Wholphin

For a few hours on Tuesday night, Club Mezzanine became the material manifestation of my own personal Shangri-La. I of course refer not to James Hilton’s mythical place, where lazy people drank honey dew all day, but to the much more productive Ticonderoga-class aircraft carrier, the USS Shangri-La, commissioned by President Roosevelt in 1944. The place was in full force is what I’m saying. In one corner, our friend Dr. Steve Haddock from the Monterey Bay Research Institute displayed mind-melting new creatures from the deep, like this living amoeba made of glass called a Radiolari –

– and squirted people with his bioluminescent squirt gun –

– and impressed us all with his ability to bridge the gap between science and party. In another corner, a high-speed camera shot 1,000 frames a second to capture the world’s fastest tongue in a raspberry contest that was as popular as it was childish (at the movies, you see 24 frames a second). The winners will be posted soon, but until then here’s a sample of the current contenders:

Jeff B.

Colin D.

David, our webmaster…

…here’s my attempt…

…and Emily’s, on the same camera model, but black and white and four times slower. It was a crowd favorite.

On top of all that, Brian Fischer from Cal Academy brought over a small colony of gravity-defying trap-jaw ants. As owners of Wholphin No. 3 know, these ants are the new world-record holder for fastest predatory strike in the animal kingdom. In other words, sexy. Here’s an excerpt:

But the main event of the night was a showing of a selection of films from all three issues of Wholphin, people cheered after Walleyball; and I got a little teary.

Fun night. We’ll post some pictures soon.