Your elegant ligaments

[cosmolinguist]

I'm reading a book that's just mentioned Philip Gosse, a Victorian naturalist who coined the word aquarium and popularized the interest in and study of animals with books he wrote.

There's a great quote from him here.

Gosse wrote meticulous descriptions of all the creatures he captured in nets and chiseled from rocks. He measured and catalogued polyps and tentacles, fronds, spines and bristles; he noted their diets and watched their behavior. "Stand still, you beauty!" he exclaimed to the prawn, "and don't shoot round and round the jar in that retrograde fashion, when I want to jot down your elegant ligaments!"

Comments

[quirkytizzy]

LOL! Elegant ligaments! That cracks me up!

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah, when I read that I thought "I must share this with the world." :)

[magister]

Fu Manchu's elegant ligaments are not available in the shops,

[quuf.livejournal.com]

Elegant ligaments is the sort of phrase that gratifies the tongue. :)

[cosmolinguist]

I just love everything about it; the Victorian flamboyance and arrogance, addressing the prawn as "you beauty!", the unnecessary specificity of "retrograde", the way it combines how one might talk to a mischievous child, a recalcitrant lover, any exasperating but beloved person. And then, yes, the unexpected delight of elegant ligaments there at the end.