WWTBAM Bored

It seems clear that many animal species have a language with which they communicate even complicated directions and concepts to each other, but English simply doesn't have the orthography to transcribe it.

I actually have to credit VAdame for this observation from a post of November 14, 2008.

However, since she was quoting from a book, I couldn't use because all the observations have to be original with a BB.

Here's VAdame's actual quotation:

Sharyn McCrumb's novel, If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him, touches on that very point:

The setting is the first meeting between Bill, a lawyer, and Miri, a woman very much in love. (Paraphrasing mine as I don't have a copy of the book in front of me)

Miri: I need your help. I want to get married!
Bill: Well, what's standing in your way? Are you or he already married to anyone else? Um, your fiance is a "he," right?
Miri (smiling): Very much so! And we're both single. I met him when I lived in Florida. He's a dolphin!
Bill: Wow, great! Do you think they'll go to the Super Bowl this year? Does he know Dan Marino?
Miri: Not a Miami Dolphin -- a Delphinidae dolphin!
Bill (shocked): What? You mean, like Flipper?!
Miri: That's offensive! Dolphins are intelligent, sensitive beings, and Porky loves me and I love him!
Bill: Porky?!
Miri: Oh, that's just his Tank Name. His mother gave him a name in their own language, but it's a series of clicks and whistles and we don't have the orthography for it! So why can't I marry a dolphin?
Bill (humoring her): Um....well, for one thing, he can't walk or talk!
Miri: Neither can Stephen Hawking -- and you'd let me marry him!
Bill: OK, now who's being offensive?!
Miri: Besides, Stephen Hawking's no better than any other human male -- do you know he divorced his wife and married his nurse?!
Bill: Huh? How?!
Miri: I dunno....just rolled away, I guess!

Bill, just for the heck of it, agrees to take Miri's case, and later in the book they petition the courts to have "Porky Delphinidae" declared "human." Porky will demonstrate his intelligence, ability to communicate and understand language, and his desire to share a life with Miri.

But before the case can be heard, Miri sneaks into Porky's Sea World home after hours, hoping for a little pre-conjugal visit. She makes her wishes clear to Porky, and he's happy to oblige. But poor Miri doesn't have time to brace herself against the tank wall or ladder before Porky pushes her deep underwater -- since that's where dolphins mate! Miri's last though before the water filled her lungs was that males really are all the same -- and switching one species for another hadn't made a damn bit of difference!

The next day, after Miri's body is discovered and her friends piece together what must have happened, Bill realizes he'd better drop the court case -- since granting Porky the status of a "human" would surely not be in his best interest! As long as Porky's an animal, Miri's death is simply a tragic accident. If he were to be considered human, he could be charged with homicide!