She's No Nyad...!

And yet - CNN gives this synchronized swimmer 

- hailing from Espanâ of all places - 

almost as much importance as the age-defying, 

currents-challenging and 

all-around stunning seawoman 

that the one, the only 

legendary open-water endurance swimmer 

Diana Nyad unquestionably is...! 

That is simply OUTRAGEOUS! 

But that's another story - 

check out Barcelona's Barracuda first...

CNN likes this water-logged creature a hell of a whole lot; 

still, ''Siren from Spain'' eluded them completely 

when it came time to affix her a catchy title...  

Perhaps they feared the negative connotation 

attached to that sobriquet? 

Me, I would have welcomed the sincerity 

and disarming honesty, 

since we are talking about an ambitious grrl here 

and one who hails from Barcelona at that...

Speaking of Barracuda though - 

here's a freebie for the seas; 

the wild wild web's dangerous seas, that is!

Don't mention it... *B*!  

Now back to our subject here - our true subject being... 

Diana! Diana Nyad - yes! 

She who dove in three times - three times!!! - 

in a determined attempt to be the first 

to successfully cover the distance between 

Cuba and Florida 

swimming in the sea, past all manners 

of predators - and jellyfish, too! 

Alas, all three times, she had failed. 

Yet she would try again...

But wait a minute now - 

Diana Nyad may have been 

the most obsessive about accomplishing it 

but she is not, by no means, the only granny 

who tried to do it: 

British-Australian swimmer Penny Palfrey 

also gave it the good ol' college try; 

to no avail, probably, 

since Diana (not Naida, as some newspapers reversed) 

was still in line for the title of 

''first person to successfully swim the distance 

between Havana harbor and the Florida Keys!''

The picture above, for some unfathomable reason, 

which was taken by one Ramon Espinosa, AP, 

makes one think of those daring dames 

that tried to go through Niagara Falls 

inside a barrel...! 

Don't know why...!

Diana Nyad's pics don't have that same effect; 

see for yourselves...!

An Aquawoman true and true - 

she evokes only TIMELESSNESS and AWESOMENESS 

as she finally crossed the distance 

at the age of 64...!

Nyad, the one true Naiad, bar none,

finally achieved what she strove to be the best at 

for the longest time; 

be the first one, the only one 

(bar the existence of an actual Aquaman) 

to swim this incredible distance 

without the insurance of a shark cage 

covering one's, ah, assets! 

She tried three times, 

and failed. 

Finally, this September, 

on what was her fourth attempt, 

she made it through!

Nyad Triumphant! 

It took her 53 HOURS to do it - 

and she wasn't in such great shape when she arrived 

(seawater does that to you, y'know) 

but she became, officially, the first one to bridge that divide 

without the benefit of a shark cage indeed!

courtesy: Associated Press 

She was so sure she would succeed in 2010 -

and, again, last year, at age 62, she was convinced that 

the third time would be the charm and that she would be 

celebrating her 63rd birthday in the Keys 

with a victory party as well... 

But she was destined to be crowned 

queen of this particular neck of the seas 

at 64 - and in 2013 - not before!

Here we see the legendary endurance swimmer 

Diana Nyad once again 

with her trainer, Bonnie Stoll, hugging (but not kissing)

(this isn't a kiss-n-tell after all) 

mer-moments after Nyad finally came ashore 

in Key West, Florida 

after swimming for 53 hours from Cuba. 

Nyad thus became the first person 

to swim from Cuba to Florida 

without the help of a shark cage - 

a record that should never be equaled. 

Picture: AP Source: AP

When she first attempted this, back in 1978, 

Nyad was only 28 years of age, 

coming of age and coming out, too...! 

The 103-mile journey in the unforgiving seas 

didn't scare her then, though; 

it wouldn't scare her now, 

given that she matured so very well...

Younger Nyad would fail only due to 

unpredictable heavy waves 

and strong naval winds; 

older Nyad prevailed 

against all odds!

Undeterred at each and all of her attempts  

as by the daunting task that laid ahead, 

Diana Nyad's fiercest obstacle remained 

those pesky Portuguese Man-O-Wars - 

and not the sharks at all! 

Figures that a Mitylenian Nymph would have 

trouble with man-o-wars and not fins, though...

As a matter of fact, it was after being stung 

repeatedly by these fiercest of sea creatures 

that Nyad had given up her previous two attempts 

before finally succeeding, at last, now.

courtesy: GETTY. 

When not so drenched, and even a tad parched, 

Diana Nyad is quite the Luminous Lady, I would say!

Diana Nyad has become an inspiration to all -

through this single most impressive exploit, 

she proves that anyone, anywhere, can accomplish 

whatever one wants to set out to accomplish; 

all you have to do is display tenacity 

and perseverance - as she has done.

If you fail once, twice or thrice -

you just keep on trying 

and you will succeed, eventually!

(Maybe not on the fourth try as she did, though; 

but eventually, surely!)

Diana Nyad in full aqua regalia!

Diana Nyad's exploits have been immortalized 

in many ways now: 

among them, this special documentary 

courtesy of the Legacy Boutique -

check it out! 

Her overall look has been emulated 

across the globe, too...

All aqua-tics admit it: they've got NYAD-ennvy! 

She is an AQUAFICIONADA like no other! 

Still... There are many skeptics out there, lost at sea...  

So many under-the-weather (or under the water) doubters! 

Among them, the hardcore fans of one Lynne Cox: 

imagine that these peeps would say to thee 

that she is greater than Diana Nyad...!

HA! 

Lynne has got Sally The Seal's vote though, 

or so it would appear here...

And to them, we shall say here and now: 

HERESY - or hearsay? 

One or the other...! 

Lynne Cox's another fine 

AQUAFICIONADA though -

that is for sure!

More on her... some other aqua time!

Same aqua channel! 

;-) 

Northman would be Aquaman?

Now that would be amusing; especially if you take this scene into consideration...

The more fans are asked about who should play the part of the one-and-only Sea King in a potential ''King of Atlantis'' movie (or a Justice League movie; to go with the ''Man of Steel'' commoner - but that ''Dark Knight'' fellow is just, quite frankly, too far beneath either of them...!  Too bad the WB and fanboys worldwide refuse to admit that...!) the more the name of Alexander Skarsgård comes to the fore (I would've typed ''the surface'' - but let's save it for another time, hmm?)  And all of this hoopla has got to be due to his ongoing performance in HBO's sickly addicting ''True Blood'' series (addictive to some, it may be - definitely not to me!  But that is another story...) as well as other noted appearances that Alexander has made, here and there...

Here's an Aqua Blue pose by Alexander here - 

very convincing, very Arthur Curry-ian; 

and the gal looks like former flame Kate, 

whom one could say he stole 

right from under a Super cape...! 

But then he swam away...

The Nordic thespian has been in a number of quality roles, and he was not born yesterday either (1976, to be exact: the year of the Bicentennial for the USA - and for Aquaman!) but it is unquestionably the role of bloodsucker Eric Northman (ha - Northman; get a Nordic actor to play him -  pure genius!) that has made him a household name indeed (still, somehow, the paleface from Twilight gets more press coverage than he does? No fair! But does anyone care - really?)

Let's have a look at the acting range of one Alexander ''The Great Skarsgârd'' - in action and deep (pun intended, once again, of course - duh) into his character, with co-star Anna Paquin in tow...

Is this guy Ocean Royalty material or what?  He ''has it'' more than Hartley, Ritchson or DiCaprio combined! And he certainly has it more than this guy as well (who is Eric Dane anyway?!?)

Alexander truly has an affinity for finny friends, too: 

he's joined the campaign TAILS FOR WHALES 

and brought over to that side, as well, 

a certain close and curvaceous friend...

Now all this really hits the fan (!) when one realizes that the actress who plays Northman's ''lady apprentice'' here is none other than Kristin Bauer - the original voice of Mera, Aquaman's wife, on the single most significant appearance she made in recent years in animation. Kristin's character (Pam, former head of a bordello turned right hand of the vampire - what a career path!) is quite the same ''right hand'' function as Mera serves to Aquaman - but, at least, Mera wasn't in a bordello! In True Blood, she has gone on to become the mistress or 'womentor', if you will, to an apprentice all her own - a black chick who joyfully sucks hemoglobine now while enjoying homoerotic moments with her mistress, too!  Of course - True Blood had to have a couple of lesbian vampires - it was a given. That the part of a Carmilla-type was given to the erstwhile Mera - now that is, shall we say, surprising?

Alexander Skarsgard & Kristin Bauer van Straten 

speaking at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con International

in San Diego, California (duh) - on the 14th of July, to be exact!

Photos by Gage Skidmore, 

 from Peoria, AZ, United States of America.

Isn't it so TOUCHING (and appropriate) 

that the future King of the Seven Seas 

demonstrates such tenderness towards 

the once (and future? Nah!) Queen Mera...!

Further amusing, here, is how things that one sees, sometimes, making no sense at all; and then, years after that, it all seems to come together... somehow! Case in point...
Years ago, I remember glancing at this Comic-Con picture that seemed to make no sense at all: the unlikely team-up projected by a trio of ''cosplayers'' had reunited ''classic Aquaman'' (way pre-New 52 back then) with X-Men Beast... and Rogue. Now, everybody knows that the actress who played Rogue (and still plays the part - in the yet-to-be-released (at blogging time) ''X-Men: Days of Future Past'' nonsense on celluloid, of course!) is the true star of True Blood: Anna Paquin. When the show started, she was the only household name signed up for a part in that cast! Anna's Sookie character there (a fairy hybrid, nothing less: still something more believable than a mutie, I say!)  met the vampire-who-loves-to-swim, Northman, and sparks flew - just as he was deemed a natural for the part of Aquaman too, as a direct result of his swimming, by casual observers like yours truly indeed!  And so Rogue and Aquaman were reunited again; and, this time, not as *cosplayers* in some comic-book convention somewhere or even in a mega multi-character insane (if not inane) cross-company crossover,, but in a sometimes more believable piece of fiction than the comic-bookies themselves get to be! And one could guess that the Beast between the two would be Bill, Anna Paquin's real-life husband and co-star on TB - or it's the devil itself, for all we care, here, at aqua musings!  We could go on extrapolating - you know it! Have a look at the pic in question now and you will see how right this comparison is!

Here they are, together again for the first time: 

Rogue... The Beast... and Aquaman! 

No idea which CON this came from, originally...

I don't even have the slightest idea who this guy is! 

And the same goes for the CosPlayer-Aquaman here...! 

Rogue and Aquaman do make quite a match, oddly enough; 

and to think that this was YEARS before 

Anna ''Rogue'' Paquin was matched with 

the heir apparent to the crown of Atlantis! 

As for the furry creature standing in-between them; 

it could truly be the devil himself indeed, 

judging from Charlaine Harris' material -

or the Beast of Biblical prophecy, instead...? 

Only such a monster would have ''blessed'' 

such an unholy dalliance as 

Aquaman and Rogue...!!!

Who knows - maybe AQ and ROGUE would have developed some-kind-of-complicated-thing over time - if the fiasco that was the Amalgam Universe crossovers and spin-offs had continued for any length of time...!  He does have a rep now for collecting flings, on the side: Power Girl, Dolphin, Wonder Woman... Rogue would have been overmatched in that harem, but still; one thing is for damn sure - it would have been as complicated a relationship as the one Eric Northman and Sookie Whatshername share on True Blood...! 

Copyright: TV GUIDE...?!?

Hey - no BEAST between them this time: at least!

Only time will tell if Skarsgard (argh - how do you get that funny little punctuation on top of the second 'A' without having to resort to copy-paste, HUH?  Only a Northman would know - hmm?) will indeed soon don the regal orange-gold-and-emerald of the Sea King...  In the meantime, as per our custom of having Aquaficionadas here, rather than aqua-posers and assorted would-be kings (...!) let us reflect instead on WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN... If Kristin Bauer had, once upon a time, donned the crown of the Sea Queen in live action; instead of the fangs of a lesbian vampire! What if the eventual Mrs. Van Straten had gotten the part in the flesh (when she wasn't past her mid-thirties, shall we say) instead of getting only voice-over work with this character, that one and only time...?  What if she had embodied the Queen of the Seven Seas - instead of various surface-dwelling, ah, whores really...!?!

Well, the following pics of Kristin in all her AQUAFICIONADA glory give us an idea of what COULD HAVE BEEN there...

All pictures - trademark to their rightful owners!

Just click on the pics!

The Pufferfish Did It!

Mysterious crop circles may still remain mysterious - but the ones found at the bottom of the sea need not be!  We've got the culprit: and we didn't even need to ask Aquaman to find him for us...

It was Peter the Pufferfish! (What - him, again?!?)
And he pleaded guilty immediately, while invoking the main reason to have done it as being all for... love! Or a mating ritual, really...

Let's all be intrusive quite a bit and become peeping toms to Peter The Pufferfish's groovy and funky ways to ''set up the atmosphere'' there, under the sea...!  Just watch this:

Courtesy of: LiveScience.com  - and Yahoo Jen Markham, too!

Snooping around on a pufferfish's sex life on Friday night was what we aaaaaall needed, I guess, in order to properly set up our own week-end rituals, hmm?  Thanks, News Folks!  

(Although, we find it funny that, all previous sources of information on this topic were not as, well, not as stuffy as the source that provided us, somehow, with a, finally, truly interesting video to embed here which sums up the Pufferfish's Labour Of Love - a video that is not on the insufferable, often inconclusive YouTube either! These species of egghead, however, wants its stuff not to be alluded to, not even reworded in a far more, ah, shall we say aquamusing way indeed, not even for the totally FAIR USE of ongoing education?  What stuffiness, what supercilious disdain for the masses that populate the seas (the seas of people, granted) - what haughty elitism! Drown them all, we say! Feed these abysmal eggheads to the fishies: for they do not even deserve to observe them, much less catch, dissect and consume them with fries and cheap beer! And we, at aquamusings, in spiteful disdain ourselves, shall henceforth refer to these little minds that like to question and doubt everything and anything, as nothing other than... petty eggheads! READ ON...)

This article, therefore, follows up on several previous, infinitely more scientific reports, on the very same subject. These circles had been enigmatic for a long time, you see, and scientific scrutiny eventually dug up the truth about them - right out of the ocean floor, where our sins have sunk to as well, some say, or sing really. Needless to say, Nature.com's account goes into, ah, deeper detail shall we say - and, then, we had various other sources for this very aquamusing subject here!

Alas, with the latest brand of extrapolation, immediate comparisons were drawn with the bowerbirds and their lowly 'bowers'' which are quite unfair as, if with the birdies, the mating ritual is all but an illusion, with the pufferfish, it is a very real deal, in an environment very much conducive for the end result and ultimate goal of the entire ordeal. For, unlike humans whose sex life may be strictly for carnal pleasure and spare time fulfillment, the fishies' business here is all for much-needed breeding and survival of the race more than ever precarious in the conditions the seas are getting to be encased in, these sad, sad days of aquatic depreciation and such... (We'll talk about THAT soon enough, here...)

And to think that scientists and petty eggheads alike had been baffled by these ''mysterious underwater circles'' for decades prior to these findings...!  The Yahoos delineate 1995 as the starting point of the puzzling over them: but, surely, others had noticed the circles before the divers that spotted some off the coast of Japan on that watershed year? The seafloor around Japan had never been scrutinized before 1995?  Please...!  Most probably all the divers who spotted them took the remarkably well-defined geometric shapes to have been the work of either Atlanteans or Aliens; so many important ''messages'' sent to us, or more appropriately, to them, who were diving in those waters...!  Only now have the petty eggheads, remarkably imaginative about things themselves, sometimes, somehow, finally discovered who the ''artist'' behind these shapes really is: and it is indeed none other than a sea creature after all!  What were the odds, hmm? 

Mind you, it is not just your average, oddly-spiky pufferfish that did it: it is a newly-discovered species of pufferfish! So maybe it is an alien race after all...  These pufferfishies make ornate circles like that in order to attract mates and procreate: it is the male that is the artist here, interesting to note, as the patterns come about after he flaps his fins ''laboriously'' they say; we'll say ''meticulously'' here!  And so he swims in circles, for hours and hours along the seafloor, basically creating the love-nest for his beloved out of disrupted sediment floating around the murky depths; hey, it's the intention that counts, right?  The horny little sea-devil makes amazing work that reaches up to seven feet in diameter; while, he, measures no more than five inches long! Quite obviously, the desire he feels is stronger than anything down there!  And it works! Once they are finished with their artwork, which doubles as a very practical building process, the females swim over and inspect the final results; if they like the love-bed that was so fervently made for them, they procreate with the male on the spot!  None of the observing sea-diving eggheads have a clue, yet, exactly what the female fish's criteria might be here - all they know is that this is the process and true reason why those circles are made in the first place.  The males are basically designing a bullseye for the females to deposit their eggs. Once those are laid in the fine sediments at the center of the circle there, the male, as owner of that circle, has the duty of fertilizing the eggs externally. It is a fine collaboration with the only true purpose being to insure the perpetuation of their species, in fact. For, once the female is done laying the eggs, she swims away. It is the male that stays on for a time, up to an additional week, presumably to guard the fertilized eggs.

Fascinating - as some pointy-eared less execrable alien would say (obviously not Namor!) 

What makes these circles and mating rituals so unique is the fine attention to detail brought to it by this variety of pufferfish: Peter, here, demonstrates quite the sense of aesthetics, to say the least! (Although the aesthetic nature of it all is in dispute by the egghead community - as well it should be.)  The apparent artistic touch comes in a three-fold intricate process of creation, too! Our Peter here initially makes sure that there are circular and evenly-spaced passages (radially-aligned ridges and valleys, as some eggheads would say!) outside his nest site, in a perfect geometric design that reeked of alien intelligence, for some others, too!  Then our Peter makes it imperative to decorate these roads -yes, decorate them; or so it seems- with fragments of shells, nothing less!  Finally, he pays attention to color schemes too -nothing is too much in order to attract the best female eggs, we suppose!- gathering up the finest sediments he can possibly find on the ocean floor in order to give the final result both a distinctive shape on top of a particular color!  Everything has to be unique and perfect for Mrs.Pufferfish here - or so it would appear! Overall, all the hard work takes roughly a week indeed for the Pufferfish to complete it: sometimes up to nine days! No such hard labours have yet been found to have been done for nothing, so far: every Peter got a lady puffer who found his circle fit enough to dignify with her eggs...!  The artistic merit is disputed though: it might all be a huge bullseye for the ladies indeed and nothing more than that... boo-hoo!  One wonders what other disappointing conclusion these petty eggheads will come to (and proudly share with the masses) regarding other aqua-mysteries out there...! We are so NOT holding our breath to find out - read - or blog about it...! 

Now... Pufferfish are not alone doing such wondrous things simply in order to mate -or going to such depths just to attract the female counterpart's attention- Featherfin Cichlids (aka furcifers - not lucifers!) apparently make small bowls out of sand in which to deposit all necessary ingredients...!  (And here we thought the eggs were carried in the female's mouth while being fertilized by the male...! Maybe some petty eggheads don't even know what they're talking about... EH?) while the ever-horrific looking Angler Fish latches on to its female, parasite-style!  The male octopus simply makes a ritualistic sacrifice of its penis: it falls off during mating! (But it grows back - fear not, Topo!)  And things quickly get all down the tube from that point on, with less privacy and a permanent set of peeping toms standing by, when the fishies have to do it inside a fish tank, of course...! But that's another story - another aquamusing story, kind of! 

Regardless of any and all refinements and specificities concerning the nature of these rituals and the variety of necessary components, it is undeniable that attracting a female's attention requires much work and time, no matter what species you are, under the sea or above the surface...!

We know what we are talking about when we call them Aquaficionadas - see?  

;-)

UPDATE:

DAMNABLE YAHOO...@$!#%

HERE IS THE DARN VIDEO - TIMES 10: