The Endgame
Newsletter #44 - The man/ The dog/ The duck/ The shark
Toronto, October 29, 2023
The man/ The dog/ The duck/ The shark
Your never know what lurks beneath the surface. Something you cannot see, or perhaps even completely imagine. Something sweet, perhaps? A mermaid? Or something to fear. A monster? Or perhaps something you know only too well but want to keep out of your mind, an idea you want to keep far away, a thought you don’t want to have, an appalling situation that you cannot bear to contemplate.
For a quarter of a century my wife and I have lived part of the year in a small fishing village on Nova Scotia’s south shore. Although, I’m not sure you can call it a fishing village anymore. Not many fishermen are left. Now they are outnumbered by retirees and wealthy people with second homes who come from somewhere else in the world. There’s a readers’ festival in the summer. There’s a cultural centre. There’s a gift shop. There’s an artisanal café. There’s a touch of chic about the place.
When I’m elsewhere in Canada and happen to mention to someone that we have a house in Nova Scotia, they often say, “oh yes, Chester.” Chester is a nationally known beautiful and historic town, home of the fashionable annual Chester Race Week for sailboats. Everyone seems to know about Chester. I have to explain, “no, not Chester, somewhere else, a small village that no-one’s ever heard of, down the coast from Lunenburg.” “Interesting” they may say, with a distinct lack of interest.
And so it was extraordinary to see this tiny and unknown place suddenly the setting for a national news story. “Community stunned after shark kills dog in Nova Scotia waters,” reported the CBC. Similar stories appeared in media across the country.
What happened? One morning a man went out duck hunting in a boat. He took Pepper, his Chesapeake Bay retriever, with him. The man shot a duck. Pepper jumped into the water to retrieve the bird. A great white shark rose from underneath Pepper, lifted her in the air and then pushed her below the surface of the sea. The dog, grievously wounded, managed to get back to the boat but later died.
Marine biologists and other experts gave their opinions. No surprise, they said. The shark mistook the dog for a seal. There are so many seals in Nova Scotia. There have been many reports of shark breaching in local waters. “The buffet is open,” said one of the experts.
The man was not far from shore when this happened. The water was calm. The sky was blue. It was a quiet, peaceful morning. The café was opening up for business. A man with a dog went duck hunting. A normal thing on a normal day. Then, an awful thing. A shark broke the surface, shot out of the sea, and killed the dog.
And just like that, normal assumptions of safety and peace were gone for good.
A few readers’ comments on #43
Sylvie commented: “To be honest, I’ll take Clint Eastwood over George Clooney. There are three generations of women in my family (my grandmother 93, my mom 73 and myself 43) that all crush on what’s-his-name… Mr. E.”
One reader wrote on Substack: “When the pandemic began, I spent some of my home time memorizing obscure words from Foyle's Philavery. Interestingly, lethologica is one of the terms I memorized and have not forgotten, but I will try to remember, or not forget, to not mention the word in your presence, lest you respond in an oculogyric (the non-medical oculogyric) manner.”
A good friend, a wonderful guy that I admire a lot, whose name I can’t remember, but I think he was once premier of Ontario, wrote: “Dear What’s Your Name - very good. My wife enjoyed it as well. Remember me ?”
The last word goes to my daughter: “This has become a thing for me too, and I'm “only” 50! Reaching for the names of actors, films etc. is particularly humbling for me, since I've been known in my circles as the pop culture person. I'm not one for poetry, but here's a great song called Crazy.”
Crazy is by Gnarls Barkley. Here it is: