Archives for June 27th, 2005

Here’s something I’d really love to see on my vacation.

By the time you read
this, I’ll either be stuck in a horrific, unmoving traffic jam that
stretches from Austria all the way down to Croatia, or swimming
blissfully in the Adriatic Sea. I hope it’s the latter. I also hope
that I return with all my limbs attached and don’t hear this at any time while I’m in the water.

I know what you’re thinking. Sharks? Adriatic? Absurd! When I went to Istria last August, an Istrian blogger
commented that there were no sharks there. What he forgot to mention is
that there really are. In fact, a few years ago some Croatian fishermen off of PoreÄ?
(Istria) spotted a "5 to 6 meter" long shark. According to this story, the police
chased it with machine guns towards the Italian coast but then lost it; I think
they wanted to throw an explosive oxygen cannister in its mouth and
then shoot the cannister. But it got away.

There are actually "great numbers" of blue sharks in the Adriatic, as well as other kinds (like the nightmarish-looking Sand Tiger Shark) but it’s the occasional visits by 3000-toothed Carcharodon Carcharias (the Great White Death) that really inspires terror. Look at this picture, for example. Know where it was taken? The Adriatic. Know where I’ve decided never to swim again? The Adriatic.

No, no, only kidding. It is, of course, well known that the risk of a shark attack is tiny. You’re more likely to get attacked by a squirrel in New York than a shark. Still, it sucks to be in the minority that actually does get chewed up.

Although
I won’t be here, The Glory of Carniola will continue gloriously. I’ve set
the site to post automatically throughout the
week. Since I’ll be in Croatia, the posts this week will be entirely
dedicated to Slovenia’s sunny southern neighbor.

I’ve asked the glorious Dr. Shim to keep an eye on things while I’m gone and act as Mouth of Sauron
for the site. He has kindly agreed. You can therefore direct any questions
or concerns (and especially complaints — he likes those) to him. Just
keep in mind that he’s got the Banhammer, and probably won’t mind
swinging it around a little bit. Just for the fun of it.

See you all soon!
– Michael

Interesting bit of trivia: The Slovenian word for shark is morski pes,
literally "sea-dog." In English, the word "shark" is a bit of a neologism — it only appeared
in the late 16th century. Before that, the English word for shark was (yup, you guessed
it) sea-dog!