From the New Yorker, an article by David Grann about the giant squid ("with tentacles sometimes as long as a city bus and eyes about the size of human heads"). No living specimen has ever been sighted, but New Zealand biologist Steve O'Shea, however, is
not trying to find a mature giant squid; rather, he is scouring the ocean for a baby, called a paralarva, which he can grow in captivity
thus recreating the first fifteen minutes of every monster movie ever made. It doesn't help that Grann goes out of his way to make O'Shea seem dangerously unstable, culminating in this bloodcurdling moment:
...listening to Neil Diamond's slightly nasal tenor on the stereo. ("He's bloody brilliant, isn't he?" O'Shea said.)
Oh well, we're all doomed anyway.
Posted by Matt Weiner at May 26, 2004 09:36 PM