Comments on: Just when you thought it was safe(r) to go in the water… http://crypticphilosopher.com/2008/12/just-when-you-thought-it-was-safer-to-go-in-the-water/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=just-when-you-thought-it-was-safer-to-go-in-the-water Cryptic Philosopher Wed, 15 May 2013 20:32:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Todd Stadler http://crypticphilosopher.com/2008/12/just-when-you-thought-it-was-safer-to-go-in-the-water/#comment-140 Todd Stadler Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:16:00 +0000 http://crypticphilosopher.com/?p=68#comment-140 Yeah, no question about it, men o’ war are just creepy/freaky. Of course, they’re not technically jellyfish — in fact, as Wikipedia notes, “it is not a single animal, but rather a siphonophore – a colony of four kinds of highly modified individuals, specialized polyps and medusoids.” Can they get any creepier/freakier? Yowza.

Frankly, I’m far less worried about proper jellyfish than those things. They look more like a disembodied central nervous system than anything else, and it’s clear that they are only intent on causing pain and death.

And when you’re wading in the shallows and you look up at the next wave coming in and you see that horrid blue balloon floating on top, it strikes fear in your heart every bit as much as would a shark fin. Because you never actually saw shark fins, nor felt their bite, but you are familiar with the man o’ wars ways.

Also: tar. I can relate. That’s where I got my ocean experience, too. Sigh. Texas.

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