermug." We was bound for Pago-Pago and Alma Alta with a load of cheap tin tray, we were. Oh, the Mate had told the owners that there was no market fer cheap tin trays in the South Pacific, that ye had ta take 'em to England, but they wouldn't lissen to 'er, so there we were, fightin' the spray, out of Maui 'round the Horn.

Now, I know what yer thinkin'. But our Mate, name o' Mary Reed, was bettern' any other I've ghosted under. She'd knock a man down fer lookin' cross-eyed, and ol' Cross-Eyed Jack spent the voyage black and blue. Half the crew "fell on their cutlass", an' it weren't no accidents that she was holdin' the cutlass they fell on.

Cap'n Chance was in charge, we called 'im "Fat Chance" an' not because of his weight, either. We sailors, we figgered that was the chance we had to drop the hook in Alma Alta, seein' as how it's landlocked. And our route there and to Pago Pago didn't make us any more confident in the Cap'n, either.

'Nother grog, but with more rum and less water. Aye, thankee.

Well, like I was sayin', we was riding the horses o' the sea, as the poets say, when we saw this fish, a shark we thought, about 24 meters long, like in the news articles. The crew took a right fright, tellin' the Mate an' the Cap'n to turn about, but the Mate coldcocked White Tom, gouged out a coupla eyes, bit off an ear, and sent all hands aloft, with or without their owners. Oh, she was a tough one!

Cap'n Chance looked ahead an' said, "Sail On! And on! And on! And on!"

Well, we hit that fishy square on, right in the middle of its belly. An' it reared up an'....

Will ye excuse an old salty ghost fer a moment? This grog is passin' right through me, an' I have ta go see a man about a dog er shake the ectoplasm from the ol' lilly er somethin'. I'll be right back, an' don't any o' you swabbies touch me grog!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Jan 04 - 08:03 AM

Sam-

Happy New Year to you as well!

Great links! I especially like the photograph of the researcher lying next to a large squigly on a tarp, evidently exhausted from the throes of fornication. You may have provoked some new verses to our ballad!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 10 Jan 04 - 01:49 AM

Gor b'lime Charley,

Was it just six months back we were on thia topic? It seems longer. Herewith a couple of URL's we seem to have missed.

Squid predator

Sex trap for giant squid

Such is life

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Sorcha
Date: 08 Dec 03 - 03:54 PM

Nancy, just go to the link provided in the very first post...

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: GUEST,nancy noyola
Date: 08 Dec 03 - 02:36 PM

i would like to see a picture of the giant squid

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 14 Aug 03 - 08:39 AM

G'day M'arties, yet more Sea Monsters - again, quite slow loading, be warned. Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Aug 03 - 06:04 PM

I thought ALL gelatinous blobs stunk. I mean, a dead whale or a dead giant squid doesn't stink? Only if you're upwind...way, way upwind.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Aug 03 - 05:33 PM

Not to worry, Rapaire. Here's your story:

Another gelatinous blob, but this one stinks

Friday, August 8, 2003 Posted: 10:11 AM EDT (1411 GMT)

                   LITTLE EGG HARBOR
                   TOWNSHIP, New Jersey (AP) -- It
                   smells like rotten eggs at best,
                   decomposing flesh at worst. It
                   looks like the pods from
                   "Invasion of the Body
                   Snatchers."

                   To the people whose homes back up
                   onto a Tuckerton Creek tributary where
                   the gelatinous substance recently
                   appeared, it's just "The Blob."

                   "It's frightening," said Eileen Masterson.
                   "We can't swim because the odor is so
                   horrible and we won't crab here because
                   we don't know whether it's safe."

                   The substance, which was noticed about
                   two weeks ago, consists of jelly-like
                   bulbs that undulate with the waves just
                   below the surface.

                   By most accounts, it generally stays
                   submerged in about 8 feet of water in the
                   lagoon. At low tide, some of it pokes
                   through the surface of the water, looking
                   like marbled r ocks.

                   But no one's sure what it is.

                   The state Department of Environmental
                   Protection poked at the blob and took
                   samples as part of a half-dozen field
                   tests Tuesday before deciding it's not
                   hazardous.

                   "We've determined that it's not toxic. It's
                   mostly like some algae or fungus," said
                   DEP spokesman Jack Kaskey. "It may be
                   an algae growth that lived on the bottom
                   of the lagoon and after its life cycle
                   ended, gases brought it up to the surface."

Robert Ingenito, environmental health coordinator for the Ocean County Health Department, said he hadn't seen anything like it in 30 years of public health work.

"In the dead-end lagoons, you normally see vegetative material that rots, fish kills or dissolved oxygen problems, but I've never seen anything like this," he said. "It's strange."

END OF STORY

But I did have to copy your link, close down Mudcat, and then do a new search so the link wouldn't blow up on me.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Aug 03 - 05:25 PM

Nimrod is certainly a wondeful read, and what graphics. Thanks, Sam. However, heed the warning about clearing the decks before you click on the link; it's a whooper!

For some reason, Rapaire, your link "It's Back" is so massive that it cloggs my pathetic dial-up line. I don't suppose you could post some of the relevant text here?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Aug 03 - 06:04 PM

Nice to see this old thread alive and kicking!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 10 Aug 03 - 02:00 AM

Found it in Nimrod of the Sea - William Davis {1874)

Remember, it's a full book - it just took 3min to reload, when checking the "blue clicky" - open in new window.

PS - I do it automatically using MyIE2 a Windows browser with a "tabbed" interface for multiple web sites - I've got a dozen open at the moment, and can just tab or click between 'em. Neat!

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 10 Aug 03 - 01:35 AM

Here's the link to PokSquid

In a more serious vain vein, I found an excellent source of on-line, full-text classic whaling literatue - Dana, Melville, Beale, various journals and reports et al. They include illustrations and some have "sailors songs". It's called The Plough Boy Journals

Each book is in one huge HTML file, so takes a fair time to download on a dial-up (open in new window). Rats, can't find the book with the great squid engulfing the ship piccy I saw last night. Look yerselves.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Naemanson
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 11:10 PM

While driving around on Guam the other day I saw www.poksquid.com on the tailgate of a pickup truck. I immediately thought of you, Charley, and your suigglies. However, that site has nothing to do with squids.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 10:18 AM

Dear God, it's back!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: JennyO
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 02:41 PM

Reminds me of the little ditty that was popular with our choir during our UK tour in 2001:

"Failed in whales, failed in whales
All the Tories failed in whales.......
All the Tories failed in whales."

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 10:15 AM

Charley, you old bar-steward, if we're whiling our time whaling at the bar, it's only because YOU fleeced us!

Slainte - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Jul 03 - 09:49 AM

It's so satisfying to set you guys up!

Well, it's really time to set up a new thread, and let there be no whaling at the bar!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 11:47 PM

In the words of the immortal Welsh Bard, Ned Seagoon, Wales glorious whales

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 10:42 PM

You can't see hairs on whales, because they shave. Or rather, they go to barbers to be shaven...shove...shaved. People contribute money and things to this end. Everyone seems to want to shave the whales.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Jul 03 - 08:14 PM

Sam-

This story certainly suggests new dimensions to the golfer's goal of "a hole in one." And afterwards, I'm sure, they'd be some real wailing in the club bar...

Now Frisco Bay was supposed to be frequented by at least one whale, at least in song, but I didn't see hide nor hair of it.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, back home in Maine

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 27 Jul 03 - 12:53 AM

Should be in good practice since they are still whaling - for scientic reasons only.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 26 Jul 03 - 11:45 PM

Maybe the Norwegians can explode a whale better than the Oregonians.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 26 Jul 03 - 02:29 AM

Not as gross as the latest hazard on a Norwegian golf course. It seems to fit here, and may give Charley more inspiration.
_____________________________________

Whale washed up on Norwegian golf course

A 20-metre-long whale has been washed up on a golf course in Norway.

The creature could cause problems for the members of the Lofoten Golf Course if it starts to rot.

A club official says the whale was spotted in the sea near the course about a week ago, reports Nettavisen.

Frode Hov said: "It is correct that we are in a bit of a rush to get the whale back to the sea again before the process of rotting starts properly. That could be very unpleasant for the golfers."


Story filed: 11:11 Thursday 17th July 2003
____________________________________________

Actually, if the golf course is THAT close to the sea, shouldn't it be a "golf links"?

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Jul 03 - 11:42 PM

Wow! A gross of posts!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 23 Jul 03 - 02:48 PM

Rapaire-

Very nice. Glad to see you've still got creative energy!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble in San Francisco

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Jul 03 - 10:39 AM

Cross-threading!!

There's gnomes of all sizes and Bill in the bargain,
Shatner that is, and gnomes blue, red, and brown,
Chopped up they're first rate, so we use 'em for bait
Whenever we're out on the squid jiggin' ground.

And

Some folks were thinkin' of young Lili Aine
The youngest mudkitten who lives in our town,
So we brought the kid a forty ton squid --
A gift from us folks on the squid jiggin' ground.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 06:37 PM

Have fun, gang, tending this thread. My wife and I are flying out to San Francisco for a week, she to conference, me to have fun. We'll be at the Chantey Sing at McMahon's Pub in Alameda, 8 pm, 7/22, if anyone wants to join the fun.

I promise to describe the giant lobster we once had for Thanksgiving when I get back.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 12:16 PM

Hey, they must be massively crabby in the UK at the moment. Another Giant Lobster has been saved from the pot, only to die of stress in an aquarium - in Wales this time, so it sort of fits this thread. There's a better site on ic Wales, but, again the link won't form. Try:

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/content_objectid=13195464_method=full_siteid=50082_headline=-Lucky-the-Lobster-dies-of-stress-name_page.html

Or, search on "Lucky the Lobster" on Goggle News - Yup, 'Lucky's' luck didn't hold out long.

Cheers - Sam

PS, years ago, here on the Island, the first 'bull cray' (rock-lobster of the size of these ones) of the season would be led ceremoniusly through the bar on a string. As well as the crayfish getting stressed, so were many visitors.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 11:12 AM

Whoops, it always to use 'Preview' to Check Links before posting. Lost a line of the URL - the local Devon rag has more detail than Ananova.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 10:40 AM

umm..Billy...don't know what happened in your link, I 'specks that this the lobster of which you speak.. (the moral is to hide out until you are of more interest as a topic of discussion than as a meal)

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 09:10 AM

G'day Charley, here's the story of another marine monster, nodeId=102060&command=displayContent&sourceNode=100885&contentPK=6343458">Claude the Lobster. It may be a good Start Point for a new verse.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 08:36 AM

Thanks for the additional links, gang!

Maybe the ghost of Lo...ng Joh needs a verse? Although I don't find 'im half as inspiring as the squids.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 Jul 03 - 08:10 AM

NORFRANZ reports this.
Be sure to click on the box which shows the pictures.

No picture of a snotthead, though, darn it.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: GUEST,Loooooooooooooooooooong Joh Sliver
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 11:15 PM

Argh, are ye still on about this? Thirty tons, why, mates, that's nothin'. I remember, I do, about sailin' on a coal boat from Cornwall ta Manchester. And we loaded 'er by hand, too, damn yer eyes! We each had a limit we had ta load, each day, sixteen tons it was. And ye got nowhere ahead fer doin' it, either.

Me bein' a ghost and all, I didn't load naught, since I didn't care if St. Peter called me or not. He'd already done so, in fact, and me interview with him I'll try to remember ta tell ye some other time if you'll remind me and if the air is humid enough, if ye take me drift.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 09:29 PM

hey! lotsa technical stuff! With squid pics and squid links!...expand your knowlege base for better poetry and perspective! Wowee!!

I expect it took an entire squid squad of experts to create this display..(not for the square or squeamish!)

Subject: LYR.Add.: Drunken Squid Verses
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 06:29 PM

And last but not least for original work we have the inebriated squid verses, to the tune of "She's but a Lassie yet":

Drunken Squid Verses

When the Giant Squid's drained his final jar,
You'll find him clinging to the bar,
With wheel adrift, sheets to the wind,
He'll need a tow back home again. (C. Noble)

He hugs the lassies and the keep,
The tables, housecat, beds and sheets,
The bar, the bottles, and the door,
And the air is filled with Drunk Squid Roar. (Amos)

The poor ol' squid's had too much booze,
The cheese and onions are a churning ooze;
As he raises his mugs for a final drink,
A giant belch fills the pub with ink! (C. Noble)

The Colossal Squid was the last come by,
He never drank but he said he'd try;
He drank so much of the ale and stout,
They had to close the pub and heave 'im out! (C. Noble)

Well, it needed another verse!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: LYR.Add.:Squid Limericks
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 06:16 PM

I guess I was the only one to post limericks:

Squid Limericks

When the squid's sweetie swims into view,
He flashes in fluorescent hues;
Red, blue and green,
It's a sight to be seen,
But wait till you hear how he screws. (C. Noble)

There was a Great Squid from Choushan
Whose twisted idea of great fun,
Was to shoot spermatophores
Into whales by the scores,
Like a Milwaukee Riveting Gun. (C. Noble)

It don't get more explicit than that!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 03:10 PM

Wow! Explicit Squid Lyrics!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Amos
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 03:07 PM

LOL!! I love those verses, Charley!!

A.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 03:03 PM

There's some that are Flicker and some that are Zebra
And some that are here are quite goin' to town,
And some of the females are showing their saddles
Except for poor Charley's, which is goin' all brown.

Subject: LYR.ADD.: Squid Jiggin' Ground-2
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 Jul 03 - 08:52 AM

I've just harvested the various verses that Mudcatters have posted above, with a little minor editing for spelling, that go to the traditional "Squid Jiggin' Ground" song. Think of them as our modest but sincere contribution to the generations of nautically challenged Mudcatters of the future:

SQUID JIGGIN' GROUND-2

(Various Mudcatters-2003)

There's poor old McGrath, he hooked a big one,
Surely it weighed 30 tons plus a pound;
His lips were a smackin' when he hauled up that old kraken,
But we ain't seen him since on the squid jiggin' ground.(C.Noble)

Says Charley, "Here's one just under the water!
I'm pulling him up but he's pulling me down!"
And we heard a great crunch, and Charley was lunch,
But those are the breaks on the squid-jiggin' ground. (Rapaire)

A hundred foot tentacle wrapped 'round poor Sammy,
Dragging him and his jiggers and dory straight down;
But to our surprise he was flung to the skies,
Rejected as lunch on the squid jiggin' ground. (Rapaire)

Oh the boys from Wiscasset, so young and so rowdy,
At bars and at parties, no more are they found;
For the word has gone out to pursue new horizons
And they're seeking release on the squid-jiggin' ground. (Amos)

Sorcha was out there, playin' her fiddle,
"Whiskey 'fore breakfast," and goin' to town
And for something quite odd you should see cephalopods
Dancin' a reel on the squid jiggin' ground. (Rapaire)

Old Sam had a squid in "an interesting condition,"
He trolled her where others were said to be found;
Imagine his surprise when this proved his demise,
As he was hauled down below the squid jiggin' ground. (C.Noble)

Old Amos was not one to fear wind or water,
He'd sailed Boothbay Harbor where raging billows abound;
But he gave a great cry when he was shot in the eye
By a 30-ton squid on the squid jiggin' ground. (C.Noble)

Here's to old Charley Noble, the best of the songsters,
We're sorry to hear the poor bloke has been drowned!
It seems that some deep-water critter objected
To "Haul Away, Joe" on the squid jigging ground! (Amos)

Tis said that the squid's the ultimate lover,
Their insatiable lust knows no bound;
Our good friend Rapaire gave up in despair,
While embracing a squid on the squid jiggin' ground. (C.Noble)

Now to harvest the limmericks!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 01:11 PM

Another old song which may or may not be appropriate to the digression of the moment:

The clam is a model of chastity,
And you can't tell the he from the she,
But she can tell and so can he,
So they revel in the throes of fornication!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 11:11 AM

oysters swap sexes during various stages of their life anyway!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 10:36 AM

Ugh! Sam, this is just the kind of thoughtless marine disaster that we can expect from the international cosmetics industry.

I suppose it could give us a new verse to "Eat Bertha's Mussells...

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 17 Jul 03 - 12:36 AM

Molluscan reproduction is going to pot. It's Gender-bender Oysters now. Imagine what would happen if it spread to squid?

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 16 Jul 03 - 09:02 AM

Would it have the same effect if the crew had drunk the Jack Daniels and then jumped overboard?

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 15 Jul 03 - 09:16 AM

Thanks, Sam, for posting the link to the most recent recorded giant squid attack. Now if the crew had simply poured a little Jack Daniels over the side, I'm sure that squid would have loosened his grip.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Jul 03 - 08:46 AM

Harvest? After all those years of sowing my wild oats and then praying for crop failure?

You do it.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: rangeroger
Date: 15 Jul 03 - 01:01 AM

Rapaire, Big Mick has priors for stuffing a spud down the back of a thong.

rr

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 15 Jul 03 - 12:25 AM

BTW, don't think I've posted a link to the last giant squid attack, in January. Appropriately during the Jules Verne Trophy = boring, eh?

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 11:52 PM

Hope the 'ginger' is 'Stone's Green' Charley... It's the only thing that makes 'Bourbon' pallateable.. Well apart from the 'Street Parade'.. Sings, and falls over...

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 10:34 PM

Rapaire-

Don't give up now. Actually you haven't any choice since you're obviously hooked on this thread. Have you considered:

Amazing Squid, how Fleet They Spawn!

Or:

The Sad but True Ballad of Ragtime Calamari Joe

Actually "Billy The Squid" is a good rendition of the Ragtime Calamari Joe conceit.

Maybe it's time to harvest some of the better fragments that have been offered already, and see if we can come up with one epic song. But first I have to sip a little more bourbon and ginger.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 09:47 PM

Better post a song to this thread, let's see.

It's a long way to calamari

No, I don't think so. Hmmmmm...start with the last verse and work backwards?

Over the river and through the woods
Now calamari I spy
Hurrah for the fun is the squiddy done
Hurrah for the

No. Just no.

Spermataphores in the sunset

Nope.

Title first..."Squid friggin' grou.." ah, no. A plaintive love ballad, maybe.

Today, while the blossoms still cling to the vine
I'll suck on your tentacles, I'll

NOPE. The imagery is, well, disturbing. Maybe write a poem and then worry about the music.

Once upon a foredeck dreary, while I traipsed around weak and weary
Seasick, trying to find the old head door,
Suddenly there came a rapping, rapping, rapping, rapping, rapping

Wait, this things got ten legs. Besides, I don't do rap.

Thou still unravished squid of...no.

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er goats and kids
When suddenly I saw a crowd
A host of rotten giant squids.

Probably not, no.

It's advertised in Boston, New York and Buffalo,
Five hundred hearty sailor lads a-squiddin' for to go.

Maybe there's good reason why the music, songs, and poetry of the giant squid is sparse.

No, wait!!

Archi, architeuthis,
King of the Sea Frontier!

Born just a larva in the briny deep
Survived on fish and things that creep

This is IT!! Now if someone will finish it, and Disney doesn't sue over "The Ballad Of Davy Crockett"....

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BALLAD OF BILLY THE SQUID
From: GUEST,Chief Chaos
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 08:04 PM

With apologies to Billy Joel

The Ballad of Billy The Squid

From a stream close to Wheeling West Virginia
swam a squid with eight arms but no hands
And his daring in the brine made him a legend in his time
East and west of the Rio Grande
Well he started on a sandbank near New Guinea
In his tentacles a boiling rage he hid
And his age and his size took the sailors by surprise
And the word spread of Billy the Squid

Well he never traveled heavy,
Yes he always swam alone,
And he soon put many older squids to shame
Well he never had a sweetheart
And he never had a home
But the sailors and the merchants knew his name

Well he sank some ships from Hawaii to Nova Scotia
And the Fishermen couldn't seem to track him down
And it served his legend well
For the folks just loved to tell
'Bout when Billy the Squid made men drown

One cold day a fishing net captured Billy
And the fishermen strung him up for what he did
And the sailors and their kin
Like the sea came pouring in to watch
The fryin' of Billy the Squid

Well he never traveled heavy,
Yes he always swam alone,
And he soon put many older squids to shame
Well he never had a sweetheart
Tho' he finally found a home
In the Calamari shack that bears his name

From a sound known as Oysterbay, Long Island
swam a squid with eight arms but no hands
And his daring in the brine made him a legend in his time
East and west of the Rio Grande

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: GUEST,Chief Chaos
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 07:50 PM

I've always wondered why a Giant Squid would attack a sailing ship. Then one day I was at an art museum with a big magnifying glass. In all of the pictures showing such confrontation there was a guy on the f'oscle with a Banjo!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 07:28 PM

There is a link to a follow-up story above on the "blob" if anyone wants the "factual stuff." But that's so boring compared with what we're creating here, and learning about squids.

Now here's a verse I knocked off while waiting to have my car inspection sticker replaced with a nice new one. The verse is inspired by one of Sam's observations about flashing squids in love:

When the squid's sweetie swims into view,
He flashes in flourescent hues;
Red, blue and green,
It's a sight to be seen,
But wait til you hear how he screws.

We'll be making another run to Nova Scotia for the Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival in August. I'll probably smuggle in another dozen of the flourescent big ones if they're still available.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 01:28 PM

Because, Kat, there are some who aren't exactly carrying a full load of bricks and would put the thing on backwards.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 12:39 PM

Or, squid cod pieces, Charley! Something big, pretty and flashy to lure all the lasses...works with big, pretty, flashy cars, why not bring back the cod piece and start a new fashion trend?

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 11:56 AM

Sarah, see Looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong John's post of July 12. Ask yourself who you'd rather believe, an old salt who's sailed all over the world (I think he'll tell you if you ask him just where and with whom and when and why and how) or a lickspittle lackey of the government-controlled media??

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: GUEST,Sarah
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 10:06 AM

Hate to tell you this.

But the Chile Blob is actually a sperm whale minus its skeleton - decomposing whale skeleton sinks to ocean floor and the rest of it floats away! Yuk.

Had this from The Independent newspaper this morning.

Cheers
Sarah

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 09:02 AM

We were shown one in our junior year of Catholic high school. A bunch of guys from a small town went to the Big City, where they picked up some girls. Their lives were blighted thereafter, as the next Fall one failed his football (US) physical and was reported to the Health Dept., who tracked down everyone else -- including one young lady who had gotten it on with the ex-footballer. She, of course, as well as the other guys, had to be interviewed by the Health Dept. wonk in the presence of her parents and minister/priest.

In the film, everyone was repentant, but everyone ended up sterile or mad or at least embarassed. Except for the city chicks, of course.

Our reactions were threefold: the film had really, really cool music; even we knew that VD and worse lurked in the Big Cities, waiting to pounce; and why didn't they tell us which city it was so we could go there and meet some girls. Otherwise, we thought it pretty lame.

We were NOT told about preventive measures -- and not because the film was produced by the Catholic Church, which it was not. Such were simply not mentioned at all.

I can only imagine our reaction to the film about the highlighted people -- especially if the highlighting was on the crotch! Ribald wouldn't begin to describe it.

BTW, I never say a "VD film" when I was in the Army. Did see a neat flick on "Below Knee Amputations," which isn't usually shown in an Ordnance outfit.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 08:44 AM

Sam-

We must have watched the same pubic health flicks when we went to college. I still remember the raucous cheers for the winning sperm who made it to the egg first.

I really should start marketing the 12-inch flourescent squid lures (tuna trolling arays) that I've been bringing my friends as gifts from my smuggling forays to Nova Scotia. They would make excellent props for a Full Monty dance routine. Although I've had no success convincing my music mates in Roll & Go to give it try. I keep telling them that with a little more exposure we could rise to the top like the scum we is. Now if we could insert a flashing circuit within the hollow squid lures we could be an overnite sensation. Come to think of it, we might also consider marketing a new and exciting line of squid condoms.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 14 Jul 03 - 02:11 AM

Well, Charley, we could alwaya get some mileage from "The World's Biggest Flasher Taningia danae", as described here. At only a couple of metres long, it's not in the big squid league, but the flashing aspect appeals. Speaking of which...

Here in NZ, there's a small amphipod (sandhopper), found under rotting seaweed on beaches. It can pick up a sexually transmitted disease (bacterial from memory) that makes it glow. When I took senior biology students on nocturnal seashore rambles, I got a hoot from pulling back rotten kelp, setting off a micro-mini-fireworks display. I'd then explain the 'facts of life'. The kids were unanimous in their approval - "What a good idea, you would know who not to knock!". That was in the late 70s, when sex education was almost OK in NZ schools.

The kids totally cracked up, when I told them about a sex-education film that was shown during my teacher training in the 60s. It was American, but I'm broadminded. Some very vague diagrams of sexual organs etc were shown. But it got real serious when VD was discussed (No STD then - we still had wind-up phones) - Let me set the scene...

US Campus in the 60s, with students wandering the course, wondering about their course, and looking for an intercourse break. One guy is flashing a light in his genital area (flash superimposed)...

Voice-over "Joe has had sex-out-of-marriage, and has contracted a VD. He talks to Mandy..." At which point, Mandy starts flashing (superimposed she didn't expose nothing). "Mandy has contact with Fred.." Etc.. Etc... until all the students were flashing as much as the amphipods on the beach. Nowhere did the film really say anything about coitus (let alone interupt-us)... It blighted me life...

I don't dare mingle in crowds for fear of VD, STD, WMD

AW Shucks... even I'm confused by this post.... it should be in KaTavern thread...

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 01:35 PM

Should we stop squiding around and try for 200? It'd be a whale of an achievement.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 01:24 PM

Maybe so, Sam. How's this?

There was a Great Squid from Choushan
Whose twisted idea of great fun,
Was to shoot spermatophores
Into whales by the scores,
Like a Milwaukee Riveting Gun.

I'm so proud this thread has surpassed 100 hits. Where can we go from here?

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 12:06 PM

Spermatophore -- doesn't the navy and Boy Scouts use that to send messages? It's down by wigging and wagging, I think.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 01:44 AM

Spermatophore 101, rangeroger - and only if inserted at the speed of a nail-gun - no Sophomores need apply...

Cheers - Sam

PS - if you are flagging rr, and don't follow, send a PM, and I'll semaphore a reply - there's a verse there Charley....;)

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: rangeroger
Date: 13 Jul 03 - 01:19 AM

Sothis course must be Giant Squid (or Sperm) 101.

rr

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Amos
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 06:00 PM

It's a fluke, all right.

But not the kind you have in mind.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 05:49 PM

Who shall be the one to cross over the line, to post entry number 100 to this thread?

No, actually this should probably be called a tentacle, or a fluke, or, if Looooooooooooooooooooooooong John is right, a tentuke or a flukacle.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 01:43 PM

Thanks for the link, Michaelr. I must confess to prefering a mystery over a blob of rotted flesh from some Giant Sperm. This calls for a stiff drink.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: michaelr
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 11:42 AM

Here ya go, Charley.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 11:41 AM

All too sad, Amos, and even sadder for the other pub residents:

The poor ol' squid's had too much booze,
The cheese and onions are a churning ooze;
As he raises his mugs for a final drink,
A giant belch fills the pub with ink!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Amos
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 10:56 AM

Aww, Charley, getting sick on virtual booze is a rare case indeed! One for the good books!!

Billy-lad, it's no go dumping holystone duty on puir Kat -- it's inappropriate, ya see -- why not work off a few of them extra ounces by helping her out! These decks haven't been sanded since Noah landed. I am sure she'll be happy to provide you with all the pints you can consume in the process.


He hugs the lassies and the keep
The tables, housecat, beds and sheets,
The bar, the bottles, and the door
And the air is filled with Drunk Squid Roar...

A

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: GUEST,Looooooooooooooooong John Sliver
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 10:33 AM

Aaargh! That wench! Filled up a poor spirit with spirits, she did!

Do ye know that a ghost with a hangover might never get rid of it? 'Tis true! How can ye pray for a death cure when ye're already dead? There's but one cure fer it, and that's a hair of the grog that bit ye, and I'll be going for one.

That thingie on the shore in the pichur. They said it was a giant squid first, and now a sperm whale. Well, there be more things in the seas, lads and lasses, than ye can think on.

Old Looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong John knows what that is. And he knows the right of it, too.

Ye see, sperm whales and giant squids be mortal enemies. They go at it whenever they meet, cutlass to cutlass and broadside to broadside, ye might say. And they've been this way since the seas filled up.

But not all of them. Some, for some reason, would rather, well, ye landlubbers used ta say, make love not war. Truth ta tell, some of the fights seen by crews onboard passing ships be not fights at all, but amorous wrasslin' by two critters that have become, well, friendly-like. O' course, it's usually a fight to the death, or an amorous spermy mistakes an unfriendly squid or t'other way round, and then there are more sparks a-flyin' than St. Elmo's Fire in a first class ship o' the line!

Like I was sayin' tho, sometimes two friendly-disposed critters meet and have themselves a bit o' fun playin' hide-the-duckie. And if ya think of it, they're not call "sperm" whales nor "giant" squid fer nothin'. Anyways, sometimes a wee one comes of the couplin'.

Those who, like meself, wear clothes truly stained with salt water don't talk about these kids much, truth ta tell, not at all except 'mongst ourselves, when the run is good and the hour late. But when y've seen one, part squid and part spermy, y'll never fergit it.

Anyway, that's what the poor critter is that washed up on that beach in Chile: a squale, we calls it, or some as calls it a giant sperm. What the learned boyos have done is taken flesh samples from different parts, and that's what makes them think it's first one thing and then t'other, because, ye see, it's both.

An' now ye know the truth of it, an' like they say, "in vino very good" and ye could offer a poor dead spirit spirits.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 09:42 AM

Sam-

You're right to be cautious about Kat's tavern. The swill she serves there, and the drinks:

When the Giant Squid's drained his final jar,
You'll find him clingling to the bar,
With wheel adrift, sheets to the wind,
He'll need a tow back home again.

My head's still ringing and the less I say about what was down below...here comes another dry heave!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 09:19 AM

Michaelr-

Could you provide us a link to your follow-up story? I'm still looking for quotes for the ultimate giant squid song. I've failed to find any follow-up stories in my web searches but then there are lots of squid stories to sift through.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 12:58 AM

I lost me swag Kat, so I can't Swagger Inn, or snog her in it.. etc..

As to Kipling? I'm Tippling (over)...

PS - if you haven't seen the likes of me before, don't look behind - it's not a pretty sight! And furthermore...

A cod-piece eye to you!

Just keeping our threads intact

Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Jul 03 - 12:11 AM

Well, Samm'dear...no sense in yer peekin' through the winders...we've not seen the likes o'ye in a lang time, so swagger on o'er there, wouthern whaler or no an' I'll make sure the swabbin's been done afore ye can get there. As to any buiks gettin' open'd...there'll be some Stevenson, Kipling, an' other guidbooks, but I hain't stoning any deck with 'em tho' if I had tha blarneystone ye've been kissin'...despite your protestayshuns, I know it'd get thicker in there than the densest fog ye ever come across!

As to eyes, aye, I like 'em fine, but not those cold, still fishies ones! Giv' me the creeps, they do, never blinking, can't tell if they like a body er not, even! Why I'd ruther hold hands with a starfish than look a cod in tha eye!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: rangeroger
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 11:13 PM

Long John,I'd like to buy you a pint also, because I want to know what the first mate was doing with the cabin boy in the crow's nest.

And michaelr, if it's a sperm whale carcass, could it have possibly been killed by a Giant Squid?

rr

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 10:47 PM

Kat'o'Mine, your tail's swishing! Quote and omebody needs to swab the decks. I understand you are a 'homebuddy', so do the job yourself, you swabber!

And furthermore, I can never forgive you for opening a boozer when us real southern whalers are in the pit. When I found out, I snuck up from the Roaring Farties, and had a peek through the window. Not that I could see muck [sic] (another thread).... So go wash the winners

I'm getting 'glassy-eyed' which leads back to the thread. We haven't talked 'squid-eye' yet. The 'cephs' have damned good ones. Trouble is, most of us are 'pie-eyed'....

BTWKAT - going back to para #1 and my peek though the window of 'Ship's Tavern', methinks with all the s**t talked there, you need to get the Bible out, and 'Holystone' the deck...

On my knees - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 07:38 PM

Well, michaelr, that's what THEY say, but Charley's got it right, on the Mudcat, he's still a SQuid and omebody needs to swab the decks at the Ship's Tavern!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: michaelr
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 07:26 PM

The scientists have determined that it's a sperm whale carcass, not a giant squid.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 05:52 PM

According to the usual reliable sources Squigley the Giant Squid has just made an appearance over at the Ship's Tavern.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 02:46 PM

I just realized that while I've been posting to this, but I have never introduced myself to The Giant Squid.

Hello, Giant Squid. Nice to meet you. So, what's it like, being a giant squid and all?

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 11:10 AM

Aah, Johnny darlin', though yer jist a Haunt, I'd welcome the chance to wet yer whistle and her anither story. C'mon over to the Ship's Tavern and let Kat O'Nine (hoosbands, that is!) buy ye a pint!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: GUEST,Looooooooong John Sliver
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 09:16 AM

Arg, mateys, what do ye expect of a poor young lad, barely fourteen and on his first voyage, just a few months away from the sheepfolds and green hills and woods of East Anglia?

When we weighed I didn't know a maintopgallant from a marlinspike or a bilge from a bight. But the Second Mate taught me, aye he did that! With the end of a tarred rope strokin' me bum I'd run the riggin', and I got to be able to outwork the best of 'em in any weather. When that Kraken attacked I had already learned the use o' the sextant, the mysteries o' gunnery, and secrets o' the Sea! 'Twas the Captain himself who said, just afore the squid took 'im, that I'd probably be the youngest ever ta be ten times 'round the Horn, and Captain each time at that!

But that's a might have been, laddies, a might have been. It was a great shame and loss that I was killed saving me ship from the squid, but it was a wonderful bit of sacrifice now, warn't it? And ta show ye all that I'm not just a drink cadjer, I'd buy a round for all if me pounds and pence hadn't been torn from me grip by the explosion that saved me ship. Aye, it's hard to fly on one wing or to tell the truth when your throat's so dry....

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 08:59 AM

The last word on the poor thingie is probably NOT either "sushi" or "calamari"....

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Jul 03 - 08:57 AM

Sam et al-

We shouldn't put this thread to bed without securing more posts than "What do You Call Your Thingie" thread. It's a point of honor/honour!

Kendall- I'd missed that Ruth Moore poem. Maybe you could recite it at The Press Room gathering this Saturday.

Margaret says after reviewing this thread, "Since I get a mention at the start of the thread, I feel the whole THING is dedicated to me!" Well, here's to Margaret!

By the way, has anyone run across any follow-up reports on the Giant Squid in question? Not that facts are the final word, but they might provoke more discussion, digression, and general delight.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 10 Jul 03 - 11:54 PM

Us suckers are losing our grip! Don't think any of us have pointed out how the squids beak is a natural for a parroty - it fits the bill, but don't get hooked on it.

Get the piano-moving thread going Charley - it has as much potential as this one.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Jul 03 - 09:05 AM

Yeah, I agree, it certainly needs refinement!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Jul 03 - 08:59 AM

Margaret Walters, of sea music group The Roarin' Forties, is too shy to post to this thread but she has reviewed it and is planning to excerpt some of our most choisest comments for her favorite folk music newsletter. I must say, I think this thread is rich brine to refine.

Perhaps, she deserves a verse of encouragement.;~)

And the skipper went down playing his piano...must start a "piano moving" thread. I vividly remember that old upright we had in the back of the pick-up, that first turn which we took too fast, over the side she went...then there was the baby grand that got stuck in the stairwell coming down, and is probably still there...

Nice story, Long John! Compares well with some from the fabled pen of that old naval surgeon Dr. Dogsbody. Here's a glass for you and may you rest in peace, or pieces as it were.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: kendall
Date: 10 Jul 03 - 08:47 AM

I once see a whale with a gold tooth,
He rose right out of the sea
he opened his mouth in the mornin' sun
And showed that tooth to me.

Once I was fishin' the deep ground
With neigh six pounds of lead,
I caught a Cod as big as a man,
And it had a man's head.

There aint no end to what I'd tell
Once I was well begun,
Like seein' the Devil rise from the sea
Instead of the risin' sun.

Like sea snakes lashin' the moonlit sea
With their terrible lollipins
And little green mermaids
With diamond eyes and solid silver fins.

For some have eyes to see strange sights,
And such a one I be
But, I aint known as an honest man
So, nobody harks to me.

Ruth Moore

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 10 Jul 03 - 03:49 AM

Charley,

I've chexked the plans in the book. Dream Ship was flush-decked, but with a long skylight amidships. By removing that, you could drop Joannah in end-wise - but it would be a hell of a project.

It was bad enough removing one when we demolished our local RSA (Vet's) Clubrooms a decade back. It was on the top floor. A large hole was opened. Jack brought in the truck with the 'Hiab', and raised the boom. Stops were attached to the piano, and Jack played the hydraulic organ. The piano came out the gap, the strops tightened - and slipped ...

I was most disappointed! I'd have thought a piano dropping 20' onto concrete would make some musical sounds as it expired. No such luck, it just went....

"Thunk"....

Anyway, it was only an upright on Dream Ship. When I think back to the time we carried a baby grand up a bush track... then carried it down three months later... at least the house had French Doors - getting it inside was the easiest bit.

Trying to keep on thread, it was a Fire Brigade project, so I assume "Squidley" was involved...

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Hrothgar
Date: 10 Jul 03 - 03:25 AM

Now, just to digress a little ...

Somewhere I have a memory of a "pearl diver" being someone who made a living searching sewers for valuables. Now, where the heck did I get that?

Disappears into library, muttering ...

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 10 Jul 03 - 12:12 AM

Aw shucks Long John, the least you could have done was shared the rum with the squid, fed him the gunpowder for a snack, then used the lantern to light a tentacle, and turn into into a Giant SQUIB! Imagine a king-size Catherine Wheel?

That way you may have saved yourself, along with enough ship fragments (and rum) and wouldn't have to bludge booze. ... ;)

Hmmm.... having written the above, in jest, I have a recollection of reading a Kraken description as a 'Catherine Wheel' - the Noctiluca phosphourescence round it's body, at the surface at night.

Anyway.. Nice yarn LJ

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: GUEST,Martin Gibson
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 09:48 PM

After seeing this picture, I now know what happened to Cthulu

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: GUEST,Looooooooooong John Sliver
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 08:42 PM

Avast there! Be ya talkin' of the gianty squid, known ta those of old as the kraken? Ah, mateys, I can tell ye a tale or two of that beastie, I can!

We was sailin' from Lisborn, we were, with a cargo of rum and gunpowder. 'Twas off the Bight of Benin we was attacked by one o' them gianty sqids.
Night, and no moon, and his arms a-reachin' as high as our mainmast and higher! He snapped off our bowsprit with one twist, and tore the cabin boy and the first mate from the crow's nest with another arm. We fired a broadside inta him, but we might as well of attacked him with lace hankies.

Piece by piece he tore our ship apart, startin' with the mainskys'l and workin' on down to the deck. I was down below, fearin' for me life, hearin' the screams and the awful crunch-crunch as me shipmates disappeared into the beaky mouth o' that thing.

B'god, from the sounds it was eatin' the wood of the ship, too, and the copper bottom wasn't goin' to stop it! And me, just a lad fresh to sea, before I lost this and this and this, hidin' below with the cargo.

Arrgh! The cargo! Rum and gunpowder it was, and as that hor'ble beaky mouth and one huge eye appeared at the top of the hold, as a long tennykle or two came slitherin' down to pluck me, I did what any good sailor would do.

Aye! I did it. I took one more swig from me borrowed bottle of rum and threw the lantern into the powder! The ship went up with such an explosion as I hope I never see again, and parts of Old Beaky, the ship, bottles of rum, and meself went flyin' through the air. There bein' nothin' else for it, I was killed outright. And that, mateys, is the truth if you've ever heard it. Now give me another, will ya? Being dead makes a man thirsty.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 01:00 PM

Ah, well, if the BugEyes bother you, I'll just have ol' eight-arms tentacle ya to the coral like poor Uncle Elmer, Samdarlin'...and, if ya start horsing around and belching, there may be more small fry than you'd like. We could pray for an eeling, if you're feeling portly and ichthy after we've plankton the wharf! Mind, if ya go on like an urchin, no expectations of a cuttle!

(Okay, maybe not as smooth sailing as you boy-o's, but not too bad for a landlubber, eh?**BG**)

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 09:14 AM

Charley, I thought about it, I really did, but the thought softly and silently vanished away. A boojum, you see.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 09:10 AM

Sam-

A full-size piranha in the cabin? Must have more coffee. Now it might make sense to have a pump organ down there. But can you imagine the hassle trying to fit something that big and awkward down the companionway. "Heave away, me bully boys...whoops!" Maybe I'll do a search for THE CRUISE OF THE DREAM SHIP.

This thread should have at least one reference to "The Hunting of the Snark." There, now I've done it!

Must contact Margaret Walters in Oz and tell her what her initial email to me has provoked. ;~)

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 08:54 AM

Aw, Amos -- I'm only posting for the halibut, trying to bring a ray into your day, sort of floundering around and skating on the fin edge, trying not to get hooked. Okay, I am handing you a line. But getting down to bass-ics, that squid looked to be one sick guppie!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 04:02 AM

Charley - "Blue Water Vagabond" resided on my dad's bookshelf! Alas, I didn't inherit it. Haven't read it in 40+ tears. The only book from his 'Pacific Collection', with a real nautical flavour, that I have is - Ralph Stock (1921) The Cruise of the Dream Ship - a good yarn about fitting out a 47' Colin Archer Pilot Cutter, and sailing from UK, via Panama to Marquesas, Tahiti etc. The only reason for mentioning this is from the musical viewpoint. They had a full-size piano in the cabin - not bad for a 47 footer, eh? Must read the yarn again.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 03:07 AM

There's no 'Blah-Knuckle' in me Kat. As far as I know, not a tad of the 'Phyting Oirish' in mt bloodstream. Howsomever, the woollies are on - 'tis still a tad Chile, despite the snow having melted - AND, furthermore don't be a 'Goggle-eye Gal'. l'd hate to see you Pie-eyed! You are enough of a problem as a 'Night Auk Gal' (thread creep)

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 02:10 AM

No crosswards in this thread, Sam, dearie, however I think you've a bit more of the blarnuckle in ya, than woolies or have I got stargazie pie in my eye?

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 12:37 AM

Hooohoooohooooo - T & Y sit next to each other on the keyboard! I honestley hit the wrong one.

Don't give me croswords Kat, I'm sheepish enough

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 12:22 AM

Tup, Kat, Squid Vicious bit my toe a few times, fortunately I was decked out in "gummies", so it didn't hurt. Howsomever, one did puncture my sole (upper foot to be honest - just couldn't resist), so I got wet-tootsies, and had to Watuzi (sp?) to dry out... Smack..

Dry up, Sam, you drip

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Jul 03 - 12:04 AM

My Uncle Elmer used to tell us that he was a pearl diver back when he was stuck flat broke on the Seattle waterfront

Did he just kind of flounder around then, or did they keep him in a coral, with a pen and ink sign that said "Octopi(d)?"

Anybody ever seen Squid Vicious perform on deck?

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Amos
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 11:17 PM

You guys certainly are full abalone. This thread has gone from creeping to all urchin all over! If I wasn't sure you weren't lion I'd have said you had sealed your fate with all this bottom-crawling. It must just be a kind of passion, a certain a moray that gets under your skin, so to speak. ANd you know what that's like. You get enough of them morays under your hide you got a full blown moral code on your hands!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 11:09 PM

My Uncle Elmer used to tell us that he was a pearl diver back when he was stuck flat broke on the Seattle waterfront....

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 05:55 PM

Sam-

I thought I'd repeat this post here as well.

My old family friend Dennis did engage in some ad hoc pearl diving while he was sailing through the South Pacific in the 1930's; he described his adventures in BLUE WATER VAGABONDS which still can be found on the used books websites and is well worth a read.

He made no mention of personally encountering a giant squid.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 03:53 PM

Rapaire, I don't want to be punny. I'm trying, with bated breath, to find a genuine way to link whisky into this thread. I finally netted a pearler on thread Lyr Add: Oran na Politician. Even you will have to admit it isn't fishy!

My post there should satisfy you, so don't be hard-hatted, dive on in, and don't send an-any-moan to me, or I'll lob-ster right back to you!

Actually, I am now getting nacred - the whisky and mudcat have given me a shine - time to "Join the Denizens of the Deep".

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 02:47 PM

Sam, I have been doing my utmost to clam up any puns that may occur to me about fish, the ocean, and such. Frankly, it's taken quite a bit of self-restraint, but I'm just about ready to toss in the sponge and go at it hook, line, and sinker. I greatly fear, though, that I'm going to end the day an old crab by sticking like a barnacle to my resolution -- and I'm not squidding about it! I will refuse to take the bait and will insteead make way back to work, where I can whale about my lost puns to my colleagues.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 02:30 PM

No Rapaire - I'm not nacred yet, still as dull as ever and full of a-balone. The "Pearly Threads Over the Ocean" aspect here, got me thinking of my favourite subject vis: "Whisky Galore", so I'm currently investigating some threads I missed last year - which link to this one in a crazy way...

I'll be refreshing "RE: Lyr Add: Oran na Politician" soon ... ;)

It's a pity my mate "Squidley" isn't in to computers - I'm sure he would enjoy this.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 01:37 PM

The very nacre of threads, one might say?

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 01:04 PM

Charley,

Dennis could well have picked up the pearl diver verses in Oz or NZ, as they were certainly current as part of "She Was Poor ..." here in NZ, in the 50s. My suspicion is that they would have originated in North Ausrralia, or maybe the Pacific Islands, as we have no pearl-diving here.

This is becoming a real "Thread of Pearls"

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 12:35 PM

As promised, here's a Mudcat thread link to the old Music Hall song "The Pearl Diver" which features a giant octopus:Pearl Diver Thread

My current theory is that my old friend/adventurer Dennis Puleston probably picked this song up in New Zealand or Australia when he was sailing around the world in the 1930's. I haven't found any other source in web searches or on Mudcat.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 09:32 AM

Great Thread!!! LMAO!

Subject: Lyr Add: ALL THINGS DULL AND UGLY (Eric Idle)
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 08:55 AM

Ah, the good old DT comes through again! We should all remember this.


ALL THINGS DULL AND UGLY
(Monty Python)

All things dull and ugly, all creatures short and squat;
All things rude and nasty, the Lord God made the lot.

Each little snake that poisons, each little wasp that stings
He made their brutish venom, He made their horrid wings.

All things sick and cancerous, all evil great and small
All things foul and dangerous, the Lord God made them all.

Each nasty little hornet, each beastly little squid.
Who made the spiky urchin? Who made the shark? He did.

All things scabbed and ulcerous, all pox both great and small,
Putrid, foul and gangrenous, The Lord God made them all.

Subject: Lyr Add: BALLAD OF THE WOGGLER'S MOOLY (K Williams
From: Charley Noble
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 08:47 AM

By kraken, Sam. Thanks so much to the link to THE BALLAD OF THE WOGGLER'S MOOLY by Kenneth Williams. I've just ordered the CD, and now there are only 3 left for the rest of you. What rich imagery, and the mystery and pathos of it all! The "Squig Jiggin' Ground" pales in comparison. Oh, hell, let's paste it in:

THE BALLAD OF THE WOGGLER'S MOOLY
(As sung by Rambling Sid Rumpo/ Kenneth Williams©)

Joe, he was a young cordwangler,
Munging greebles he did go,
And he loved a bogler's daughter
By the name of Chiswick Flo.

Vain she was and like a grusset
Though her gander parts were fine,
But she sneered at his cordwangle
As it hung upon the line.

So he stole a woggler's mooly
For to make a wedding ring,
But the Bow Street Runners caught him
And the judge said "He will swing."

Oh, they hung him by the postern,
Nailed his mooly to the fence
For to warn all young cordwanglers
That it was a grave offence.

There's a moral to this story,
Though your cordwangle be poor,
Keep your hands off other's moolies,
For it is against the law.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 03:58 AM

Well, got to get this thread back onto the cephalopod track (or squid jig or cuttlefish line) . I just heard the late/great British fol singer/historian, 'Rambling Sid Rumpo' on the wireless. While tracking down the ethno-eccentricity of his 'cordwangles', I had a 'gander' at The Ballad of the Woggler's Mooly. I never realised a 'mooly' was a smoked cuttlefish (I prefer my pipe). Bet it was 'woggly' if caught by the technique(s) described above.

Charley, this Noble thread is taking me down so many blast from the past, I fear this will be my last contribution. I've sharpened my quill, and found the 'sepia' ink, once I find some parchment, and a posthasre, I'll send my next message .....

PS - Narmanion, Charley's description of the snapshot is correct - it was a mild cuddle - I don't see any falling masts, or 'flying matelots' - now, when I was a kid on the good ship Lollipop and the Kraken struck .. wheww... there was skin and hair flying ... ;)

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Naemanson
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 03:24 AM

Charley, I think your comment about the giant squid on our album cover was a bit of an understatement. That monster isn't "embracing" the ship. He's tearing the hell out of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Amos
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 12:48 AM

You just started an infinite loop TF! Look at the link in the first post or second to the picture of the very thing....

A

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: toadfrog
Date: 08 Jul 03 - 12:23 AM

Did anyone hear about that giant octopus someone just found? Beached and dead, 12 meters across, without the tentacles! They thought it was a whale, until someone examined a tissue sample!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 11:55 PM

Well done with that link Rapiare! You'll find a Squid Poem on the same site. I'm back to check out more - my cephalopod studies are decades out of date. Well done Charley - Tis a Noble thread.

Cheers - Sam

PS - note Steve O'Shea is a Kiwi .... ;)

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 09:57 PM

Awesome, indeed! It's amazing what one can learn by thread browsing on Mudcat. Maybe we need to do a squid version of the bawdy Highland Tinker song, the one with the "bloody great kidney wiper" and "forty yards of foreskin."

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 08:33 PM

Okay. I know what everyone is thinking, what XXXXXX salacious thoughts are going through your mind. Well, if you think that you're ready for the lusty, dirty, filthy truth, the no-holds-barred, in-your-face record of just how giant squids "do it," then click here.   But remember, Adults Only! By clicking on the link you swear that you're over 21 and not easily shocked by graphic depictions of some really weird stuff!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 06:04 PM

Hmmm. There's seems to be no verse yet for Rapaire, a neglect I'll make haste to repair:

Tis said that the squid's the ultimate lover,
Their insatiable lust knows no bound;
Our good friend Rapaire gave up in despair,
While embracing a squid on the squid jiggin' ground.

Maybe we should petition the powers that be to move this thread up to the music level?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Amos
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 05:30 PM

:>))

Here's to old Charley Noble, the best of the songsters,
We're sorry to hear the poor bloke has been drowned!
It seems that some deep-water critter objected
To "Haul Away, Joe" on the squid jigging ground!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 01:12 PM

Old Sam had a squid in "an interesting condition,"
He trolled her where others were said to be found;
Imagine his surprise when this proved his demise,
As he was hauled down below the squid jiggin' ground.

Old Amos was not one to fear wind or water,
He'd sailed Boothbay Harbor where raging billows abound;
But he gave a great cry when he was shot in the eye
By a 30-ton squid on the squid jiggin' ground.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 12:37 PM

Sorcha was out there, playin' her fiddle,
"Whiskey 'fore breakfast," and goin' to town
And for something quite odd you should see celephapods
Dancin' a reel on the squid jiggin' ground.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Amos
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 10:00 AM

Oh the boys from Wiscasset, so young and so rowdy
At bars and at parties, no more are they found
For the word has gone out to pursue new horizons
And they're seeking release on the squid-jiggin' ground...


A

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 09:54 AM

A hundred foot tentacle wrapped 'round poor Sammy,
Dragging him and his jiggers and dory straight down.
But to our surprise he was flung to the skies,
Rejected as lunch on the squid jiggin' ground.



I have to go to work now....

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 09:25 AM

Here's a glass to you, Mr. Rapaire!

Sam, I think you're really onto something. I've also heard stories of these cephalopod escape artists. Meantime, I'll see if I can come up with a verse in your honor/honour.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Strupag
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 07:21 AM

Honest no joke!
I actually witnessed a giant squid attacking a whale in the late 60's
I was in the merchant marine on a boat called Baron Belhaven and we were heading home from Australia via Cape of Good Hope.
We were at off the coast of Africa close to Senegal but well out to sea when the 2nd mate saw a whale and said "That poor beast has huge lumps on it" We both grabbed binos and saw that the "lumps" were really the tenticles.
The squid was underneath the whale trying to drag it down and at times the tenticles would stretch out wildly. Most of the time they were tightly around that whale.
Unfortunately shipping companies do not allow their ships to persue unusual marine activity and we had to carry on on our way north.
I often wonder who won the desperate fight!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 03:36 AM

This should be in the "Books that influenced me.." thread. Gerald Durrell, the Pommie animal collector, filmaker, zookeeper, etc wrote a wonderful series of books. Some of his yarns may sound far fetched, but having known some of the NZ scientists, and places he wrote about, I believe them all - he had them sussed to a T.

In "My Family and Other Animals" (or one of the others about his childhood in Corfu", he wrote about going nightfishing with a local fisherman. The technique used for catching cuttlefish (a relative of the squid) was...

1. Catch a female in an "intersting condition"
2. Tie her to a string, and go looking for males - when found..
3. Drop her over the side. Then...
4. Pull 'em both up, locked in a tight embrace, then..
5. Drop the lass ove the side again ..... ;)

From memory, they caught 6-7 males.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 03:23 AM

I'm getting quite wrapped up in this thread. Just found the following about the sex-life of the giant squid.

"It is thought that the male giant squid uses its penis as a form of pneumatic nail gun to shoot its sperm into the flesh of its mate, a gelatinous coating on the spermatophores acting as a form of lubricant." - Rattatata..

Also, "A particularly interesting reproductive feature shared by a few species of deep sea squid, and possibly the giant squid, is a phenomenon known as terminal spawning. The adults of these species will almost literally disintegrate after reproducing. Their muscles become soft and flabby, their tentacles drop off, and they die. - Hope Spaw reads that

C'mon someone, I want some verses ... ;)

The above, and a heap more good info is on the good old BBC Natural History site.

Anyway, going back to the tank for Archeteuthis it would have to be better than the ones we used for arrow squid and small octopi, when we were setting up Island Bay Marine Laboratory in Wellington (NZ) in the mid-60s. The Arrow Squid kept getting airborn and dying on the floor, while the octopi kept blocking the overflow pipes, resuling in a lab flooded with seawater

Cheers - Sam


It's

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 08:24 PM

Says Charley, "Here's one just under the water!
I'm pulling him up but he's pulling me down!"
And we heard a great crunch, and Charley was lunch,
But those are the breaks on the squid-jiggin' ground.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 06:07 PM

Rapaire-

Yes, let's have a new verse to "Squid Jigging Ground."

There's poor old McGrath, he hooked a big one,
Surely it weighed 30 tons plus a pound;
His lips were a smakin' when he hauled up that old krakin,
But we ain't seen him since on the squid-jiggin' ground.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Amos
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 05:56 PM

That video is a crackup!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 05:50 PM

I do hope that the Chileans deal with this very dead squid better than the Oregonians dealt with a very dead whale a few years ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 01:59 PM

They could make a movie - "Honey, I blew up the squids."

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 01:14 PM

Bet he smells bad. I wouuldn't have gotten close enough to determine whether or not is was a whale. Gross!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 12:57 PM

This really gives a whole new dimension to the song,
doesn't it?

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 12:38 PM

Chief Chaos-

You ask, "what do you do with the big nasty thing once it's full grown?" Really, no real scientist ever considers that question. They just does it, and we get a world filled with interesting escapees: giant radioactive cockroaches, giant apes, dinosaurs, zombies et al. Haven't you ever watched the SCI-FI channel? And I'm sure SEA WORLD will front the research.

I really would like to see one of these big squiglies up close. I wonder how they'd compare to the tuna squid lures I picked up in a Nova Scotia bait shop, in flourescent colors and a foot in length.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 10:44 AM

Were I a sperm whale, I wouldn't want to meet that dude in a dark deep.

I read a book a few years ago on Architeuthis; can't remember the title of course. Seems they've been found washed up from Labrador to NZ, with "hot spots" in various places.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 09:56 AM

oh, I just followed McGrath's link above and it transports you to the very graphic we ripped off for our new CD:Roll and Go Website

What joy!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 09:50 AM

Sam-

We could try "Beak to beak, belly to belly" in Calypso style.

Now when it comes to "whale calling" you've reminded me of the fun Roll & Go had in the early years when a member, Molly, showed up with a prototype whale caller borrowed from some Greenpeace friends. It was made of metal in the shape of a squat urn with metal ribs sticking out at an angle which one bowed. It produced an entirely satisfactory accompaniment for "Farewell to Tarwarthie," although it probably sounded like utter nonesense to any self-respecting humpback. Apparently the full-sized model was unsuccessful in field testing.

I'm pleased this posting resonates with our jolly band of brothers and sisters.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Tam the Bam (Nutter)
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 06:28 AM

I just can't think that these 'experts' thought it was a whale.

Tom

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 02:07 AM

Hell, my brain cell is getting lonely. Just remembered, back in the 70s, when I was setting up an Environmental Ed Centre at Tautuku, near the southern tip of the South Island (NZ), I'd give the visiting kids a "Folk" history of the area (mainly song) on one night of their week-long visit. It was not long after I'd heard 'ultrasound' recordings of the actual whale's calls. I gave the kids an imitation by whistling into an empty whisky bottle. It wasn't flash, but OK. Anyone else had a go at giving the whale's side of the song?

I'm practicing now, but not doing well - the whisky bottle is all-but-full. Will report in a couple of hours.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 01:29 AM

Makes you think about the old whaling illustrations and yarns, doesn't it. Much and all as I am in favour of a ban on whaling in this day and age, I have great respect for the guys who went out in dinghys to catch Leviathon in the 18-19th Centuries, and occaisionally made contact with giant squid. My g-g-g'dad was one.

There's a heap of whaling songs, but I can't recall one that mentions squid, or even Kat's Kraken Awaknin - anyone with a better brain cell remember any?

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Amos
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 01:10 AM

The colossal squid, several times longer than a sperm whale, must be a truly awesome force in its own territory. Just magine that guy cruising along, probably 100 feet long, eh, looking for something to eat....whoooooooosh!! Like, wow....


A

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 12:08 AM

Peck me with your beak, Archi,
All the night...

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 11:47 PM

Why can I only think of a song that starts

Put your arms around me, Archi,
Hold me tight....

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: LadyJean
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 11:31 PM

I never did care for calimari.
The Pittsburgh Science Fiction Club, PARSEC, did a musical version of Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea", set to tunes from "The Sound of Music". I'm sure the script is floating around out there somewhere. I know Parsec has a web page.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 10:58 PM

Squidged to a squidgeon of its former self, Bill

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 10:40 PM

umm...that beast is definately in the past tense! Squad? Squud?

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 10:13 PM

Wheeww... you'ld need a big bathtub to keep it under humane conditions - the mind boggles! Umm.. song poyential there - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 09:52 PM

Watched a show about the search for the giant squid "Archetuthis". Scientists are experimenting with other deep sea squids to see if they could keep one in captivity to study it. Either through capture or by raising one from a juvenile specimen. Not quite sure their in their right minds on this one. I mean, what do you do with the big nasty thing once it's full grown?

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 08:55 PM

You'll see some snapshots of a squid in better nick on this BBC News page. It was found in the Ross Sea, Antarctica,in early 2003. It's got an impressive beak.

Cheers - Sam

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Mudlark
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 08:42 PM

Whoa...that's quite a photo. More things on heaven and earth, Horatio...

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 08:41 PM

I think I used to date 'er.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 08:29 PM

Calamari for the army.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 07:54 PM

I reckon it's a Kraken.

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 07:33 PM

Just as Jules Verne wrote about! I'm telling you he was on to something!

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 06:53 PM

Well, it may really be a giant octopussie.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Gareth
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 06:30 PM

And for the UK -

" Here's that sick squid I owe's yer "

TIP Use a "Sarf' Lundun" accent.

Gareth - Bilingual ? 'Cors I am - I Speak fluent English and Sarf' Lundon.

Subject: BS: Meet The Giant Squid!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 04:19 PM

Margaret Walters from OZ sent me this link, primarily because she thought it related to the cover art of Roll & Go's new CD showing a giant squid embracing an ancient sailing ship. But I think there may be broader interest, and even a song or two: RIP-Mr. Squigly

Cheerily,
Charley Noble