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Happy Shark Week
Speaking of sharks, this is Shark Week, the week of shark-themed coverage on the Discovery Channel, and the week the internet makes things like shark cupcakes and acts like it wants shark socks. Better, though, is this gallery of Great Whites jumping and smiling at the camera, and the shark-conservation documentary Sharkwater. How will you be celebrating? With a disgusting cocktail, or a disgusting cocktail? Maybe with some shark hand art? With nothing except accidentally having read this far into a blog post?
Before the internet, my stay-at-home dad used to go to the library with me about twice a week to photocopy grainy pictures of sharks so I could…have grainy pictures of sharks to look at. This is the best week of the year.
@Nicole Cliffe !!!!! Love this!!!!
@Nicole Cliffe Inspired by this post, I have been googling sharks all day. Cookiecutter sharks are horrifying. Megalodons were (are?) the scariest things on the planet.
How did this stuff not give you nightmares as a child?!
(Okay, porbeagles are kinda cute, I'll give you that (especially since apparently they are playful?!)). But still.)
Each year all the Shark Week talk throws me off since that's what we call a lady's time of the month. Sorry hon, shark week. BLOOD IN THE WATER.
@madamvonsassypants I have totally stolen this from you, and now we use it in my household as well.
@Ophelia Shark Week used to be my favorite period euphemism, but ever since I moved to Boston I prefer to call it Riding the Red Line.
sharks! YES!
I cannot properly pronounce the word "shark," so my friends use this as a time to endlessly trick me into saying "Shark Week."
Otherwise, I end up watching the best part from Deep Blue Sea over and over.
@applestoapples Wait, how do you say it? Is it like a Boston Shahk?
@Ophelia No, it's like a Shawk. I de-regionalize my accent when I talk to most people, but the Rs and some short vowels still creep up on me.
@applestoapples Have you noticed how Deep Blue See is always on TV? Either TNT or FX or something. It's always on. That and The Mummy. And I always watch them both!
I disagree about SLJ being eaten being the best part (even though it is awesome). The best part of Deep Blue Sea is obviously the LL Cool J song at the end "My Head Is Like a Shark's Fin."
@nogreeneggs I was a lifeguard that summer, and we had guard t-shirts specially made that said "My hand is like a shark's fin" on the front (Though maybe we were wrong about the lyrics?)
@Ophelia and nogreeneggs See, I thought it was "my HAT is like a shark's fin." The confusion!
Also, nogreeneggs, I DO agree that the song is the best, but it only happens in the credits. I mostly like that scene because the shark waited for the opportune moment to cut off his tirade, and everyone else is sort of just like, "Fuck! Still, glad it wasn't me."
@applestoapples Yeah, I was picturing him singing, with his hand on his head, like little kids do in the water, with the fingers poking up like a shark fin. Hat might really work better, though. I will investigate…
@applestoapples Hah, now, in looking it up on all those random lyrics pages, I'm finding both "hat" and "head" – no "hand" tho.
@nogreeneggs Also, Independence Day is always on TV. My dad watches it every single time.
I shall celebrate in the same fashion I have every year since 1997: sitting outside of New Line Cinema protesting the fact that MEG is still in development hell. It's like Jurassic Park UNDERWATER. How is this hard?
I AM OBSESSED WITH MEG. WHERE IS MEG?
@Nicole Cliffe RIGHT BENEATH YOU.
Last summer, my sister made a birthday cake in the shape of a shark – just so happens that my step-sister's birthday coincided with Shark Week…(It's the most recent posting on my otherwise defunct blog)
http://ririaroundtheworld.blogspot.com/
@Ophelia So I got to reading some of your other posts, and can't help but wonder, what do you do for a living that allows you to travel so much? It sounds fascinating!
@Marissa E@twitter I work for a USAID contractor – it's been a really cool way to see parts of the world I never would've otherwise.
I am going to be running a shark-themed post every day until Edith tells me to stop. Every day.
@Nicole Cliffe Sharks are the scariest, most horrific things on the face of the earth, what with their cold, dead eyes and the way their teeth and gums look when they are eating you and the way they CAN'T EVEN LOOK AT YOU when they are eating you because of their horrible, terrible, murderous shape.
So…yes to daily shark-themed posts!!!
@wee_ramekin Snakes! Spiders! Etc.
@Nicole Cliffe: Ask a Shark! Ask a Shark! Please?
@RK Fire I feel like the answer would always be "…and if that doesn't work: FEEDING FRENZY!!!!!!"
Sharq Attaq: Qream + blood. Clamato? Is Qream over? Aah nm.
@MollyculeTheory that's disgusting and I LOVE IT.
I love it when my Shark Week and Discovery's Shark Week coincide.
Shark Week as a euphemism for 'that time' is the best gift the internet has ever given me.
@heyits it's my shark week too! what exceptional timing
@TM if I were a crazy person, I'd wonder if the Hairpin somehow knew. /conspiracy
More importantly, it's Mob Week on AMC.
Ok, but Shark Week has gone pretty far downhill, right? It used to be exciting but educational stuff but the last few years have seemed kind of gimmicky. Sharks are awesome on their own! You don't need to salt that popcorn!
All the Shark Week coverage I've seen so far has been Australian dudes dangling tuna on a buoy and getting the sharks to jump up and eat it. Like, that's cool and all…. but can you tell me about their mating habits, or social behaviors, or anything else except show a boatful of marine biologists elbowing each other all "Duuuuude did you see that? Huh huh huh!" Maybe I need to watch more often.
I love a good shark video as much as the next lunatic, but I wish those yahoos up top who drag a giant whale carcass around and get a great white trapped on top of their shark cage would take a lesson in proper wildlife observation technique. Or get eaten by a great white shark. Either one.
So I've signed up specifically to ask this question: what is with Shark Week?!? I moved to the US from Australia six months ago, and I don't understand all the fuss! Doing it once or twice, fair enough. But for 20+ years? Haven't they run out of things to talk about? Is there a shark alive that has not had a Discovery channel camera pointed in its face? Please help me understand!
@Mads This. I'm American and I don't really understand it either. Animal Planet plays shows about sharks when it's not shark week, too, people!
I actually own shark socks. So there.
omg from the great white gallery, this one made me poop my pants. I'm pretending that the seal has a secret jet pack and is like a millisecond from taking off?
WHY IS THERE A DEAD WHALE FLOATING BY THE BOAT
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