Thursday, 15 March 2012

Definition of the Day - Fish

I like fish. They're tasty, and they look great in a box surrounded by fried slices of potato. But better still, you can put small, colourful fish in... in... TANKS, and they'll swim around, and make you go to sleep!
   Sigh. I swear, I either stare at fish tanks far too often, or I need to sleep a little more often. Anyway, onto what's to come...

Fish - Scaly things that swim and taste good.

Let's face it, people! The only reason we care about fish is because they really are a very big part of our day-to-day lives. We humans love to ravage the oceans with our great big fishing trawlers, murdering thousands of innocent scaly, floppy little chunks of flesh-on-a-spine so that we can tuck in to a good fillet of haddock, halibut, lemon sole or whatever's on the menu. The reason we care about fish is because they're a resource to us - albeit a tasty one at that.
   Dietitians recommend them, fishmongers sell them and we consume them. Pixar makes films about little clownfish who lose their sons, who manage to end up in a fishtank and start talking to starfish who really shouldn't have eyes, but do anyway. Books make them seem all sparkly and lovely and scaly and, well, fishy. We are surrounded by fish - quite literally. Technically, we, living on land as we do, are surrounded by bodies of water that inevitably contain fish (although some shall contain less than others - thanks, overfishing). In fact, even now you are under the influence of a fish, as Pisces is, as you should know, the constellation and the sign of the fish. Marvellous.
   So fish play a large part in our daily lives. And for this, we decide that we care. Unlike the Natterjack Toad, who is severely endangered and quite rare, which we choose to ignore because it is of no consequence to us.
   Here ends the reading.

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