Forgotten species: the nameless giant forest snail mongabay.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Snails 'have a homing instinct' co.uk Take a look at an interesting article we found.
The new snail that lives in stately homes The Telegraph Take a look at an interesting article we found.
“Addictive Indian salsa” is just one of the addictions on display at the latest salsa off.
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August 30, 2010
"Hello there. I'm whatever you want me to be."
Like many air-breathing snails, Helix aspersa is a hermaphrodite, which means they contain both male and female sex organs.
Which comes in handy.
Since snails spend long times alone, and when they do come across another snail, the last thing they need to wonder is, "Is it my significant other half?"
Originally from Europe, now found in North and South America and a variety of places, the common garden variety snail is not so garden variety when it comes to sex.
They, after all, have the "love dart."
(It is advisable not to read the following until you've had a cup of coffee or caffeinated tea.)
According to Ronald Chase, a professor of biology at McGill University, garden snails court from 15 minutes to six hours by circling each other, touching tentacles, and biting on the lips.
Just before mating, hydraulic pressure builds up in the blood sinus surrounding the organ housing the dart, and when the second animal touches the darter's genitals, it fires that dart.
Evolutionary biologists believe these "love darts," if I understand this correctly, are coated with hormones that prevent a snail from destroying its own sperm with digestive enzymes.
So the species can continue.
To what end exactly?
These land-based mollusks feed on sick and struggling plants and are simply the cleaners of our gardens.
They tell us things.
Their slimy presence over your lettuce, while alarming, is a good sign that the environment for growing lettuce is not a good one.
Mollusks were among Earth's first inhabitants, dating back at least 500 million years, and land snails evolved from their sea cousins.
Some mollusks are covered by hard shells; others, like squid, are not. But they all lack skeletons.
There are more than 85,000 species and more we don't know about.
The mysteries of nature, as Albert Einstein said, “It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.”
In this mysterious world we live in, everything matters.
Even Helix aspersa.
Snails in Evolution tripod.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Scared snails opt for single parenthood rather than wait for a mate Science Daily Take a look at an interesting article we found.
What are snails essortment.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Pun my word there is much wit in this group. Almost too much since I've not finished my mor...
Aug. 30, 2010 8:14 AM
Favorite mollusk?
15% 23% 35% 4% 15% 8%
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and then there are those wonderful autombiles...You know, they are made now by Nissan, but they used to be called Datsun, and ,there was that famous 240Z...with the "special parts", they allowed it to be called an "S"...and the hue and cry went out from shore to shore "LOOK A THE "S" CAR GO", or something like that
OH, and by the way, I voteted today for "other", and it would be ...molusks marinara
evidently, chianti causes spelling errors...on the other hand, it does go well with mollusks and marinara,fresh bread rubbed with garlic and toasted,then drizzeled with oil and cheese...
I need some time to recover from reading the tail end of yesterday before starting on today. Laughed so much I was gasping for breath & needed a couple of blasts of my asthma inhaler. To die laughing can't be a bad way to go .....
YESSS!!!!!! MADMEN!!!!!
OK:- First bad joke of the day:- Do all oysters act in their own shellfish interests?
I await your pearls of wisdom.
"Love darts?" Make "darts" a verb and not a noun, and many interesting possible finishes to a sentence come to mind.....
I got nothing to say about snails. Tried to comeo up with something pithy, but it just ain't there. So I'll just clam up today.
The good professor says garden snails court from 15 minutes to six hours.
Hot idea: Maybe they should start by sipping some salsa.
Now that would cause them to really get a move on.
Sudden thought: If snails are so blamed slow when it comes to sex, how come there are so darned many of them?
Ben Jammin', no, no, no. Don't clam up.
Why, your 6:07 AM line is downright punny.
The snail can climb over a razor blade without being hurt one learns in grade school science class. Makes me cringe. Moving at a snail's pace may indeed be a lesson in taking one's time. It is safer and material for a good simile. "We walk through volumes of the unexpressed and like snails leave behind a faint thread excreted out of ourselves." (John Updike, The Blessed Man of Boston) I started listening to John Prine in the 70's and still love his clever song "It's a Big Old Goofy World," based on doing a puzzle about similes. He thought about calling it "When the World
Was Flat as a Pancake, Mona Lisa Was Happy as a Clam."Spineless or not. Snails deserve their due.
Chilling thought: Suppose all of these studies of the sex lives of snails were made possible by government grants?
Pun my word there is much wit in this group. Almost too much since I've not finished my morning mug of Earl Grey (but I was warned, wasn't I?).
more on the honor rollI'll take oysters or clams on the half shell with some cocktail sauce. Or a seafood marinara, heavy on the squid.
Actually, in addition to the French escargot -- delicious with butter and garlic -- I have had two Chinese snail dishes. One was reminiscent of French escargot, but lacked the butter (which the Chinese did not have). It was good, though I think the butter is a great addition.
The other was a much larger snail that was sliced and put in a stir fry and was very nice. Both in a little hole-in-the-wall family restaurant in New York's Chinatown. The instructor brought my Chinese language class down there for a "cultural experience." She did know the restaurants.
Actually, for all that they move slow, snails must have quite a bit of energy. A sexual encounter that lasts six hours! But pigs! I heard that their orgasms last thirty minutes. By that time, I'd have died of heart failure...
Tommy Typical~ There's a song that has the line "sliding down the razorblade of life" - always made my toes curl.
We only get pesky little snails here, but in Africa I remember snails the size of an icecream cone.
The sexlife of snails - sounds like they discovered tantric sex.
I was about to go to bed, feeling abit down and tired, when all your posts made me laugh and perked me up.
Julia, is it true there is a Museum of Sex in NYC? http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/07/animals-get-fre/
Here's a couple of weird things I've remembered.. After a male honeybee finishes having sex with the queen bee he leaves his penis lodged inside the queen while the rest of his body explodes
Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
But dont believe that...seems pigs have orgasms that last 30 mins..(so who wants to come back as a pig?)
Maybe Bert might know if these are true??
In Kingsville, Texas, it is against the law for two pigs to have sex on the city's airport property.
In Fairbanks, Alaska it
In Florida having sexual relations with a porcupine is illegal.
In Fairbanks, Alaska its illegal for moose to have sex on the city sidewalks (dont know how it is enforced)
One of the things I remember most vividly about Maui is the proliferation of snails on the carefully manicured grass covered with morning dew. Those were HUGE.....
SPRING: Whether it is Moose or People, enforcement is accomplished with a Fire Hose ...
Jalopkin~ I am having trouble thinking of which position you would need to have sex with a fire hose
If the heart were to cease functioning after a thirty minute orgasm, it would seem unfair to characterize it as "failure."
Are slugs homeless snails?
HAze~ just snails without a lot of baggage?
all this innuendo about , er....sex reminds me of a story/question Do you know how to tell the sex of pancakes?
by the way they are stacked, of course
On the end, of course ... RoadYacht .......
RY:
After reading your post if I wasn't already making ribs I make some of that "S car go".
I have a great simple, on the can, recipe for them.
Maybe tomorrow.
all I need is a bucket of beer steamed clam. a bowl of Manhatten style clam chowder...... and maybe just a whisper to drive me crazy..... which is usually a short trip.
I love escargots, I'm happy they love love, because that makes for more of them, available for dinner. En croute not in the damn slippery shells...but anyway, HI EYE, and ain't it GRAND that MAD MEN got 4 Emmys - and a little plug for my hometown and my alma mater, Glenbrook South High School in Glenview IL -- Steve Levitan for "Modern Family" -- Glenbrook always did have a fantastic drama department, and it's great to see one of its students take home an Emmy for Best Comedy writing, Best Comedy. As Ivan would say "GOOD ON YOU," Steve Levitan, you done us proud.
Lynn830, When it comes to oysters don't believe the old fable about what raw oysters will do for you.
I ate a dozen one night and only 10 of them worked.
But think about that pig ... THIRTY MINUTES!
What a way to die. Guess I'll have to get me twenty oysters...
Mom and Dad -in the same house; moreover a house without mortgage. Wow. And they live all simply, in peace. Few possessions...(I mean you'd never find a sofa to fit in there) - and, even if you get down close to the ground, and listen, you never hear tiny voices shouting, "Get out! Get out!"...
Here's a link foryou. http://plagiarist.com/poetry/5612
MISS PARK: Do you know whether or not Christina Hendricks is single ??? Taking nothing away from anybody, and disparaging none ... it is good to see some appreciation for Full Grow'd Women ... A welcome departure from the Stick-Figure genre that we had been taught to idolize .......
Park4- The Middle is so funny true. Up the road from Glenview, a short piece was good old Bob Chinn's Crab House where I used to frequent as I had a customer in Wheeling. and my stand by near O'Hare, the Cafe la Cave who serve a very good Escargot Bourguignon. Garlic Butter uuummmhh. I love the restaurants where the waiters with accents actually make a career of fine food and service.
auri~ nice one!
During a long dry spell, my kitchen drain gets clogged with snails attracted to the cool damp & bits of food. I have to commit mass murder by dissolving a large bag of salt in the kitchen sink & pulling the plug. Snails are sex-maniacs, I find orgies of them intertwined in positions that are not described in the Karma Sutra, partying away in dark, damp corners of my garden. On a similar note, I'd left the hosepipe untitdy in grass-snake breeding season. Lady grass-snakes want to mate with the biggest guy, so hosepipe was highly desirable. They are harmless & eat slugs & snails, so I left them to it.
TT: Coincidence! You've been hangin in my hood, or thereabouts...Bob Chinn's I haven't thought of that place in ages since we moved away from the area, but YES, the best seafood -- I can't think of a local place or any place that does it like Bob Chinn's. Nice memory, and a good idea to go back there one of these upcoming cooler autumn weekends...Wheeling..my good friend's parents own a restaurant in the Loop and in Wheeling on Milwaukee, it was called Rickett's -- I remember the last time I was at Bob Chinn's I cut my finger on a blue shell crab, lord they've got sharp claws - but that didn't take away from just how good a restaurant it is, atmosphere and food. Thanks for the memory!
IVAN! christina hendricks, I have no clue if she's attached or not, but oh my she does have a "figure" doesn't she. She's a red headed but cool Marilyn Monroe, with a (fictional) PHD in male behavior. In last week's Mad Men episode, the Chinese clients (I think they were supposed to be Honda) - men- couldn't take their eyes off of her and one of them said to another "I wonder why she doesn't fall over" to which Joan (her character's name) looked down at the guy and said to one of the partners, "Not real subtle fellas are they?" She's gorgeous, and quite an actress. She's created a really terrific character with Joan, a very smart woman who knows how to use her looks to her advantage -- and then shock 'em with her smarts.
I know some who want to come back in their next life as a pig
Lions can do "it" 6 times a day...so is quantity better than 1/2 hour? Pigs need something to make up for how/where they live...... . On the other hand, BACON frying is almost as good as orgasm...well, maybe not, but close....and you can have that BBQ hicory pork smell in your nose for all day....and scargot diabla....oooh, almost orgasmic,
Where is Karma Swim Swami to give us a treatise on Tantric Yoga Sex ? People can do it for hours, if they are so inclined.
RY~ Lions have nothing on rabbits.
I like pigs - dead or alive.
I think it all depends on whether or not you have long or short term memory issues, RY. ;)
rwh1 -- ha ha ha -- great line
MISS P: Its not just her chest, its the whole package !!! She is a Chunky Girl, the kind that won't break in the first ten minutes .......
The little kissing snails are about the cutest things I have ever seen. It's like a Hallmark moment, which is usually gagacious, but they are just so damn adorable........
IVAN........ They call that a "brickhouse".........mighty, mighty.............
BEBE: You Betchum Red Ryder !!! A Brickhouse indeed !!! Either you are older than I thought, or you spent a lotta time with your Grandaddy ....... Only people I know that even know that Term are Septogenarians like me ... But, it sure delivers the point !!!
Doing the Baked Brie tonite for a Midnite Nosh ... looking forward to it, and have three Bottles of '96 Bollinger to accompany ....... Right on 46 Degrees, now ...
Ivan and Bebe..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrBx6mAWYPU ; 1977
Bebe...since you don't do youtube, the link is for "Brickhouse" by the Commodores...1977.
"She's a Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked)" The one hit wonder by Carl Carlton ...1981 is another song that could describe Ms. Hendricks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sl5VurCaIQ&NR=1
JANE.......... hey chickletta!!!!!! I love both songs............ every time I hear "Bad Mama Jama" I always think it's Stevie Wonder because the guy sounds just like him. Now those were some descriptive songs............. Thanks, even though I'm an Amish........
Excellent Miss Jane ... I didn't remember the Commoders were the ones that did that Song .......