From: quetzal@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au (Quetzal)
Subject: Re: Observations regarding TLM
Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia.
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 01:21:09 GMT

In <1icflgINNr3g@network.ucsd.edu> rcook@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Robert Cook) writes:

>In article <1993Jan5.012910.23048@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> quetzal@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au (Quetzal) writes:
>>
>>1.  The seafood question above.  Decide for yourself.

>They are all vegetarians, perhaps.  Or maybe they eat sharks, who
>seem to be more than willing to eat other fish and even mermaids.

"Fried flake for tea *again*, Louis?" :)

>>2.  Watch the thimble on Sebastian's foot when he is threatening to tell
>>Triton about the grotto.  Where does it *go?*

>Wasn't he trying to kick it off just before?

It disappears then reappears then disappears.  Doesn't sound very likely
to me. . .

3. . . . . 

>Yes, and Flounder doesn't look like a very efficient swimmer,
>either.  Scuttle didn't appear to lose very many major flight
>feathers; birds have lots of little feathers to lose (they don't go
>quite bald even while molting).

Flounders don't really look like that, do they?

16. (novel on mermaid taxonomy . . .)

>Mermaids are supposed to be HALF-fish, right?  The tail, while
>horizontal, has fins and scales.  Whales don't have fins (not like a
>fish's, anyway) and scales.  A real flounder does not only have a
>horizontal tale--its whole body is horizontal!  Mermaids (pretending
>that they actually exist for the moment) are a class all their own.

You make it sound like some mad scientist's invention. . .
"Igor, fetch me those seashells!"
"Yeeessss, Maaaasssster. . ."

(I forgot that Flounder (capital F) has got a horizontal tail.  That
just adds to the question I mentioned in #3.)

>They seem to be primarily mammal, though, because they are
>apparently placental, but that'd be sort of like calling monotremes
>birds because they lay eggs or mammals because they suckle young or
>reptiles because their legs are hinged horizontally (watch the
>little spiny creature near the beginning of The Rescuers Down Under--
>the one with the long snout who comes out of an old log or
>something).

Oh, dear, oh, dear, oh, dear.  No one talks to an Australian like that
and gets away with it!  Come here and have a little lesson! :)

There are two species of monotreme in the world - the "duck-bill" platypus
and the "spiny anteater" echidna (the latter is the one you mention).
Technically they *are* mammals, for the reason given above, but they
certainly are an almost obsolete model.

>>18. When Ursula sings "It's she who holds her tongue who gets her man",
>>watch what she is holding herself at that instant.  Look vaguely
>>tongue-shaped to you?  So her "man" I take it, is Triton.  This is as
>>far as I go with "double meaning" discussions.

>That could be true, but I've never thought of it that way because
>it seems to be a reference to the original story, where the sea-witch
>actually cuts out the little mermaid's tongue.  She also had pet
>eels, which she used to clean out her cauldron.

Not having read the original story (and not particularly *wishing* to,
either. . .), that didn't occur to me.

>>22. Did Vanessa/Ursula really need to "hypnotise" Eric after he threw
>>the recorder into the sea?  Or was this just a little bit of insurance?
>>After all, Vanessa was just what he had been looking for. . . .

>No, but then Disney would have had to deal with Eric + Ariel.  I think
>they should've gone for it--whadda struggle it might have been for Eric.
>Ah well, can't have everything.  Besides, Ariel's voice may possess
>a certain power over humans not unlike that of a "Siren Song."

That's probably the case.

>>24. Where did that dress Ariel wears as she walks out of the shallows
>>into Eric's arms at the end come from?

>The same place her legs came from.

Yes . . . go on . . . 

>>25. Does anyone else find it strange that it took Ariel not only less
>>than a day to learn how to walk, but only one additional day to learn
>>how to dance?

>She was probably just shaky--in the original story (not that Disney
>seems to care too much about following it) the little mermaid could
>walk more gracefully than any human from the moment she got her
>legs.

O.K., then why is it that she can't swim *at* *all* in human mode?
surely there would be *some* vestigial ability to propel herself in the
water.

A person who was too afraid to post his answers (so I won't mention your
name, Michael) asked this question which I meant to ask but hadn't
remembered at the time:

21a.  After Eric tries several names, Sebastian whispers "Ariel" -- in
Jamaican, it comes out as "aah-ree-ell" -- into Eric's ear to give him a
hint.  Eric knows to translate this to "ehh-ree-uhhl", as every good
WASP would pronounce it.  But how does he know?  Ariel isn't that common
of a name.  He doesn't know the crab is Jamaican -- in fact, he doesn't
even know crabs can speak.

>And I thought that I was crazy for merely responding to this post. ;-)

You are, but not as crazy as me. :)

Tim Pickett.