Brigid Daull Brockway is technically a writer

Brigid Daull Brockway is technically a writer

A blog about words, wordplay, and etymology, with slightly more than occasional political rants.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

All God's critters

Back before I got an office job and started going to bed before most toddlers, I had a job where I worked late nights and generally went to bed after most toddlers get up. Driving home from work, I often caught a radio program called Coast to Coast AM. See what happened, is that, after all the sane people of the world went to sleep, a special breed of nutters crawled out from their tinfoil bomb shelters to listen to and discuss the world we all know to exist just outside the corners of our eyes. UFOs, chupacabras, bigfoot, and black helicopters all populate this universe and the thing is, late enough at night, even mostly sane night workers can start to entertain the possibility that the five foot tall black lady at the gas station just might have been Elvis in a very convincing disguise. 
Of course, the funny thing about non-existent creatures is that sometimes, they do exist. Or sort of, anyway.
Take the chupacabra. See, while there isn't a lethery, spiny-coated creature that feeds on the blood of livestock out in the Southwest, it turns out that there are quite a few coyotes out West with mange so severe that their skin looks like leather, their baldness making their back bones stick out sort of like spines, and coyotes are well known for feeding on livestock.
HowStuffWorks.com talks about the Greek mythological creature called the scylla, a beast that lived in shallow waters, had heads on long sinuous necks, and jagged teeth to tear apart ships... kind of exactly like a coral reef. And the colossal squid might not be able to swallow a ship, but that aside, it's similarity to the kraken is more than passing.
Are dragons so far off from dinosaurs? Some flew, some probably spit venom (which, while not fire, does probably burn like a son-of-a-bitch). And how else do you
explain the fact that 100% of dinosaur fossils have been discovered in caves full of gold? It's probable that folks in the olden days found the bones of dinosaurs and wales and decided to call them dragons, so is it really fair to say dragons are myths? Or is it more accurate to say that folks who believed in dragons just got a few of the details wrong?


If this angler fish is real, I'm not ruling out anything.





1 comment:

jenny_o said...

I am so enjoying your posts! Can't even recall how I found you, but I have been reading awhile. Your writing is wise beyond your years, sensible and highly entertaining. Truly a treat. Thanks for putting it online where others can enjoy it.

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