The Captain's Log

If I'm not the best-dressed man at the on-site quarterly financial planning meeting, I'll *die*.

I am normally not a fan of shiny ties, but this one is an exception. It's this shimmery copper in person.

1940's-ish vibe - please don't drive me crazy by calling this Victorian or earlier. This is also all separates and not a suit. (Jacket and trousers would match if a suit, and there would be some cut differences, fwiw.)

It was a 2-day planning meeting.

These are vintage (1950s) "doeskin" (combed cotton) waistcoats. West of England and Dunn & Co. are two labels here. I see them pop up fairly frequently on ebay and Etsy.

Oh yeah --

Every time I post about these, it's new to someone, so here's from this morning's prep for work: if you have a problem with your neck being a bit too large for your dress shirt, you can get collar button extenders for that top button. Your tie will look a bit looser, but a collar bar helps hide everything. (Similar exists for waistbands.)

If I'm not the best-dressed man at the on-site quarterly financial planning meeting, I'll *die*.

I am normally not a fan of shiny ties, but this one is an exception. It's this shimmery copper in person.

1940's-ish vibe - please don't drive me crazy by calling this Victorian or earlier. This is also all separates and not a suit. (Jacket and trousers would match if a suit, and there would be some cut differences, fwiw.)

"This is the first song on The Sunset Tree, our best-known album and the first one that will be mentioned in my obituary. Here in the month of June we'll be devoting ourselves almost exclusively to it, and to some songs ancillary to it—written during the same period, or connected otherwise to it. This song is written from the point of view of a guy who, just three years before, lived in the house where most of the rest of the album takes place. That guy is me, for better and worse."

Zig (genus de novo) zag (a Malagasy legless skink related to Paracontias), March 2026. Zig is the first new genus of Malagasy skinks discovered since the 19th century, so this is quite notable! New species discoveries are common, new genus discoveries are much rarer. Some new Scincidae genera have been named recently in the form of splits from other (wastebasket taxon) genera, however, discovering a completely unknown highly divergent lineage like this is a rarity. Zig zag is a special little boop noodle.

Solenostomus snuffleupagus (sp. nov), May 2026 (literally, study was released a week ago), a new species of ghost pipefish, named for its fuzzy appearance bearing resemblance to Mr. Snuffleupagus from Sesame Street (pictured above). The genus Solenostomus contains six other species of ghost pipefishes. However S. snuffleupagus is so highly divergent in appearance, that when it was spotted in 2001 it was immediately known to be strange. It took 25 years of searching the Great Barrier Reef to officially find & scientifically describe this bizarre fish.

S. paradoxus, the type species of Solenostomus.

S. leptosoma, another species, to make clear the typical appearance of a ghost pipefish and why S. snuffleupagus is distinctive.

Though not all species were sequenced, genome sequencing suggests that S. snuffleupagus is the most evolutionary divergent of all Solenostomus (Maroubra, a syngnathid true pipefish, is used as the outgroup).

For context, what Solenostomus is:

Solenostomus is a monotypic genus (the only genus in its family) in the family Solenostomidae. They comprise the sister taxon to the Syngnathidae (the true pipefishes, seadragons, and kin, which contains the famous seahorse Hippocampus). Unfortunately, in Solenostomus, males do not get pregnant (the only thing that would have made S. snuffleupagus even more incredible), but they are closely related to the true pipefishes (all of which exhibit male pregnancy).

happy pride monk everyone