Fish

Anderson's "A Tragedy of Errors" is about words changing their meanings but why are Nikean fighter pilots called "fish"? This could be an abbreviation of "officer" or "official." There is a film in which a character played by Peter Ustinov asks another character, "Are you here officially?" The other man, appearing to understand, enthusiastically replies, "Yes, yes, fishally!" and hands him a big fish. A Lancaster City Councilor has the surname Fish so I ask him whether he is attending an event officially. In Frank Herbert's Dune series, an all-women army is called Fish Speakers with little or no explanation of this odd phrase. (The God Emperor resembles a big beached fish.) So the word, "fish," crops up in some odd contexts where it seems really out of place: a fish out of water; a fish riding a bicycle.