Cape Town: Shark-Repellent Batspray

I'm actually at the end of the work week, if you can believe it. I get a four-day weekend because of Easter (my normal schedule is Sunday-Thursday, so I'm getting Thursday and Sunday off). I really like my job so far. The people in the office are great, if eccentric, and the work I'm doing is the reason I got into this field in the first place. I get to research anything that comes my way and I have enough clout since I'm at a reputable publication that I can get people on the phone. Then I get to tell a story and have to puzzle out how to make it interesting to the reader. It's fun.

Our autism story got published today! We were so excited. And I turned around two stories today, at least one of which will probably get published.

Anyway, today while Abby and I were working on our respective stories, she leaned across the desk.

"Did you think this thing could really repel sharks?"

Back up an hour to the reporter's meeting. One of the photographers had been pitching this story about a surfboard that was supposed to repel sharks for the past two meetings and our editor finally just gave in and assigned it to Abby. She had been researching it since.

As it turned out, the board wasn't some kind of shark-repellent device. There just is a guy who paints things on boards like "I'm not a seal" and "100% broccoli" and then sits on them in shark tanks for hours at a time to prove that people shouldn't be afraid of sharks. (He hasn't been eaten/mauled yet, so I guess it's working.) There was an uproar in the newsroom when everybody found out that THAT was story that the photographer had been pitching so relentlessly. He was really disappointed that it wasn't some kind of new invention to ward off sharks. The stuff that goes through a newsroom...

Also, did anyone know that while sharks kill 5 people a year worldwide, cows kill 50? The world is weird.