Of Monsters and Men… By Whitney Farmer – Un Pop Culture

October 20, 2011 Whitney Farmer 16 Comments

Whitney runs a rock music venue on the beach in L.A.. She has an M.B.A, and has a carry permit.

After leaving a meeting at the Bob Hope USO Center at LAX, I had planned on driving home down Pacific Coast Highway. I wanted to put the top down on my convertible and take advantage of the view, getting some suntan on my shoulders. I was delayed and ended up taking the 405 instead to save time.  If I hadn’t had been pulled into conversations at the Club on my way south, I would have been driving through Seal Beach past Salon Meritage during the time when a husband killed his ex-wife along with seven others. Another victim, the ninth, survived and was released from the hospital today. She had gone to the salon that day to visit her daughter at work, who was killed.  The slayer was arrested within a block from where some of my family live. He was equipped with a bullet-proof vest that covered his soft massive belly and an arsenal of firearms in his white pick-up.  At the time of the murders, his son was in the principal’s office at school waiting to be picked up.

Last week, the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America made the obscure consortium famous. Even the Truckee Times carried the story of the extravagant theory proposed by Paleontologist Mark McMenamin of Mount Holyoke College: The fossilized lair of the mythological Kraken might have been discovered in the Nevada desert in what used to be an ocean bed.

The potential relative of the colossal squid was estimated to be at least 100 feet long. McMenamin developed his theory after seeing a video from the Seattle Aquarium of an octopus capturing a spiny dogfish and pulling its carcass into its lair. At the excavation site, the remains of nine ichthyosaurs that averaged 45 feet long display a surprisingly symmetrical pattern. It is so dramatic that McMenamin hypothesized that they were arranged intentionally by an intelligent predator. All appear to have died through crushing attacks with broken spines or necks. The fossils appear to be spooning, but with the individual vertebrae re-positioned according to size in a manner that appears to be the sucker pattern from the tentacles of the cephalopod family, of which squid and octopi are included.

McMenamin postulates that the mega-predator was creating a midden – literally a ‘kitchen heap’ – a behavior of trophy displaying seen in modern octopi. And as modern octopi, the Kraken was playing with its food. Because the suspected arrangement seems to mimic the appearance of tentacles and suckers, the paleontologist suggested in his presentation that the beast had attempted a self-portrait. Being that soft-bodied animals such as the Kraken – if related to squid and octopi – would leave no fossil legacy, its appearance is a guess.  It could also be theorized less imaginatively that the 100+ foot long animal might have been displaying trophies in order to entice a mate. Or perhaps the Kraken, said in myths to be the abandoned offspring of immortals, was lonely. Like a damaged only child, it might have tried to create a grisly playmate.

When I was nine years old, I wanted to do a book report on the Giant Squid. I changed to the Kangaroo Rat when most books said that the Giant Squid was a myth. Since then the Giant Squid has been proven to exist as has its larger kin, the Colossal Squid. That the Kraken could have been a myth based in fact wouldn’t be surprising. And that it may have been intelligent makes sense. I remember as a young girl watching “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau” and seeing an octopus touch the face of one of the research divers, exploring it gently with its tentacle until it decided to pull off the scientist’s mask.  The creature had wanted a better look at the curious mystery.

I also, however, remember accounts from divers off the coast of Washington who encountered Humboldt Squid, another potential cephalopod relative of the mythological Kraken.  Humboldts can grow to 5 feet long and weigh 100 pounds. Rather than live alone like the Giant or Colossal Squid, they live in schools containing as many as 1200 creatures.  And they are aggressive. An attack by a school of 1200 violent creatures that can weigh 100 pounds each is the equivalent of being caught in a riot of tweaking punk-rock soccer fans. Underwater. Commercial divers in Puget Sound call them Devil Fish.

As much as I am enthralled by the natural world and view life reverently, I feel relief when monsters are brought down.  If their world has changed and can no longer support their appetites, it is better that they disappear into the depths. Their soft massive bodies with no backbones leave no trace as they die and decay in darkness. Only the fallen victims remain.

Both monsters, the Kraken and the Seal Beach murderer, attacked nine victims. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the man with the pick-up who killed the mother of his son, waiting at school for a ride home. Whether he was taking trophies, hunting for pleasure, trying to make himself interesting, or was tired of being alone – it doesn’t matter.

Hopefully he will become extinct.

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Quote of the Blog, from George Carlin: “May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.”