Odd fish

We are constantly told how normal and honorable Thoreau was, yet it seems that we would get much further in understanding him if we began, by conceding that he was an odd fish, full of peculiar conceits.

The second work is more promising, but something of an odd fish: the anonymous German treatise Schwester Katrei.

For a country that is thought to have the best-regulated fisheries in the world, the US is an odd fish when it comes to mandatory safety requirements. It was only in 1988 that it became mandatory for US boats to carry safety equipment such as life rafts and an EPIRB, a locator beacon that should detach on sinking then float.