Way down upon the Suwannee River beware of the evil fish

Many times on this blog I have spoken of the time when my son, who was then two years old, slightly injured himself when he smashed his "Little Wheel" into the cocktail table in the living room. He blamed the table for "hitting" him and actually struck it in retaliation. Of course, that was when he was two. Since then he's grown up and for the most part is willing to accept responsibility for his own actions, unlike the Bush administration, which is my usual target when I tell this story. Not today.

Today, prominently displayed on the front page of the NY Times is a story about how fish in the Suwannee River are jumping up and injuring innocent bystanders who are just out for a quiet afternoon in the sunshine.

It may seem bizarre, but it is no joke. Leaping sturgeon have injured three people on the Suwannee this year, including a woman on a Jet Ski and a girl whose leg was shattered when one of the giant fish jumped aboard her boat. Eight others were hit last year, and with traffic growing on the storied river, sturgeon are joining alligators and hurricanes on the list of things to dread in Florida.

It's as though these evil fish are deliberately setting out to injure us poor human beings.

Of course, the fact of the matter is that the fish are not hitting the people. Just like my son hitting the table, the people are hitting the fish at 30, 40, and 50 miles an hour! So, let's put the blame where the blame belongs, and it's not on the fish. Slow down and get a canoe, folks. Then, the worst that's likely to happen is that you may come home with a fish dinner. And, you'll also get some good healthy exercise paddling the canoe.