a squid you're gonna swipe right on
right means yes fyi
Hello dears, it’s Thursday, and I have a few hard questions for you (and me). How is it almost June? Why can’t I write this newsletter ahead of time and/or in stages?? Why did I do it at 2am today? I welcome you to slide into my DMs with answers to my questions and, of course, compliments 😘. Read on for a fun squid spotlight and some non-traditional recommendations.
squid feature
Meet the squid of your dreams! She’s succulent, pink, and glowing. Her soft mantle is studded with gems. Her name? Histioteuthis reversa, or the Strawberry Squid!
Strawberry squid mantles, or “the top part of the squid,” range from 2 in to 11in in length. They live in the mesopelagic region of the deep sea. Also known as the the twilight zone, it spans from ~200-1000m in depth. It begins where only 1% of incident sunlight light remains (dim), and it ends where no incident sunlight remains (dark).
Strawberry squid have evolved to live in these low-light conditions. Their jeweled crust is made up of photophores, light-producing organs that help them communicate. Their eyes are weird, mismatched marvels! In fact, squids in the strawberry squid’s family (taxonomically, not relationally), Histioteuthidae, are called “cockeyed” squids because their eyes differ from one another in shapes, sizes, and color. But how and why does being cockeyed help these squid?
It’s about the two kinds of light in the twilight zone—downwelling sunlight and bioluminescence. Dim sunlight penetrates the water from above, and it weakens exponentially with depth. The way all that water absorbs and scatters light causes the sunlight to become nearly monochromatic. In this weak, diffuse light, it is hard see what’s going on around you. Bioluminescence, on the other hand, is a point source of light. Not diffused at all. It’s easier to see in high contrast situations—such as when there is little to no sunlight and water is dark.
Thomas et al. (2017) observed the behavior of 152 strawberry squid (and 9 squid of a different cockeyed species) and found that they hold their bodies semi-upright and at a slight angle. This allows them to orient their larger, better-seeing eye slightly upward, and their smaller, worse-seeing eye slightly downward.
The larger eye is better able to scan the low contrast waters above to look for silhouettes of predators. The smaller eye, despite taking in less visual information, can still do a passable job identifying the high contrast bioluminescence of potential prey, shining brightly against the dark water below.
While two larger eyes are better at seeing both shadowy forms in low light and bright spots in the dark, they can’t have it all. They can’t have the career and the family! They can’t have two big eyes! Strawberry squids, like all living creatures, have to make energetic trade offs in this resource-limited world. Whereas some choose investment banking and absentee parenting, others choose to have one big and one small eye. May this be a lesson to us all!
recs + reviews
THOCKY KEYBOARD!!! Mechanical keyboards are tactile, responsive, and make an extremely satisfying sound when pressed. After using squid reader TA’s thocky keyboard to type a long (2 pages, single-spaced), slightly alarming, stream-of-consciousness letter, I was sold. There is a lot of lingo in the mechanical keyboard world (switches, hot swappable, key travel), but don’t worry about it unless you want to. I bought an EPOMAKER TH80 Pro and a wrist rest, and I am using them now to type this email to you, my beloved readers.
Notably, when my mom visited, I absolutely insisted that she experience this typing revolution. Her response? “This is just a normal keyboard.” Ah right, she was born in the 40s. The membrane keyboards of today feel like the future to her instead of like a curse. If you’re an elder [respectful] reading this, thockies might not be for you.
Sayaka Murata, Japanese author and certified freak ®. Murata’s stories of being strange, of being an outsider, of trying and failing to conform to the often unbearable expectations of our families and communities really hit. Like Natsuki in Earthlings or Keiko in Convenience store Woman, I do sometimes feel like an alien. And I experience persistent confusion that some people actually can (and do) joyfully and easily embrace their assigned roles in society—child, partner, parent, respectable professional.
But while Murata’s light, funny writing sometimes feels like a Reductress piece about the absurdity of modern middle class, dominant culture womanhood [complimentary], it is also deeply disturbing and sometimes grotesque. Disarmingly simple and straightforward, Murata explores questions like what is the price of non/conformity? Which types of violence are normal (or even encouraged) and which kinds are pathlogized? What does “normal” even mean when generation to generation, it can shift so much? Perhaps this sums it up best—I’ve never so seriously considered what it would be like to eat human flesh. Not even after watching Yellowjackets.
The Kativik School Board. I had the good fortune of going to Station 280 (2-for-1’s all day everyday, $4 off burgers on Mondays) and receiving a pen adorned with intriguing characters and Icelandic looking words: Kativik Ilisarniliriniq. Not what I’d expect to see at a dive in Saint Paul. I never figured out how this pen ended up there, but I did google Kativik Ilisarniliriniq and had the pleasure of learning a little bit about the Kativik School Board(KSB).
KSB is an Inuit-led educational organization in Nunavik, the Quebec territory north of the 55th parallel. It was created in 1975 under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, an agreement negotiated after the Inuit of Nunavik, the James Bay Cree, and the Naskapi of Quebec organized to stop construction on a major hydroelectric project in James Bay.
While the Quebec government did build this hydroelectric project despite the opposition, the agreement established a school for Naskapi students, the Cree School Board for Cree Villages, and the Kativik School Board for the mostly Inuit residents of the Northern Villages (many of which are only accessible by plane). All these schools explicitly focus on educating students in their Indigenous languages, taught (mostly) by Indigenous teachers. In KSB schools, education is rooted in Inuit values, culture, language, history, and worldview, and Inuktitut is the sole teaching language from kindergarten to grade 2.
I rarely think about Canada and definitely never Quebec. I loved this tiny peek into learning about the Inuit of Nunavik, and I felt energized by what Indigenous-led and centered education looks like above the 55th parallel.
media
Heartbreak high! I watched the second season, then went back and watched the first season, and now am back watching the second season (mostly as pleasant background noise). I’ve also been muttering to myself an Australian accent as I’ve been biking around town. Once you start, you can’t stop.
I love these sweet, sweet, Aussie high schoolers!! The show explores sex, sexuality, class, sexual assault, relationships, masculinity, woke culture (?), police violence, racism (a little bit), neurodivergence… and yet it’s never preachy or teachy or booooring. It’s funny and fast paced! It’s like Sex Education, but maybe better because it’s Australian and the British (and their accents) are played out.
It’s a show that really underscores how teenagers are absolute terrors, and also smart, kind, caring, and capable of growth and change (as we all are, I hope). The first season was better than the second season, but both are still worth a watch. Warning to potential viewers: the assault plot line in season 1 pops up unexpectedly and, while it is not necessarily graphic, it is intense!
These are some of my favorite characters:
Ca$h. the cutest “eshay” boy
Principle Woods. hilarious, Maori, strong kiwi accent
Darren. beautiful, funny, nonbinary, soft
Ca$h’s nan. a grandma with a really good sex life
sources
sick strawberry squid photo: https://www.whoi.edu/multimedia/a-pop-of-red-in-the-twilight-zone/
photophores and cephalopod bioluminescence: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2023.1161049/full
Thomas et al. on eye dimorophism: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2016.0069
*Thomas KN, Robison BH, Johnsen S. 2017 Two eyes for two purposes: in situ evidence for asymmetric vision in the cockeyed squids Histioteuthis heteropsis and Stigmatoteuthis dofleini. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 372: 20160069. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0069*