Frazz by Jef Mallett for October 04, 2020

Generally speaking “the romance” drains away as soon as you start looking closely. Kind of like an adventure that way…

I seen a few ex-endurance athletes that put on a lot of weight because they can’t get used to eating a normal diet.

You probably shouldn’t be having predator instincts anyway, kid.

My favorite thing about this recently discovered fossil is that its official name is Livyatan melvillei.

From the National Geographic article about this find: “While the thalattosaur was nearly as long as the ichthyosaur, Motani estimates that it was just one-eighth as heavy.”

Caulfield seems to have made a very unlikely connection between opposites.

Scientists off the coast of Canada just tagged a 17 foot – 3500+ pound white shark, which is a jumbo. Fossil records indicate the presence of 55 feet long megalodons, talk about a super-predator who could eat that 17 footer and still have room for dessert.

The Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller has a huge fossil fish just like that – there’s a smaller fossil fish inside of it.

“Having to eat stuff you don’t want when you have no appetite.”

I have no proof of this, of course, but I imagine that when one’s survival depends upon constant feeding then one’s palate ends up pretty indiscriminate. Contrary to the old joke, a shark wouldn’t spit out a clown because “it tastes funny.”

Actual toxins or irritants are a different matter, of course; the ease with which a dog or wolf can vomit up poison once its system reacts to it as such is an adaptation for survival. Canids also (mostly) eat whenever food is available, rather than because they’re hungry; they gorge when they can because they may go days or more between kills, which too often leads to obesity in domesticated dogs who regularly have access to more food than they need.

I’m fine unless you put me next to a tray of lasagna. No survivors.

We only like to think we dropped out of nature.

Oh, we only think we dropped out of nature. Nature will correct our delusion soon enough.

Jef Mallett’s BlogPosts

Frazz17 hrs · I’m never sure how a strip is going to go over, and today’s is no exception. Paleontologists might take issue with my interpretation of an ichthyosaur. Literalists might take offense to the upper middle frame where the alleged ichthyosaur is pursuing prey that is obviously not a 13-foot Thalattosaurs. (Perspectivists might allow that it is indeed pursuing a Thalattosaurs, but that its aim is way, way off to the right.) Half the population, it seems, will disagree vehemently that Homo sapiens has set itself a wee too far apart from nature. The athletes I identify with may not appreciate the comparison to Joey Chestnut.

But I can live with all that, because I am just ridiculously pleased with myself for how I joined the Ironman and Nathan’s Famous logos on Frazz’s t-shirt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalattosaurus

PCT CDT AT “thru hikers” often their condition. Call it Hiker Hunger!