Pequod's logo

There might be more pressing questions out there—but pizza fanatics and bad graphic design obsessives have their own idea of what qualifies as a mystery. Pequod’s logo, for one. It looks like a giant dolphin wearing underwear on its head—right? What on earth does that have to do with (delicious) pizza? Well, not that much it turns out.

Hostess Bridget Soberanis tells me that Pequod’s, obviously, is the “the name of the boat from Moby Dick and the whale is you know, the whale. ” But, what about the panties on the whale’s head? “The thong, I really don’t know about the thong. I don’t know why its there. Usually people never know what it is and they always end up asking. I think the owner just put it in there for fun, probably.”

So its kind of like a whale that just came from partying in Cancun that is hungry for pizza?

“No,” she says.

Several phone conversations later—we still don’t know what the thong is about. Chalk it up as a closely guarded trade secret.

The Pequod’s logo is available here on hats, t-shirts, and (god-bless-America) thongs.