The Houston Ship Channel is clogged with beef fat. Unlike petroleum, which has a colorful sheen on the water's surface, beef fat turns into a solid cake, looking like a waxy ice flow.

Cuticle is a waxy substance laid down on the leaf surface as it develops, so looking at leaf cuticle is essentially the same as looking at a leaf's outermost cells - the epidermis.

Seconds later, he was greeted by a short, thin, waxy-looking man.