Mood:
don't askTopic: "Mary Lee & Genie"(8)
Sam is all atwitter about the upcoming holiday season. After a short familial visit in Middle Earth through Christmas Day, the Hobbits turn toward the other hemisphere and beach music for New Years. It is, evidently, part of Sam's "bucket list," and an opportunity to introduce Dandy to a world not known before. Frodo would be happier if the southern objective were even moreso, but he yields to Sam's desire for something more "laid back and 50's ish".
Frodo amasses several reads for moments on the sand in the vicinity of an open bar. He envisions restful moments watching the tides altering their status while he rests from the pages before him. Likely it is that he will turn his eyes toward fins of piscine creatures escaping or pursuing each other in the winter surf. It is that point however, which has given him some level of anxiety based on news reports off the Atlantic coast.
Two Great White Sharks, tagged at Cape Cod and named Mary Lee and Genie, are being tracked off South Carolina and Georgia. At 16 feet in length, and weighing more than 3500 pounds, Mary Lee and the somewhat smaller Genie are looking for injured whales on which to feed.
Frodo hears a mental metallic percussion-like thumping attuned to the coastal panic of the 1970's when a movie star proclaimed that "We need a bigger boat." It prompts Frodo to ask Sam about the wisdom of the timing of their soiree to the land of Clarence Carter and the Tams. Sam assures Frodo that he has a better chance of being struck by lightning than of being attacked by a Great White Shark. Frodo is not comforted.
Who is it, thinks Frodo, that goes out to sea in order to "tag" a Great White Shark? Is it the same person who assures us that these creatures seek whales, not Hobbits? Frodo doesn't recall Nate Silbert offering odds on the likelihood of a Great White Shark seeking political office, either.
Perhaps the Hobbit allows his imagination to run amuck with greater ease these days. With all the talk of "fiscal cliffs" and "automatic weapons banned" he notes that the inmates still appear to be in charge of the jail. Maybe it is a good time to polish off a novel and a biography or two, then to place a well-tossed frisbee windward, toward the shore, ahead of a leaping Dandy.
Sharks suck. Come and get me, if you can!
