http://news.xin.msn.com/en/weird/there-are-no-mermaids-us-government-1
Apparently, the Obama Administration, despite its full plate of pressing local and global issues, had to take time out to assure the American public that "no evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found". Oh, there ain't no zombies either.
So, shucks, this comely mermaid used in the story is a fake...
"Mermaids -- those half-human, half-fish sirens of the sea -- are legendary sea creatures," read the online statement from the National Ocean Service (NOS), a US government agency.
The statement came after another government agency, this time the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), declared there was no conclusive evidence for the existence of zombies.
The CDC had published instructional material on how to survive a "zombie apocalypse," in what the agency now called "a tongue in cheek campaign to engage new audiences with messages of preparedness messages".
[However, in what turned out to be bad timing, the campaign was followed by a series of cannibalistic attacks in North America.]
While zombies would be a big problem, popular folklore holds that mermaids are relatively benign creatures.
But the NOS statement associated the finned friends with more threatening mythological beasts. "Half-human creatures, called chimeras, also abound in mythology -- in addition to mermaids, there were wise centaurs, wild satyrs, and frightful minotaurs, to name but a few," it said.
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Although I too have no proof of the existence of mermaids -- or to use the NOS' gender-neutral term, aquatic humanoids -- I did see a famous mermaid in Copenhagen:
She is of course the tragic heroine in Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale, The Little Mermaid. Anyway, I'm glad the DNA sequencing turned out well for this part-human, part-fish, if only for the purpose of this beloved fishy tale. I doubt if there would be a similar story if the upper part were fish and the lower part were human.
But then, if the fish-head was that of a piranha and the creature had human legs, then there would have been stories of zombies emerging from the sea to terrorise humans! It just might be an idea worthy of Jaws by the late author Peter Benchley.
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Singapore does have its own beloved fishy tale, aka the Merlion:
No one in modern times has yet to claim to have sighted such a creature off our waters. Anyway, the "official" story about it merely says the fish part is "symbolic":
https://app.stb.gov.sg/asp/form/form01.asp
I can't understand why tourists seem to be fascinated by this piece of sculptored fiction. I mean, legends elsewhere are heady stuff, man, such as the Arthurian stories. Dragons breathe fire! Lions -- a la the Chronicles of Narnia -- evoke awesomeness. But attach a majestic lion's head to a puny fish tail? I'm going fishing...
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While checking out the "mer" part for this blog entry, I'm reminded of the beautiful song "La Mer" (Beyond the Sea). Here is the classic original, sung in French by Charles Trenet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd_nopTFuZA
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