Call me Ishmael...

It was with a certain amount of hilarity that I had to inform a dear friend of mine this evening of a crucial mistake he was making in defining a term. He had encountered, while investigating charter fishing opportunities, the word "spearfishing" and was filled with much excitement. He proceeded to ponder the possibilities of spearfishing for gamefish, at which point he asked me what would happen if you went spearfishing for a shark. I replied that the shark would likely eat you. He inquired how this would be possible. I retorted that unless you hit the shark in the brain or heart, you probably ought to be recalling the words to the last rites. He again asked how this could happen and it was then I realized the first of his errors. With a chortle, I said that you were performing this entire operation from within the shark's home domain and not from the relative safety of a boat. Then I said that I could not imagine having the gumption to even attempt to shoot a shark. He replied with incredulity, "You shoot it?!" I began to go into a full blown chuckle at this point, losing my capacity for speech, as I imagined my friend picturing himself atop a boat, holding a spear (probably as in use by the Zulus) and casting it into the water at some hapless bonefish! Once I regained my compsure I asked him, "You mean to say you thought you harpooned a fish when you went spearfishing?!" He replied quite seriously by asking if that was the technical term!!! This sent me into another fit of laughter! I do not fault him, for he knows little about fishing and so, having never encountered the idea of spearfishing before, he would really have no basis to assume it was from within the water with a speargun. Still, it brought to me much needed levity this evening.

-R