Actually, they're not all that pervasive. I just wanted to mention two interesting words I've stumbled over recently.

Pervasive - I noticed that a video I recently rented was rated "R" for "pervasive language and some violence." That's what it actually said. Since "pervasive" means "spread throughout" (with the most common example given in dictionaries as the smell of garlic) are we to assume that for a movie to receive a less restrictive rating that it must be filmed primarily in mime?

And coydogs - Turns out that these are the hybrid offspring of coyotes and feral dogs and are one more reason (though no more should be necessary) that people who simply abandon dogs by the side of a country road should be publically flogged. Despite their rather sweet sounding name, a combination obviously of "coyote" and "dog," coydogs are apparently a serious problem in some areas.

Your Pervasive note is persuasive! But ...

... If coydogs are "hybrid offspring," then they won't be reproducing, so it's just one generation we need to worry about, right, C. J. ?

Actually, I'm not sure. The hybrid offspring of a male horse and a female donkey is a mule and mules are definitely sterile. But reverse the genders and the hybrid offspring is a hinny and I'm not sure whether they're sterile or not.

Just the fact that an animal is a hybrid doesn't necessarily determine that it will be unable to reproduce in some fashion in every situation, does it? I really don't know...


Still, I'm not about to invest any huge amounts in a coydog ranch.

Are those Japanese goldfish or are they carp, or are they just being koi?

The pervasive language of the Japanese goldfish is common Greek, or Koine.

The skin of a species of Japanese goldfish can be made into a very high quality leather, used in ultra-high-end products. Since each fish yields only a small piece of leather, the products are confined to small items such as wallets, each of which will nonetheless require that many pieces be joined together.

The manufacturing process is known as carp-to-carp walleting.

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Quote: The hybrid offspring of a male horse and a female donkey is a mule and mules are definitely sterile. But reverse the genders and the hybrid offspring is a hinny and I'm not sure whether they're sterile or not.

Actually, you've got it reversed. The cross between a stallion and a jenny-ass (jennet) is a hinny; the cross between a jackass and a mare is a mule. A mule, or a hinny, can be either male or female.

Horses have 64 chromosomes, while donkeys have 62, so either cross will have 63 chromosomes, and hence be sterile. (Some sources say that the males are sterile, while the females are typically sterile but have occasionally produced foals.) Although the mule and the hinny are usually indistinguishable, the mule is more common, simply because it is much easier to breed successfully. I gather that interspecies hybrids are easier to breed - the conception rate is much higher - when the parent with fewer chromosomes is the father.

PS: In the category of "More than you ever wanted to know, I found this in Darwin's The Origin of Species, Chapter VIII Hybridism: " I think those authors are right, who maintain that the ass has a prepotent power over the horse, so that both the mule and the hinny more resemble the ass than the horse; but that the prepotency runs more strongly in the male-ass than in the female, so that the mule, which is the offspring of the male-ass and mare, is more like an ass, than is the hinny, which is the offspring of the female-ass and stallion."

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Reverting for a moment from the equine to the canine...

Coydogs may be real or may be urban (rural?) legend, but as long as cats keep disappearing around here, I have no complaints.