Monday, October 03, 2011

Circus of the Spineless # 66

Would you look at that title? "The Spineless". A whole world of animals, great and small, named for the one characteristic they don't possess. As if we, in our backboned state, were the norm. We're not, not by a long shot; about 99% of the life on this earth is "invertebrate" - another example of our snooty condescension.

And the term, "spineless" has such derogatory connotations! It calls to mind a lack of courage, a wimpiness, or worse. A glorious squid has to share the term with the most despised of our politicians; the adventurous ballooning spiderling with a Milquetoast. Is this justice? Is it right? No!

I hereby propose that we find a more appropriate term for the most intriguing, varied, resourceful, and durable life around us. One simple word to encompass the entire, exuberant mosaic.

Consider these examples: what characteristic do they have in common?

Some are colourful:


Mayfly nymph Photo by Daniel Stoupin

Some have surprising abilities:


And some are a bit confused:


More squid goodness from Danna Staaf;


Well? Have you thought of the One Word yet? Me neither. Maybe we'll have to stick with "Spineless" for now. Reluctantly.

Before you go, there's one more thing you must see: I'm as green as the Emerald Wasp with envy!
Dragonfly Woman went to Bugshot-2011, a workshop with Alex Wild and other photographers. And, as if that weren't enough, TGIQ went, too, and came home with this amazing photo!

UPDATE: I totally forgot to mention next month's CotS. It will be hosted by Jason Robertshaw, at Cephalopodcast. Send your submissions to him, at cephalopodcast at gmail . com by the end of October.

SECOND UPDATE: A change of instructions for the next Circus; Kevin says to send submissions to him, for now. The address is kzelnio at gmail dot com.

11 comments:

  1. It will take me some time to follow all the links, but I did take a look at the last one. Amazing with a little camera much like mine. Maybe I should learn how to use it better. - Margy

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  3. What a wonderful collection--thanks so much for hosting! The only word that comes to mind is "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" and, although it preserves the alliteration with "Circus," the sound of it is something quite atrocious.

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  4. Well done, a great looking round up of posts!

    And thanks very much for including mine, even though I was too slack to submit them (for about the third month in a row)

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  5. Margy, I know; TGIQ puts us all to shame! She did say that she stayed up half the night, so it's persistence as well as technique. *Promises myself to do better in future.*

    Danna, that's a good word, but my tongue stumbles over it, especially in a phrase with more "c"s and "s"es.

    David; I miss carnivals too often, too. Not a happy feeling.

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  6. Thanks for hosting! I didn't get around to submitting anything this month, but you have some great links and photos here.

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  7. Thanks for adding me to the Circus of the Spineless #66. There were some great posts in that collection. I will have to look into the circus some more.
    Happy Trails,
    Squirrel

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  8. Great job Weeta! Thanks for hosting!

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  9. Anonymous9:53 am

    Great post, Susannah. Particularly impressed with Notes from Dreamworlds, excellent photomicrography!

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  10. Nice lead-in to the Circus, Susannah. Thanks for including my late submission. I look forward to reading the other posts.

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I'm having to moderate all comments because Blogger seems to have a problem notifying me. Sorry about that. I will review them several times daily, though, until this issue is fixed.

Also, I have word verification on, because I found out that not only do I get spam without it, but it gets passed on to anyone commenting in that thread. Not cool!

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