One explanation of the fishtail with which the goat is often represented is found in the Greek myth of Pan, who, to avoid the monster Typhon, jumped into the water just as he was changing into animal shape.
The frog kick originally used was abandoned for a fishtail (dolphin) kick, depending only on up-and-down movement of the legs.
Even the red carpet - for the past five years, home to an endless procession of strapless, corseted, fishtail gowns - has seen skirt lengths rise in recent months, and then fall, and then rise again, depending only upon the whims of the celebrity in question.
A black evening gown came with a corseted bodice, fitted knit skirt and shaggy wool fishtail, while a pearl grey ball dress combined a structured bodice with a skirt made from studded felt and net tiers.
The ancient figures wear their tresses in intricate, subtly individualised arrangements of curls and wraparound plaits, each anchored by a thick fishtail braid dangling down the back.
Eveningwear pieces included beaded and fringed jackets, velvet fishtail dresses and asymmetric red-beaded minidresses and shorts.
Gaultier and Wurst attended the Vienna Life Ball together in May, when she out-fashioned everyone wearing an off-the-shoulder fishtail dress, before changing a sheer, metallic gown for her performance.
A Model Mode (2013) has the features of Kate Moss, but no arms; her Jessica Rabbit body has been squeezed into a strapless aquamarine fishtail dress that pools on the floor around her.
Pink is key for spring/summer, and Emily Blunt and Maggie Gyllenhaal wore fishtail gowns in candyfloss and salmon.
I imagine that, in the bizarro universe in which I haven't encountered TWoP, I might be an enthusiastic fan of "The Bachelor," perhaps posting long paragraphs on Facebook about my sincerely felt hopes for the women trying to find true love on TV, then logging off to go copy the fishtail braid I saw Kate Middleton wearing in US Weekly.
Harvey's favorite poem from the collection is "The Mermaid in the Hospital," about a mermaid missing her fishtail, which begins: She awoke to find her fishtail clean gone but in the bed with her were two long, cold thingammies.
