So here's the thing: Whenever a new person joins my team at work, I make them their favorite animal in balloon form for their first day. We find out this information by asking them what their favorite animal is during their interview. Now, they don't know that I'll need to figure out how to make this animal in balloon form, so they're not trying to stump me, but they're not trying to make it easy either. Thus, I end up with a variety of things, from the praying mantis to the shark to the bald eagle to the aye-aye (which was so frikkin' ugly that I couldn't bear to take a picture of it). Recently, a new hire said her favorite animal was the "tunicate." "A what?" you may ask. A tunicate. Go ahead, read that, come back to me.

Still with me? Now, if you were paying attention, you'd have noticed that "tunicate" is a sub-phylum, which means it's akin to saying "My favorite animal is the vertebrate." Now, admittedly, there are far more kinds of vertebrates than tunicates, but there's still about 3000 species, all of which look like either a blob or a tube. How does one do that in balloon form and have it still be recognizably a tunicate?

Answer: pick a specific species (...so to speak), make a bunch of them so it doesn't come out looking wildly inappropriate for the office, add a little fishy so you know it's underwater, and come out with something that looks like the beginning of Finding Nemo if your color balance is off.

Once, once, did someone say "a dog."