You Bugger, Discovery Channel.

Very interesting. In my last blog post, I wrote about blog traffic sources and mentioned that I had one "lonely reader in Latvia". This morning, my traffic sources 'tell' me that I had 90 Latvian readers last night! I didn't even use Latvia as a tag. I merely mentioned Latvia in my blog and BINGO--new readers. Impressive.

I read several blogs a day and I swear, I canNOT remember who said this, but a blogger mentioned that India has the largest number of blog readers. I'm not surprised, actually. I wasn't saying that Latvia doesn't have a large number of blog readers, I was merely stating the statistics I received from Blogger on that day.

Welcome Latvia and a warm welcome to all new readers, wherever you are!

So, Shark Week began last night. For weeks, I'd watched the commercials for Shark Week and of course, the commercial about the little seal who has been nursed back to health only to be swallowed up by a Great White Shark as he is lowered into the water. I was roped in just like thousands of others and couldn't wait for 9 pm last night when the first episode would air. I had my television set to the Discovery channel all day Sunday and I wouldn't have left my home if Brad Pitt himself had invited me out for dinner.

Super job, Discovery. You had me hook, line and sinker. Even when I realized this show was bogus (an hour in, I'm embarrassed to say) and although I know full well that Megalodon, the prehistoric shark, has been extinct for over 2 million years, I STILL wanted the damn shark to be found and tagged by the three marine biologists! I reacted the same way with the Discovery channel mermaid episode a while back. Can we say glutton for punishment and gullible? Guilty as charged. I've always been a sucker for a mermaid story and I love sharks. They scare me silly, but I love the stories.

I was rooting for the characters in this work of fiction called Shark Week. The whole time I watched the two hour show, I was entertained and this morning, I marvel at the Discovery channel's fantastic marketing and PR departments. Now, I'm trying to figure out where fact left the building and fiction took over and left wondering if the marine biologists really are marine biologists and not actors. Who knows?

The show opens with some homemade footage of a fishing trip off the shores of South Africa. We see happy, young people and some guy reeling in some big mystery fish which he fights with for over two hours before he loses it. I love fishing and have done a bit of deep sea fishing, so I was totally taken in. Then, something hits their boat. Something large. I am glued to the set as the camera rocks and rolls and we see a woman laying face down on the deck of the boat. Next, a newscaster is telling us that the boat was lost and the crew was never recovered. What?! It's Shark Week, so we KNOW it just has to be a shark--most probably a White Shark which I thought were always called Great White Sharks but, that's not here nor there.

Now, the marine biologists are showing us footage of dead whales off the coast of Chile with their tails bitten off in one bite and footage a Chilean boy is watching when he spots something huge swimming by. Then, we are shown the fin and dorsal fin of an enormous shark in a black and white Nazi era photograph. What are we to think? Huge shark. My mind is racing. Could it be? Megalodon alive and well?

Global warming, polar ice caps melting, whales disappearing, several catastrophic tsunamis later and we have--Megaladon, the prehistoric shark swimming around our oceans at depths that reach over 65,000 feet. Holy moley. It could be, right?! Wrong. Now, I remember the mermaid episode that I also believed hook.line.and.sinker. What a putz I am. I've fallen for it again and I loved every second.

Damn you, Discovery channel. But, kudos on the most enjoyable, exciting, nail-biting episode yet :)

Fiction, ya gotta love it. I'm taking good notes and can't wait to go fishing again.

Peace and love,
Ellie