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George H, you wrote:
""I went through the trauma of the sea monkey kit being brine shrimp
in my youth."

Bill's contributions are lively, intelligent, colourful, and
idiomatic, and it would be a pity to lose any of that. But in a
technical forum such as ours is, clarity of understanding should take
priority. So I ask Bill, and others, to go back and re-read their
text
before pressing the send button, to ensure that it's going to be
understandable to those who are not native-speakers of American, such
as me. "

Yes, this is a popular culture issue. I don't think Bill's post lost
even a drop of meaning for its 'sea monkey' reference. But I agree
that we should all be a little sensitive to the fact that pop culture
references are necessarily local, both geographically and
generationally [yeah, sometimes age matters]. When in doubt, you can
always throw in a PS at the end of a message. Myself, I recently
included a slightly obscure pop culture reference in a message, but it
was in Morse code. I was surprised no one complained about *that*!

And now, George, it's time for a lesson in sea monkeys. There's
nothing like a little googling to explain any odd cultural reference
that puzzles you. If you search on "sea monkeys brine shrimp", you
will learn all about this particular bit of Americana. I discovered
just now that they still sell these "amazing" creatures. They have a
web site. Ya see, they used to sell "sea monkey" kits to credulous
children at carnivals and fairs. The box art showed a frolicking
family of little animalcules with big smiles, humanoid arms and legs,
and cute little antennae on their heads. They looked like magical
underwater friends, and they would be *your* friends for only two
dollars. When you took the sea monkey kit home and followed the
instructions, dumping the various envelopes of powder into a fishbowl,
a day later you discovered that you had some feebly swimming "bugs".
It turns out that they were brine shrimp. In other words, the kid
"buys a family" and gets fish food. Most children who grew up on that
experience count it as the first time that they were swindled
(conveniently forgetting that whole "Santa Claus" debacle. Don't get
me started!!). Myself, super-geek that I am, I remember my first bowl
of brine shrimp as the time that I discovered the wonders of
invertebrates. 

Because of this common memory for many American adults of the "first
swindle", sea monkeys turn up in pop culture-heavy comedy on a regular
basis. On an episode of the raunchy, adult animated tv show "South
Park", the kids discover that the secret ingredient missing in their
sea monkey aquarium is "seamen". Comedy ensues. I'm waiting for their
episode on "cocked hats".

-FER


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