Giant Squid!

I was just surfin' the world wide web, and came across this blast from the past.

I was up in Sitka, Alaska in 2001-02, working with AmeriCorps. It was one of the most interesting and unusual years I've ever had. (I always recommend a year in Alaska to anyone who is not sure what they want to do with their life)

One of the more unusual things that happened was the Episode of the Giant Squid. There I was, in my office, calmly working away (which mostly consisted of e-mail, Solitaire and staring out the window) when I heard about the Giant Squid. I can't remember where I heard it first... I do remember that our entire office decided to take a field trip down to the dock to see it. Our entire office consisted of about three or four people at that time, but that is beside the point. Practically the entire population of Sitka had gone there to see it.

We got to the harbor, got a gander at the giant squid - a big, red blobby thing with really long tentacles - took a few photos and left.

Later, we heard more stories:

- the harbor master had to get people off the docks, because they were starting to sink below the water line, since the ENTIRE town was there
- the squid was removed from the harbor and taken on 'tour' to the schools so that the child/adolescent population of Sitka could see it, too
- when the fishermen caught the squid (tangled in their fishnets), they were so excited, that they gutted it and ate some right there at sea...
- had the squid remained intact, rumors were that the Smithsonian would have wanted it (but Sitka is a small town and rumors run rampant)

I think the most amazing thing about the Episode of the Giant Squid to me was not the squid itself, but the fair-like atmosphere that descended on the town with the arrival of the squid. They practically had a parade.

Things like that don't happen in Winston-Salem. Or Portland.