Word: fishelis
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...Islands, and implicitly believed by many scientific persons, while it is pronounced by other scientific persons to be an artificial production, and its natural existence claimed by them to be an utter impossibility. The manager can only say that it possesses as much the appearance of reality as any fish lying on the stalls of our fish markets-but who is to decide when doctors disagree? At all events, whether this production is the work of nature or art, it is decidedly the most stupendous curiosity ever submitted to the public for inspection. If it is artificial, the sense...
...folk tale told of a fisherman who caught a mermaid in his net. She spoke to him, but lived for only an hour. The story made for more than just good listening; industrious Japanese merchants began sewing the heads and torsos of monkeys to the tails and fins of fish, and selling their "mermaids" to gullible Westerners...
...naturalist friend for confirmation of its mermaid status. In his autobiography, Barnum describes his friend's incredulous reaction: "He could not conceive how it could have been manufactured, for he never saw a monkey with such peculiar teeth, arms, hand & c., and he never saw a fish with such peculiar fins." However, the naturalist told Barnum it must be manufactured, not because he could prove it, but because he didn't "believe in mermaids." Barnum's response: "That's no reason at all, and therefore I'll believe in the mermaid, and hire it." So there! And he did...hire...
...friends, including several reporters, have a look at it. And, as Barnum smugly notes in his autobiography, everyone was convinced that it was a genuine article, "nor is this to be wondered at, since, if it was a work of art, the monkey and fish were so nicely conjoined that no human eye could detect the point where the junction was formed." He goes on to describe the minute fish scales visible underneath the monkey hair; the hands, teeth and fingers, distinctly different from a monkey's; and the fins placed differently from a fish's. "The animal...
...Most people recognize the fact that they [Fish and Russell] are two of the top coaches in the country," Rueb says. "Dave, Greg and Ryu have a history of making a complete player by the time he graduates and that's why I've improved. I can play Harvard tennis and then play professional tennis and not take a step backwards because the coaching's so good here...