Honolulu Star-Advertiser © Susan Scott
November 23, 2001
Writing a column each week is sometimes hard, but it has rewards. Here are some recent letters and comments that have made my day:
About plovers, my mother-in-law, who is interested in linguistics, suggested this: “Next time you write a plover column, you might sneak in their name pronunciation. I called them plo-ver (long o) for years, but rhyming with glove is correct. The use of ‘o’ to spell the ‘u’ sound when followed by a ‘v’ is sometimes credited to scribes who didn’t want so many ‘v’ shapes in a row. But then there’s stove and rove.”
Thanks, Claire. I also said “plover” with a long o until a birder nearly took my head off. Now I rhyme it with lover, as in plover lover.
About the newly described Indonesian octopus that mimics flatfish, sea snakes and lion-fish: Bruce Carlson, director of the Waikiki Aquarium, told me this finding did not surprise him. While diving off Kahe (Electric) Point, he, too, saw and photographed an octopus mimicking a flounder.
Little is known about Hawaii’s mimic octopus other than the fact that it holds its arms together and undulates over the sand like a flatfish. This unnamed octopus lives in holes in silty sand and sometimes occupies old mantis shrimp burrows.
The next time my dive partners tease me for looking at sand, I’ll remind them of this discovery.
Here’s a question from John Clark, the author of the book “Hawaii Place Names,” which I wrote about recently: “The Hawaiian name for Yokohama Bay is Keawa’ula, which means ‘the red harbor.’ The name supposedly came from squid that sometimes colored the water there. Do squid turn red when they spawn?”
After much searching, I learned that, yes, some Pacific squid turn red when mating. Around the world, schools of these squid periodically come into bays and harbors to mate. When a male approaches a female, his arms and body turn a fiery red with white markings. During copulation the male turns a dark maroon.
These mating squid supposedly turn the water a swirling blood red.
Mating squid are now high on my must-see list.
Here’s another comment about names from a Washington reader: “I was fortunate to spend three years, ’50-’53, in intermediate school in Honolulu and enjoyed seeing your reference to the Kaiser Channel. The last time I was there, in 1958, we were at the Hawaiian Village, and I remember Mr. Kaiser wearing fluorescent pink socks with his khaki outfit. Geez, what a memory to carry for 43+ years!”
I think it’s a great memory, and I expect Mr. Kaiser would agree.
And finally, after reading my column about waves and rips, a friend, Jason, wrote me about an experience he had in Australia. On a high-surf day, Jason decided to take a swim parallel to shore. There, a rogue wave picked him up, smashed him down and tumbled him until he didn’t know up from down.
“Resigned to an unpleasant death,” he wrote, “I reflected on the 30 good years I’d had on this earth and the subtleties of performing last rites on oneself. I think I amused myself (an agnostic Jewish Taoist thinking about last rites!) enough to relax, and the whole ordeal was over as soon as it began.”
I’m sure Jason isn’t the only person to have had a religious experience in big waves. He did not, however, take up Catholicism.
Thanks, everyone, for the questions, comments and stories. They make writing this column worth every page-turning, Internet-searching, waiting-on-hold minute.