Acara
One fish, two fish, blue fish, zebra fish
Today’s New York Times Spelling Bee letters:
A, J, L, O, R, U, and center C (all words must include C)
Merriam-Webster says…
Silly little dictionary! Don’t you know that acara can’t possibly be a word if the New York Times says it ain’t?
For further fascinating facts, check out the Spelling Bee Master.
What’s your favorite dord* from today’s puzzle?
My Two Cents
I don’t think the blue & red (or is it red & blue) fish in the photo is either of the acaras I’m going to discuss today. At least, it doesn’t resemble the online pictures I saw of those fish. But it is a cichlid. Or so Unsplash would have us believe: when I typed in c-i-c-h-l-i-d into their search function, this is one of the results that popped up. So whatever that fish in the image is, it’s in the same family as the acaras.
The most interesting thing about today’s intensive 15-minute research was discovering that ACARA was not one, but two separate acronyms that are completely unrelated. One of them is relatively benign ––unless you’re an Australian teacher or student, while the other has been fighting an organization that has been compared to both the Taliban and Hezbollah. No, not in Asia… but in the good ol’ U.S. of A.
Yeah, I wasn’t shocked, either.
You can read all about it in today’s article. But first, lots of colorful fishies for your eyes to feast on!
One fish, two fish
The cichlids are fish in the family Cichlidae. (Duh!) This family comprises more than 1,300 species, among which are several genera of tilapia, a fish known for readily being available in restaurants and markets around the world. One notable characteristic of the tilapia is its mouthbreeding habit; the female carries fertilized eggs in its mouth until they hatch.
I was going to post a picture of that, but most of the ones I found looked sort of nightmarish. Instead, you can see the eggs in the mouth of the tilapia in this video, which is less disgusting:
Many cichlids are popular tropical fish kept in home aquariums, some of which can reach a foot in length –-the fish, not the aquariums. Among them are the firemouth…
….the Jack Dempsey (named for the heavyweight boxing champ of the 1920s)…
the oscar…
…the discus…
…and our two acaras.
§ The blue acara (Andinoacara pulcher) is, well, a blue-colored fish that is found in freshwater habitats of mostly Venezuela and Trinidad. I suspect it’s genus Andinoacara means “Andean acara”, although I couldn’t confirm it, while the species name pulcher means “beautiful” in Latin.
According to FishBase, when in captivity, both the male and female blue acaras “clean a rock which will be the spawning area. Eggs are laid on the rock by the female and fertilized by the male. Both male and female guard the eggs, which hatch in 2 to 5 days, and continue to look after the fry for some weeks. In cases of danger, the male protects its young by placing them inside its mouth.”
The blue acara is sometimes confused with the green terror, which is not an ecological disaster or the prequel to How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The green terror (Andinoacara rivulatus) is also a cichlid, and is usually found in Peru and Ecuador. As its name implies, the adults can be quite aggessive, which is why they are known as the car salesmen of the fish world.
How anyone could confuse this fish with the blue acara is, well, confusing.
§ The zebra acara (Ivanacara adoketa) has a completely different genus than the blue version, so they are not closely-related, although still in the same family of cichlids. This acara is found mostly in the rivers of Brazil and does not grow quite as large as it’s cousin. But like it’s cousin, both parents take turns guarding the eggs after they are laid.
See? I told you your eyes were going to feast on colorful fishies. And unlike most politicians, we here at Silly Little Dictionary! promise and deliver!
One acronym, two acronyms
Two interesting acronyms came up while I was reading about acaras.
§ The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority is, according to its own website, “the authoritative source of advice on, and delivery of, national curriculum, assessment and reporting for all Australian education ministers, with international recognition of our work.”
This ACARA is responsible for developing the national curriculum and national assessment program, as well as collecting and reporting data about Australian schools to support Australian students and, purportedly, improve their learning. ACARA works with teachers, principals, governments, State and Territory education authorities, professional education associations, community groups and the general public in order to achieve its goals.
This is all well and good, but its efforts are less shocking than the ones made by…
§ Amarillo Citizens against Repent Amarillo, the other ACARA. This one is in the United States, namely in Amarillo, Texas, and it was established in 2010 as a loose counter-movement against Repent Amarillo, a group which advocated for spiritual mapping and targeted specific areas and venues to exorcise demons.
I am not making any of this up.
Repent Amarillo seems to hate everyone who, well, doesn’t belong to Repent Amarillo. This would include the LGBTQ+ community, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Wiccans, Episcopalians, Methodists, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholics. Oh, and of course, anyone who comes within a mile of an abortion clinic.
In an article on littlegreenfootballs.com, Charles Johnson calls them the “Texas Taliban”, shows a screenshot of their website (which thank goodness no longer exists) and points out that the nickname they gave themselves ––Army of God–– is more or less what the name Hezbollah means. Yeah, that Hezbollah.
The group was led by David Grisham, who designated himself big kahuna and “pastor”. Among the their targets for being evil, aside from the ones already mentioned, are “Earth Day” (which is pagan Earth worship), breast cancer events (because of its link to abortions), spring break because, well… I don’t know… kids having fun and getting nekked, maybe? Oh, also Santa Claus. I’m sure it has to do with that red commie uniform he wears.
The most infamous incident that Repent Amarillo was involved in happened on September 11, 2010, when they publicly tried to burn a Quran on a grill in Sam Houston Park. That’s when ACARA made its move. Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and atheists all put aside their differences and gathered to challenge the burning.
One of the protesters, skateboarder Jacob Isom, managed to sneak up to Grisham and swipe the Quran fro the grill. His pithy quip, “Dude, you have no Quran”, did not become a meme, but did catch the attention of reporters. There might be a photo of Isom on his skateboard right before he saved the holy Muslim book, but I’m not on Facebook so I can’t see it. Here is the link in case you want to try.
A few months later, Grisham was fired from his job as a security guard at Pantex, the primary United States nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility that aims to maintain the safety, security and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. So, yeah, makes sense.
Hurray for ACARA, though. Great job, random people who gathered together in a park to stop the burning of a Quran. And skateboarder Jacob Isom was awarded a a “Medal of Reasonableness” at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear that took place in October of 2010 and was hosted by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
Hang ten, Jacob! Oh, wait, that’s surfing lingo…
Now you know. If you ever consider buying tropical fish for your home, stop by the local pet store and order some acara. Don’t be surprised if they end up selling you something else, though… because the editors of the Spelling Bee decided that acara is a dord*.
You can check out my previous entry on another dord* here:
*What the heck is a dord, you ask? Here’s the answer: