Word: squids
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Opal is a silicate fossil. It comes in "shells"--seashells originally, for this whole desert was once a vast inland sea--or more rarely in "pipes," or tubes, the fossilized backbones of archaic freshwater squid. The paradox of the stuff is that although it is so brilliantly colored, it has no color of its own. It's a solid diffraction grating, and the color you see is the light dispersed and reflecting through it. John Smart, the miner in whose mine we filmed, waxes reflective about this. "The opal's just a bloody illusion. It's as though...
...punchiness of the flavors is the truest indicator of Harvest's theme, however. Each dish boasts multiple ingredients, each with a strong presence. For instance, the Seared Rare Duck Salad ($9) comes as advertised with roasted golden beets, frisee greens and an overly assertive soy-ginger dressing. Spicy Squid "Rhode Island Style" ($8) is sweetly battered and deep fried, yet manages somehow to avoid being greasy, served in a salad of arugula, jalapeno and tomato. The vinaigrette on the greens renders the squid batter pleasantly soggy in some areas and counteracts the deep-fried taste with its piquancy...
According to Ellis, an even greater mystery is the giant squid's relationship to its chief predator, the sperm whales, huge ocean beasts that weigh up to 60 tons...
...sperm whales are mammals and rely on oxygen from the surface to survive. Consequently, scientists find it hard to fathom how sperm whales can dive to depth of 4,000 feet, search out and devour giant squid in the complete darkness and return to the surface in time to breathe again...
Carolyn J. Bishop said she found giant squid tobe "a fascinating subject" and that "it was apleasure to go to the source" for information...