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Like two crustaceans in a decapod

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Cite

Like two crustaceans in a decapod. (2026, November 2). The Sydney Morning Herald. https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/like-two-crustaceans-in-a-decapod-20261102-p61ago.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

The Sydney Morning Herald · collected 2026-11-02

Quick Summary

This article compiles various reader comments responding to a columnist named Mary Carde, who referred to lawn-dwelling creatures as "lawn prawns." Readers correct her classification, suggesting the creatures are isopods or amphipods instead of prawns. Other readers discuss language and cultural observations, such as expressions like “tickety-boo” becoming more common due to economic pressures, and a trend in double-barrelled names within sports teams. The piece also touches on political humor leading up to U.S. midterm elections and nostalgic references to slide-rules.
Written by AI on 2026-11-02, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

John Glaister, a former crustacean biologist from Buderim, corrected Mary Carde on her use of the term "lawn prawns," stating that lawn prawns are isopods with seven pairs of legs, whereas prawns are decapods with ten pairs. This prompted Andrew Cohen of Glebe to suggest various culinary uses for lawn prawns, including salads and barbecues. In a separate comment, Tim Crawshaw from Kenthurst suggested that as people face cost-of-living pressures and political issues like "Trumpian wars," they might adopt more cheerful expressions such as "tickety-boo" to uplift their mood.

Written for “Like Two Crustaceans In A Decapod” on 2026-11-02, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Like Two Crustaceans In A Decapod
Science · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

Nothing to compare against. No article is close enough to this one for the pipeline to have linked or judged the pair.
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
14
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 14 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
61/100
The Sydney Morning Herald's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Science
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-11-02 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

The Sydney Morning Herald · 5845 article(s) · 15 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 15 correction(s)

Who wrote this

No reporter is named on this article.

Topics

Buderim Glebe Kenthurst Queenslander Thai

Subjects

Shoebridge PERSON · 2× Andrew Cohen PERSON · 1× Buderim GPE · 1× David Baird’s PERSON · 1× Gee whizz PERSON · 1× Glebe GPE · 1× John Glaister PERSON · 1× Mary Carde PERSON · 1× Queenslander NORP · 1× Thai NORP · 1×

Narrative

In stateside bars and boozers, They talk of White House losers, Let’s hope they’re right And Tuesday night, Sing “Donald, where’s yer troosers?” Natasha Lee of Alexandria writes: “Following many C8 memories of using slide-rules (C8), I learned from the Sun-Herald quiz that in the US, a slide-rule is known as slipstick.”
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-11-02
🔮 Maybe as people experience a downtick due to cost of living pressures and Trumpian wars, we can have an uptick in expressions like ‘tickety-boo’ to bring a smile to people’s faces?”
2026-11-02 · The Sydney Morning Herald
Like two crustaceans in a decapod · assertive framing

Claims (14 extracted, 0 hedged)

“Sorry, Mary Carde, but I think your ‘lawn prawns’ (C8) are isopods (which have seven pairs of legs) and are a different classification order of Crustacea than prawns, (decapods, which have ten pairs of legs),” says fellow Queenslander, John Glaister of Buderim. asserted
Queenslander → think → Buderim
Gee whizz, as a former crustacean biologist, pointing this out has made all those years of tagging prawns worthwhile!” asserted
years → point → prawns
Andrew Cohen of Glebe senses an opportunity: “Yummy! asserted
Cohen → sense → opportunity
“I just read David Baird’s item about uptick and downtick (C8),” says Tim Crawshaw of Kenthurst. asserted
Crawshaw → read → Kenthurst
“It reminded me of the rarely heard expression ‘tickety-boo’. asserted
It → remind → expression
Maybe as people experience a downtick due to cost of living pressures and Trumpian wars, we can have an uptick in expressions like ‘tickety-boo’ to bring a smile to people’s faces?” asserted
we → experience → faces
Peter Miniutti of Ashbury notes that “Charles Davies-Scourfield flags the over-abundance of doublebarrelled names in the Greens (C8), but this is run-of-the-mill and plain-ordinary compared to the New Zealand Warriors who boast an eight-fold of such-like in their NRL squad.” asserted
who → note → squad
And while David Prest of Thrumster points out that “in the armed services, anyone with a hyphen in their name is known as ‘two dads’,” Peter Thornton of Killara thinks “the solution for Mr Shoebridge is a hyphen as his name is already two words. asserted
name → point → Shoebridge
On the eve of the midterms, Jim Dewar of Davistown provides us with the poetry of politics. asserted
Dewar → provide → politics
In stateside bars and boozers, They talk of White House losers, Let’s hope they’re right And Tuesday night, Sing “Donald, where’s yer troosers?” Natasha Lee of Alexandria writes: “Following many C8 memories of using slide-rules (C8), I learned from the Sun-Herald quiz that in the US, a slide-rule is known as slipstick.” asserted
rule → talk → slipstick
“While I sympathise with the diminishing Iced VoVos, toilet rolls, while retaining their inner core size, use some sort of optical illusion that looks the same but runs out sooner,” reckons Marjie Williamson of Blaxland. asserted
Williamson → sympathise → Blaxland
“The shrinkflation trick of reducing contents whilst maintaining packaging size and price has also been applied to that other Aussie delicacy: the Tim Tam,” adds Dave Horsfall of North Gosford. asserted
Horsfall → reduce → Gosford
“I wonder what other bikkies have been treated thus? asserted
bikkies → wonder → ?
It would be difficult to do that with Milk Arrowroots, due to them having no internal spacers, but who knows? asserted
who → do → spacers
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