Complaint about a carved fish

Perch or not This photo of a fish sculpture is from the October 1949 issue of Popular Science. It was carved from cherry wood by Clark Battle Fitz-Gerald.

The January 1950 issue ran a letter of complaint from Al Gingras, a self-styled ichthyologist from Baldwinsville, MA.
A Google image search suggests Mr. Gingras is correct. Has this ancient dispute been settled?

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

http://mightybob.com thatbob

That fish is a perch d’upon the pedastel.

You’re welcome.
blahgodo

It looks perched to me.
- latelatelateshow
  
  It’s also a fact that the fish that Captain Beefheart wears on the cover of “TROUT MASK REPLICA” is not a trout, but a CARP – hows them fishes?!
  - http://vinnietesla.com/ Vinnie Tesla
    
    I always suspected that Mr. Van Vliet might be the sort capable of marine-biological inaccuracy.
http://www.facebook.com/ieatlegos Blake Lowe

It does more resemble an ocean perch, with a comedically short and fat body… But, what the hell, I’m from Missouri and I’d eat it if someone called it a perch.
Andy III

I’m impressed by the level of discourse here.
Allow me to translate for 2012…

“that perch is totes gay”
http://lubke.net Flashman

What perch of this don’t you understand?
soylent_plaid

It’s true, trolls existed even in the 50s!
MonkeyBoy

Bluegill are often called a lot of different names including “perch” and even “sun perch”. I have personally heard the last two.

And a lot of know-it-alls like to point out that bluegills are not perch.
- Curtrude
  
  I have heard a cat called a dog before. Doesn’t mean it’s correct.
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BOOM27DBLMZQIJVK4BQLE7K5YA Nagurski
    
    Fine, but it’s a widespread colloquialism in the South. After a few arguments with Texans about the fish we were catching I realized that that it was used as a generic term for bluegills, sunfish and the like, and likely would be until the end of recorded history.
Smash Martian

Perhaps it was carved to give passing birds something to rest on?
Jeffrey Duckworth

Sir:

Why do we call it “cherry wood”? We don’t use the term “oak wood” or “pine wood.” Your help in this matter is greatly appreciated.
- http://jere7my.livejournal.com jere7my
  
  You never heard of a Pinewood Derby?
  - headcode
    
    Yes, but they’re really not that comfortable.
- chgoliz
  
  Cherry is also a color, so in some conversations it could be confusing.
  
  But if you’re obviously talking about woods, then it is usually shorted to just cherry, not cherry wood.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Wood is the primary product of oak and pine trees. Cherries are the primary product of cherry trees. The wood is just an industrial byproduct.
  - TrevorSweet
    
    How do you guys refer to the byproduct of the walnut tree?
    - Beanolini
      
      ‘Walnuts’. They’re revolting blobs that go straight in the fire as soon as they drop off the tree.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness

A lot of common words people use to classify fish don’t pick out taxonomic relationships, they classify fish by ecological role. “Perch” means “small to medium sized predatory fish”. Most people are not much concerned that the “perch” of North America are mostly members if Centrarchidae, the sunfish family and completely unrelated to the “perch” of Europe.

The same goes for “minnow”. We fishkeepers sometimes cringe at hearing local poeciliidae and xiphs being called “minnows”. We think that term should only be used to refer to cyprinids. But in folk classification “minnow” means “small fish at the edge of the water”.
Another Kevin

I think that fish would make a perfect perch for James T. Fields’s owl: http://allpoetry.com/poem/8564617-The_Owl-Critic-by-James_Thomas_Fields.

Yes, I can just see Field’s owl, with his claw turned out, grasping the dorsal fin of that fish.

And the barber kept on shaving.
- silkox
  
  Fun poem for pedants everywhere!
rattypilgrim

To paraphrase Magritte, “Ceci n’est pas un Perch”. If you get that then you get art (at least on some level).
Mister44

“He’s technically correct – the best kind of correct!”
Bill Noble

One has only to look at it to see that it’s *perched* on a brick. I’m with blagodo.
Bucket

As someone born and raised on the western shores of Lake Michigan, I feel I must insist that this is not a perch.

Point One: It is not filleted.
Point Two: It is not breaded.
Point Three: It is not deep-fried.
Point Four: There are no potato pancakes in the vicinity, nor is there any apple sauce.
Point Five: It is not Friday.

Therefore, there can be no doubt in anyone’s mind that the fish depicted above is not a proper perch.
Steak

“Craftsman Fitz-Gerald”. I like this editor.
perch

As the only person I’ve ever heard of with the name Perch, I have to conclude, it bears little resemblance to myself.
http://www.facebook.com/dan.nosowitz Dan Nosowitz

Nice find! Just for posterity, you can read the article here: http://books.google.com/books?id=vSwDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PP1&ots=tHTd3z4q7q&pg=PA18#v=onepage&q&f=false
franko

i agree with the original letter. it definitely looks like a bluegill to me.
arbitraryaardvark

That, according to walt kelly, looks like one of the Louisiana perches.
Robert Cruickshank

You know what’s weird? I just flipped though an old magazine that I was about to give away, and landed right on the page with the fish carving article.