Tales of the Great White: The Legend of Harvey Shank

Jocelyn Heaney's anthology about our friend the shark contains precisely one good story. At least that's the way Eric remembers it from his time spent with the collection following a Scholastic book fair in 5th grade. And by "good" he means someone gets eaten by a shark and it is goretastic. Jose is also here, relating memories of trips to the beach that include monster roleplays under tree tunnels and tricking his mother into thinking he's being attacked by a bloodthirsty ocean creature. Or something to that effect.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
uh

(00:16):
Hello, and welcome to the Black Magic Treehouse.

(00:39):
Reverb, reverb, reverb.
The podcast where we discuss the children's horror media that you really wanted to share
with a chum.
My name is Eric and with me is my number one fan, Jose.
How are you doing?
I'm doing pretty good.

(00:59):
I don't know what these intros you always somehow manage to totally catch me off guard.
Like I, I'm almost certain that you're going to go one way with them.
Like the more obvious way, the way that I would go.
And then you just come out with a pun that I just did not see coming.

(01:24):
And I don't know how to feel about it.
Am I admiring it?
Am I just shaking my head at its awfulness?
I think it's a little bit of both to be honest.
So I guess that's my way of saying congrats.
Yeah.
I think that's the only proper reaction to a pun is admiration and disgust in equal measure.

(01:44):
This is true.
So today, I was listening to the Creepover episode the other day and I was annoyed at
myself for taking so long to just say the damn title of the book.
So I'm just going to go ahead and say today we are covering a book called Tales of the
Great White by Jocelyn Heaney, scary stories to sink your teeth into.

(02:08):
And if I had any sense of timing whatsoever, I probably would have saved this book for
summer because it seems like, you know, swimming a summer read.
But in my defense, this is October in Colorado.
It has been in like the 70s and 80s here since autumn started.
So it still feels like, you know, it's like second summer really.

(02:30):
It actually kind of puts my mind at ease hearing that because I mean, I know I've griped about
it in past episodes, especially the No Trick or Treating Creepover episode, just how miserable
it usually is here in Florida around this time.
And it undoubtedly feels like a second summer, nine times out of 10.

(02:54):
We had a pretty good week this past week.
And part of me is like my brain is screaming right now.
Oh my God, we're talking about the weather on the podcast.
But you know what?
Shut up.
Here we are.
So yeah, that kind of came as a pleasant surprise where we had like lows of 50s for some of

(03:18):
the mornings, which is honestly completely unheard of in October in Florida.
So I was thankful for that.
We're starting to warm up a bit again.
So my depression is on the rise.
So I guess I'm both.
Yeah, yeah, things are going according to schedule.

(03:40):
I'm really shocked to hear that is kind of more or less the case for Colorado, though.
Wow.
Yeah, I think next week it's supposed to get a little bit more autumnal in terms of being
in like the 60s.
But what is this?
Bizarro world.
It's cool in Florida.

(04:00):
It's warm in Colorado.
Sometimes it's like already snowing here by this point.
So Jose, we're going to talk about Tales of the Great White, as I said.
And the cover is worth looking up on our Instagram, Black Magic Treehouse Pod.

(04:22):
And it's really the colors are really cool.
It's a pretty standard cover that you would imagine for a book about a shark with like
the close up of the shark mouth as it's about to devour you whole.
And then the title is kind of shakily floating inside the teeth.
But the colors of it are really lurid in an interesting way.

(04:42):
How do you feel about sharks as a horror, I guess, subgenre unto themselves of the creature
feature?
Well, I don't know that I have feelings about them one way or the other, as far as an archetype
or trope or whichever you choose to call it.

(05:04):
I don't know that I was ever one of those kids or I don't know if I was ever one of
those kids who was ever really too aware slash scared of sharks.
You know, I feel like you grew up in Florida, right?
So were you always kind of by the ocean?
Yeah, we we've always lived on the West Coast.

(05:30):
So the beach has never been too far from where we are, especially as a kid.
I feel like we went if not every weekend, it felt like every other weekend.
And I have some indelible memories of going to the beach.
They're not really related to sharks or even the ocean so much on the way to the beach.

(05:52):
There was this little stretch of road that had how shall we say a tree tunnel.
So it was just that the trees on either side of the road had grown in such a way.
Don't ask me what they were, but the comparison I can only think to make, which I don't believe

(06:13):
is what they were, is like mangroves, the way they kind of twine together.
So that was what was going on up over our heads so that as we passed through it, it
was like passing through a shadowy tunnel.
And for whatever reason, my siblings and I had this habit every time we passed through

(06:33):
that tunnel that we would adopt monster personas.
So as soon as in you know, there was always that sense of anticipation as the car was
coming up to the tree tunnels like, all right, gang, it's coming up.
Get ready.
Oh, what which one are you going to do?
Oh, I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do this one.
Blah, blah, blah.
And as soon as we hit the tree tunnel, you know, somebody would start howling like a

(06:56):
werewolf, somebody would start cackling like a witch.
You know, presumably the person who adopted the vampire persona was just sitting in the
car seat going blah, blah.
And we would just do that for the whole width or excuse me, length of the tree tunnel.
And then we just go back to being regular kids by the time we got to the other side.

(07:20):
But something I was thinking of prior to this recording, since I knew we were going to be
talking about this shark book, this great white shark book or whatever kind of shark
book it is, I actually had an incident.
Oh, I don't know when I was second grade or something like that, where I was in the water

(07:43):
and my mother was up on the beach and I had kind of swam out to a spot that was, you know,
pretty far out for a kid my age.
So, you know, she just kind of had a cautious eye kept on me.
And something happened and we all remember this happening.

(08:03):
I still can't really account for it.
But I was and I use this phrase lightly because I just don't I have no idea what happened.
I was pulled under the water.
Like suddenly jerkily.
And the next thing I see as my head bobs back to the surface is my mother in my memories

(08:24):
I doing like a full on Olympic dive into the ocean and swimming out to fetch me back, presumably
from the jaws of death.
And she swam me back up onto the beach.
And it's just one of those weird little moments that happen.

(08:45):
You know, I think she's convinced that's, you know, like I was assaulted by some kind
of sea creature.
But, you know, it's not like I was bitten or mauled in any minor or major way.
I was just pulled under.
So, you know, to me that makes it seem like it was more likely that it was like a current

(09:06):
that just kind of got the best of my little second grade body and pulled me under.
But again, the way that it felt, the way that I remember it feeling and looking as the person
who was experiencing it is like that moment from, you know, the prologue to Jaws where
you just kind of see our poor our poor young victim there getting jerked under the water.

(09:35):
Kind of an aspastic motion.
And yeah, thankfully I was not I did not take a rodeo ride on a great white shark that day.
So I don't know what happened, but that's like my quote unquote shark story at the beach.
Well, you know, the thing about swimming in the ocean is you're pretty likely to be assaulted.

(09:57):
Oh my God.
How did I do that to myself?
How did I do that to myself?
God damn it.
Yeah, I don't have anything comparable to that because, yeah, I grew up in Illinois.
So we had we had like Michigan was like sort of a beach, I guess.
The land of lakes.
Well, I don't know if Chicago is the land of lakes, but there are.

(10:23):
I was talking about Michigan.
Oh, I didn't say I was from Michigan.
But hey, great listening skills anyway.
Didn't you just say that you had Michigan?
Lake Michigan, Lake Michigan.
Oh, OK.
Is that nowhere near?
You know what?
Never mind.
Forget it.
Forget it.
So so have how how often in your life have you actually been to, you know, a beach with

(10:51):
the real ocean?
Oh, probably like, I don't know, a dozen times maybe.
OK, both coasts, Atlantic and Pacific.
OK.
No.
Well, yeah, I guess I have been to the Pacific in the sense that we go to California every
year for the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival, but I've never actually set foot in.

(11:14):
Nerd.
Yeah.
Just kidding.
Just being petty and jealous.
Jaws is just about to celebrate its 50th anniversary, I think.
Was it 75?
Or maybe it was 73.
Yep, 75.
Yeah, 75.
OK.
Pretty sure, yeah.
Yeah.
And it's it is kind of in terms of movies, I think shark movies are kind of like exorcism

(11:41):
movies in that there's like one and then a bunch of derivatives of that one.
Yeah.
I really mistimed my drink there.
I thought you were going to say more.
And then, well, you know, it's kind of me talking a lot, I guess.
So getting to this book proper, Tales of the Great White, I know you've heard of this as

(12:07):
a function of me asking you several times to keep Googling it for me because I could
never remember what the title was.
It's one of those titles.
It's like it's so generic that it's like, how do you find that later?
It's like, I don't know.
I think it was called like something Great White, which it is.
But also that's kind of hard to Google.
But somehow you keep finding it for me.

(12:30):
And I was going to blog about this book way back when we were talking about doing, I don't
know, one of the many blogs that you've proposed to me over the years.
Something or other.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I've kind of had this one in my back pocket since then, and I've been eager to get to
it.
It's one that I am going to read a story out of it.

(12:52):
And unlike the story we did from Uncovered, which I went into completely having never
read it before this book, I did read when I was younger and I got it at a Scholastic
Book Fair, bought it based entirely on that cover.
And my memory is like because I really wanted every story to be about somebody getting gorely

(13:17):
devoured by a shark.
You know, absolutely.
And I thought like maybe they'll just be like different times and places of people getting
eaten by sharks.
Like one will be modern, one will be like the Victorian era, one will be in outer space,
you know, whatever.
But my memory is that there's only one story that was really satisfying on that level,

(13:37):
which is the first one, which is the one I'm going to read.
And then the others were like, I'll go ahead and read the titles because there's six stories.
The first one, which I'm going to read is called The Legend of Harvey Shank.
And then Man and Shark.
Shark Boy.
Maybe that I don't know if any filmmakers owe a debt to that one.

(14:02):
Shadow in the Waves, The Last Predator, and Shark Sense.
And I think the one that I'm going to read is the only one that actually, well, not to
spoil anything, but I think it's the only one that actually features a shark attack
and the rest of them are just like, I think one of them is about a Hawaiian legend about

(14:25):
sharks as spirits of that kind of stuff, which I'm sure, I'm not saying that's not interesting,
but when you're 12 and you see a cover of a shark about to eat your face off, you're
like, what is this nonsense?
Exactly.
I'm not here for cultural knowledge.
Do you have anything you want to say about?

(14:47):
Well, one thing I was going to say was I find it very funny.
It was probably not intentional on the part of the author, but I find it funny that in
the table of contents, the story Man and Shark precedes the one called Shark Boy.

(15:12):
And I feel like that tells a story right there.
It's like, is the second one a continuation of the one that came before it?
Is this like a birds and the bees kind of thing?
First you have Man and Shark and then comes Shark Boy.
What stories being told between those two narratives?

(15:33):
Hey, we'll never know.
Yep, not today.
Not this episode.
All right.
So should I just get into it?
I mean, we're only 15 minutes in.
I feel bad about being like efficient and everything.
But well, I feel like we got to scramble to find some kind of tangent that we can ramble
on for the next 15 minutes.

(15:54):
I thought about it.
We actually start reading the story.
Given that this is October, I have been watching a lot of I have been watching a lot of horror
movies.
So I was going to ask like, hey, have you seen anything good horror movies lately?
Because I sure have.
And I could tell you all about it right now.
Then I was like, I think I do want to try and get this episode in under an hour.

(16:14):
Yeah, I think we owe it to our loyal audience of five people to, you know, kind of kind
of throw them a bone here and, you know, actually get right down to the thing we say we're going
to talk about right away.
So in honor of those beautiful half dozen people, this is for you.

(16:37):
The legend of Harvey Shade.
And I should say that after every title in the contents and also on the story proper,
there's a little silhouette of a shark.
Isn't that cute?
You love us.

(16:57):
You love those little details.
I do.
I think they're a lot of fun.
I mean, not everything's going to compare to Animorphs where it will actually transform
from human and animal as you flip the pages.
But you know, if you can approximate that kind of fun, I'll get you the rest of the
way there.
Well, once perfection is alright, are you ready, Jose?

(17:19):
Oh, boy, am I the legend of Harvey Shank?
I don't know that Harvey's ready, but I am.
The kids at Pacific Middle School can't stop talking about Harvey Shank.
Between classes, there are always two or three seventh graders standing by the water fountain
in the main hall, whispering a new version of the legend.

(17:42):
When they see me coming, they immediately fall silent and walk away because I alone
saw what happened to Harvey and they know it.
Harvey Shank, practical joke king of Pacific Middle School, was serious about only one
thing.
My best friend, Darcy Parkman, the only person I've ever met who is as much a total marine

(18:05):
biology geek as I.
Harvey and I were rivals.
There's really no way that Darcy, a pretty straight A student, would have ever gone for
a delinquent like Harvey Shank.
Still, I had my doubts.
Darcy and I were good friends, but I was a little shy about letting her know exactly
how I felt about her.

(18:27):
Harvey Shank, on the other hand, was anything but shy.
He did whatever he wanted to do, no matter what the consequences, particularly if he
could get a good laugh out of it.
In sixth grade, Harvey was expelled for lighting fireworks in the bathroom.
A few weeks later, he was banned from St. Bridges Catholic Church for putting a whoopie

(18:48):
cushion inside the confessional.
Until the fish heads camping trip to Stinson Beach last summer, I thought Harvey Shank
was invincible.
Turn to page two.
Darcy and I founded the fish heads, otherwise known as the Deep Sea Appreciation and Preservation
Society.

(19:09):
Most kids dropped out when they found out that our advisor, Ms. Brent, required a weekly
oral report.
A typo.
They only regular members besides Darcy and me were Mike Ostinopoulos, a self-proclaimed
expert on plankton, and two irritating twins named Shane and Shala Pollard, who thought

(19:31):
everything in the ocean was boring, except moray eels.
Harvey didn't know a manatee from a marlin, but he came to the meeting so Darcy would
think he was obsessed with marine life as we were.
He even gave a presentation about the giant squid, although it was obvious he'd copied
it straight from an encyclopedia.

(19:51):
When the Stinson Beach field trip was announced, Harvey volunteered to help Darcy and Ms. Brent
collect permission slips.
Give me a break.
Darcy and I sat together on the school van chartered for the trip.
Do you think Harvey Shank is turning over a new leaf, Philip?
Darcy asked.
I didn't want to sound jealous, so I gave a fake smile and said, Stranger things have

(20:15):
happened I guess.
Stinson Beach was located on the Northern California coast.
Sea lions were in abundance this time of year and as we left the bus and headed for the
beach, Darcy and I saw hundreds of them playing on the craggy rocks of a small island just
offshore.
Later that evening, after setting up camp, exploring the tide pools and listening to

(20:36):
Ms. Brent give a talk around the campfire on marine algae, most of us were asleep as
soon as our heads hit the pillow.
Everyone that is, except Harvey, who crawled into my tent at two in the morning.
All right, I've been reading for a while.
Jose, you have any thoughts, reactions, predictions about what's going to happen in our good buddy

(20:57):
Philip's tent right now?
Well, first of all, I'm really amused by this is just like something that I think is, I
want to say indicative of authors writing for a young audience of a particular vintage.

(21:21):
Like I think we've kind of come a long way in the arena of juvenile literature as far
as like voice and techniques are concerned.
I just find it really amusing that the main character here has a very hard boiled flavor

(21:44):
and kind of like outdated.
Really it doesn't really sound like any 12 year old that I know of.
I mean, I don't know.
I'm probably just talking out my ass here.
But I've noticed this thing with juvenile literature of an older vintage where it's

(22:07):
like, I don't know, have we just kind of declined as a civilization in society so that this
voice, this narrative voice is bringing us false and more like, oh, this is just the
adult author talking rather than a genuine kid or is that the case?

(22:32):
Have you noticed that?
Yes.
And I don't think it's gotten any better in the ensuing years.
Oh, really?
I think the phoniness is just more like, I watched the first, I don't know if you care
about the new Disney plus Goosebumps.
I'm curious about it.
I watched the first episode mainly because of Dana put it on and within the first two

(22:53):
minutes they're at a store and one of the kids is like, asked to pay, I think because
the lady doesn't take cards or something and the kid's like, you know we live in a cashless
society, right?
And I was just like, oh boy, we're in for a treat here, I guess.
It's like, well, tell me you were composed in a writer's room without telling me that

(23:19):
you were composed in a writer's room.
Yeah, exactly.
And I know people love Netflix's Wednesday.
I absolutely loathe it.
I thought it was awful.
And that had so much of that dialogue too, every character is like spouting off about
the patriarchy every three lines.
Oh, man.

(23:40):
Just like, just because you saw that on a message board one time, middle-aged writer,
doesn't mean that's like how kids go around relating to each other, like in everyday life.
No, truly.
This is not to say that kids don't say these kinds of things, dear listener, but honestly,

(24:01):
when I've heard it in real life, from the mouths of babes, as it were, it really gives
me a turn.
It's like, those are the outliers.
It's like, where did you hear that?
And so it's not to say that it's not possible, but it is definitely an anomaly and not the
kind of, you know, it's not as abundant as popular entertainment would have you believe

(24:28):
or want you to believe.
Yeah.
I don't think it's like every sentence out of a high schooler's mouth.
So maybe what I'm saying is I prefer Philip's hard-boiled, completely artificial style to
like, I don't know what you call it, like hyper realism or whatever.
Yeah.
As opposed to an author trying too hard.
No, I see.
I definitely see what you're saying.

(24:50):
Between the two, I probably would prefer an adult just writing as an adult and in a sense,
you know, kind of giving credit.
Well, sure.
Yeah.
But anyway, yeah, as far as like predictions, you know, that beloved archetype, especially

(25:10):
I wonder, I really wonder if the prankster is as beloved or I should say abused archetype
of any other genre outside the realm of horror.
Because I feel like we see them all the time and we know what's going to happen to them

(25:33):
as a result of that.
I'm curious, like do pranksters and practical jokesters appear, crop up in other genres,
you know, other kinds of stories.
Because I feel like they're really, you know, even more so than because a villain is a more

(25:56):
generalized archetype or character, you know, every kind of story of any kind has a villain
of one kind or another.
But a practical jokester and a prankster is something else.
And especially in the horror genre, it's like as soon as they arrive on the scene, their

(26:21):
destiny is pretty much laid out right there for them.
Whereas, you know, a villain, it's like, well, things could go one way or they could go the
other.
It's like, oh, well, but if you're a practical jokester, you're you're going to die, probably
in a way that's linked to one of one of your mischievous tricks.

(26:43):
So that's why I see this going for whatever that kid's name is.
I've already forgotten it.
Harvey Shanks.
Harvey Shanks.
Sorry.
Yeah, Harvey Shanks, Shanks, Shanks, Shanks.
It's almost Harvey Shark.
It's just one letter away.
I know.
Let's see if old Harvey puts any eggs over his eyes like a true prankster.

(27:10):
OK.
Corbin, he whispered, lighting the lantern by my bed.
Wake up.
Go away, Shanks.
I'm mumbled, turning over.
Want to play cards or something?
Why can't you just go to sleep like a normal person?
Because I can't, Harvey mumbled.
Not when it's dark.

(27:31):
I sat up.
You're waking me up in the middle of the night to tell me you're afraid of the dark.
You're kidding, right?
Harvey stared into the lantern, adjusting the light.
No.
Something in Harvey's voice made me feel kind of sorry for him.
His face looked pale and scared in the glow of the lamp.

(27:53):
What can I say?
I have a soft heart.
I crawled out of my sleeping bag.
Harvey grabbed the lantern and we walked past the cluster of tents down to the beach.
What's that?
Harvey asked, pointing ahead of us at an object in the sand.
Harvey lifted the lantern and the sign came into view.
Hazardous conditions.
Swim at your own risk.

(28:15):
What do you think it means?
Asked Harvey.
If you had done your homework.
Oh, I should really differentiate these voices.
I was trying to make Phillips sound more beleaguered by life.
If you had done your homework, you'd know that the ocean can be dangerous for lots of
reasons.
Strong currents, poisonous fish.

(28:35):
All right, all right.
Harvey reached into his pocket and pulled out a deck of cards.
Want to play?
Believe it or not, Harvey and I sort of bonded that night at Stinson Beach.
Two weeks later, just before we started seventh grade, Harvey threw a party for the fish heads
at the Oasis Apartments where he lived.

(28:57):
The pool is too green and nasty to swim in, so I decided to have a costume party.
Harvey explained over the phone.
I don't know, Shank said.
I don't have anything to wear.
Philip is becoming progressively more just a Debbie Downer.
I'm getting hints of Urkel too.

(29:18):
I don't know what to wear.
Didn't I do that?
Good friend Urkel, friend of the podcast.
Back for revenge.
Man, did you see that Cinemassacre just put out an episode about that?
Really?
They put out an episode of Monster Madness about Steve-el.

(29:38):
Which as of this recording has not been released to the public yet.
I can't even say they stole it from us.
I'll say that because we probably recorded it before us anyway.
Between that and the Pee-wee Herman debacle, I feel like we are just on this side of being

(29:59):
out of the curve.
We're on the cutting edge of 30 years ago.
Like a pair of tragic heroes were always just a minute or two late before somebody else
gets to it or somebody else is making a big deal about it.
Well, let's turn back to Harvey.

(30:22):
It's rough being us.
I don't know, Shank, I said.
I don't have anything to wear.
Besides, I think costume parties are kind of stupid.
Come on, Corbett.
Harvey wheedled.
Where's your club spirit?
What about that fish costume you made for the Marine Biology Fair last year?
My grouper suit had won first prize.

(30:44):
I never, man, there's a lot of typos in this book.
I never though I'd have another chance to wear the costumes I'd spent long agonizing
hours creating.
Harvey went on and on about the ocean theme.
My uncle knows a guy who makes plastic body parts for crippled people.
He's going to give me a fake leg for my pirate costume.
Darcy told me she's coming as a mermaid.

(31:06):
I felt a flash of anger when Harvey mentioned Darcy's name.
I had to be there if Darcy was.
Still, I acted, hesitant, letting Harvey beg me until I finally agreed.
I retrieved the giant head and swim fins from a box in the garage.
August is not the best time of year to be wandering around dressed like a fish, but being

(31:28):
hot and sweaty seemed like a small price to pay for having the coolest costume at the
party.
My mom dropped me off at Harvey's on her way to the mall.
I'm convinced at this point that, what's his name?
Harvey or Philip?
Okay, Philip.
Yeah, you're Philip.

(31:50):
Philip is you.
After that comment.
Own it.
I guess I can't deny that.
Yeah.
You're right.
I'm a grouper fish.
My mom dropped me off at Harvey's on her way to the mall.
I stumbled across the Oasis Apartments parking lot peering out of the cutout eyes following

(32:13):
cardboard signs that read Harvey's party.
Darcy was there, but she was wearing a lime green bikini top and shorts.
The pool.
I don't know why it says butt.
The pool was blue and clean.
Kids dove off the side or sat on the edge, kicking their feet in the shallow wind.

(32:34):
When Shane Pollard saw me, she laughed so hard she almost dropped her hot dog.
Harvey stood on the dining board, cackling like a hyena.
Nice bathing suit, Corbett, he yelled and jumped high in the air, pulling his legs into
his chest and crashing into the center of the pool.
Oh, I see why he said butt, because she's not in a costume.

(32:54):
Okay.
Yeah, this was me.
I stood staring at the water, holding the fish head under my arm.
I was going to have to take the bus home wearing green tights and swim pins.
I left the party seething with hatred, or Harvey shank.
Wait up, Philip.
I'll go with you.
Darcy ran across the parking lot.

(33:17):
Harvey can be so lame sometimes.
She stifled a laugh.
It is a great costume, though.
Harvey can be so lame sometimes.
Those words sounded like poetry to my ears.
Darcy was a saint.
She offered to take the bus home with me and even held my dumb fish head in her lap as

(33:38):
we sat at the bus stop.
We talked about our plans for the club that fall.
Darcy wanted to start a campaign to have the school cafeteria serve dolphin safe tuna.
I told her about my latest marine obsession, the strange fish that live deep in the sea.
The hatchet fish and lantern fish look transparent, and their organs glow in the dark.

(34:00):
There's also this really cool fish called the Warted Sea Devil.
It lives at like 600 fathoms and has this little phosphorescent whisker it uses to attract
other fish.
And…
I was so absorbed with talking to Darcy that by the time the bus pulled up, I'd forgotten
I was dressed like a giant fish.

(34:23):
Harvey didn't attend the school year's first fish heads meeting.
I was sure his stupid fantasies about Darcy had been squashed by the reality of the weekly
oral reports.
The first assignment Ms. Brent gave us to write about how different marine animals adapted
to their environments.
I went to the library to look for a book on deep sea creatures.

(34:44):
It was purely by accident that I discovered great whites.
Which fish of the Sunless Seas has been checked out?
The librarian said.
But that's no book, maybe, of interest to you.
The title was curved inside a set of open jaws.

(35:05):
Much like the title of the book…
I mean cover.
Anyway, it read, Great White, the Perfect Predator.
The librarian placed it in my hands.
I sat down in one of the overstuffed library chairs and opened the book to discover awesome
things about great whites like they ram their snouts through the bars of stainless steel

(35:27):
cages.
Each time man enters the ocean, the book stated, he enters the realm of the fiercest predator
on earth.
Our report was only supposed to be 15 minutes long, but I must have babbled on for at least
half an hour.
Every part of the Great White Shark is designed to make it the perfect predator.

(35:50):
The upper teeth are serrated like the edges of steak knives.
The dark color of its dorsal side opposite its white underbelly, which it's named for,
helps the shark blend into shadowy kelp beds while it searches for prey swimming above
at the surface.
Thank you, Philip.
That was very informative, Ms. Brent interrupted.

(36:13):
But we must move on to Mike's report on dinoflagellates.
When the time came for the fish heads to return to Stinson Beach, I begged Ms. Brent to allow
higher shark researchers from the Farallon Islands to take us on a Great White expedition.
After all, Farallon Islands, known for their large shark population, were only a few miles

(36:37):
off Stinson Beach.
But Ms. Brent thought the idea sounded too dangerous, so I had to settle on another boring
look at tide pools.
The school van was pulling out of the parking lot when out of nowhere, Harvey Schenck rushed
on board.
I hadn't spoken to him since the pool party, but Harvey plopped down next to me like we

(37:00):
were old friends.
Unfortunately, Mike had grabbed the seat next to Darcy, who sat several rows behind us,
before I could.
What are you doing here?
I demanded.
All right, I'll pause.
Any thoughts?
I'm surprised actually.

(37:21):
No, no, no.
Overall no.
I was surprised in much the same way that Philip was, even though the beginning of the
story was setting Harvey up to be this kind of wascle.
I legitimately thought after their little get together on the beach to play cards, I

(37:44):
thought, oh, well, maybe this story is going to turn another way.
But then with the whole birthday party, grouper costume incident, it's like, oh, no, he is
a jerk.
That segment actually, that had the feel to me of an R.L.

(38:06):
Stine moment.
Honestly, that seems like the kind of goofy thing that would happen to the protagonist
like, oh, this is the most embarrassing moment of his life.
He showed up in a grouper costume.
You know, echoes of good old Bob Stein's memories of wearing the duck costume as a
kid that was the inspiration for Haunted Mask.

(38:31):
Those were vibes I got from that segment.
Yeah.
I think R.L.
Stein's moments got progressively more outlandish as the series went on.
But it does feel reminiscent of an early Goosebumps embarrassing moment as opposed to like, well,
but even that book, though, has the, we fed you a real worm.

(38:52):
Ha ha ha ha.
Yeah, exactly.
It's more over the top than anything that ever happened in my school.
Precisely.
So it'll be interesting to see how what I'm assuming is Phillips vengeance plot unfolds.
Here, I'm in the voice of Harvey Schenck now that raps galleon.

(39:16):
Your fearless leader said I could come along as long as I promised to write some stupid
report when I get back.
I turned away.
So Corbett, Harvey began, do you think Darcy will ever like me?
My face flushed.
I wanted to say Darcy was sooner stick pins in her eyes and look twice at you.
But I decided to use a different approach.

(39:40):
Maybe how much do you like her?
A lot.
Harvey retrieved a can of grape soda from his lunch bag and popped it open.
I don't know if I've ever told you this, but I've liked Darcy ever since I sat behind
her in fourth grade.
Would you be willing to do anything to make her like you?

(40:00):
I guess so.
Harvey answered uncertainly.
Like what?
The first thing you have to understand is Darcy Parkman is not your average girl.
The words flowed as effortlessly out of my mouth as if I'd memorized them.
Darcy doesn't have pictures of Leonardo DiCaprio taped up inside her locker.

(40:21):
She has pictures of Jacques Cousteau, two still culturally relevant references.
What's your point, Corbett?
My point is that Darcy likes adventurers.
It's one thing to dare to put a cherry bomb in the school toilet.
It's another thing to feel more a eels bite through your wetsuit while you're diving off

(40:44):
dangerous reef.
Get it?
Harvey blew up his empty lunch bag like a balloon.
He was just about to pop it when he noticed Ms. Brent glaring at him.
Yeah, I get it.
Harvey mumbled, letting the air out of the bag.
You're saying I don't have a chance.
Neither of us said anything the rest of the way to Stinson Beach.

(41:06):
Before we begin, Ms. Brent announced, leading us across the empty beach to the tide pools,
I'd like to remind you that your field notebooks must include a detailed drawing and a written
description of the life you observe in the tide pools.
For those of you who seem to have forgotten your notebooks, she said, staring straight

(41:28):
at Harvey, I will provide paper and a clipboard.
All of us rushed toward the tide pools.
Harvey followed Darcy across the rocks, asking if she needed help carrying her school supplies.
I wanted to barf.
Mike Ostinopoulos found the best tide pool.
It was full of crabs and little silver fish.

(41:51):
He plunged his hand into the water and retrieved a sea cucumber.
It looked more like a rotten eggplant to me.
Check it out, Mike said, gently squeezing the sluggish blob.
They can throw up their internal organs.
A purple ink-like substance squirted all over his white socks.
My tide pool contained about as much marine life as a mud puddle.

(42:18):
Philip is such a sad sack.
It was more interesting to observe how Harvey shanked.
Good.
I was just going to do some dumb drooping impression only in talking about marine biology.
Carry on.
Yeah.
You should see, I don't know why I'm always the one who's reading stuff.

(42:38):
You're the one who's actually good at it.
Oh, well.
Sorry, listeners.
Hey, I think I'll take a crack at it maybe next time.
It was more interesting to observe how Harvey shank interacted with his environment.
Darcy sat in the shelter of a huge boulder drawing a piece of kelp while Harvey knelt
beside her sharpening her colored pencils.

(43:02):
Really sharpened her colored pencils, if you know what I mean.
Your drawing looks totally realistic, Darcy.
Thank you.
I answered politely, but I could tell Harvey was starting to irritate her.
Do you need another color?
Harvey asked, offering her a sea green pencil.
No, thank you, Harvey, Darcy replied, pronouncing his name as if she couldn't wait to get it

(43:26):
off her tongue.
Hey, Corbin, look, Harvey said, sticking the pencil into the middle of a green anemone.
The jelly-like mouth closed around the tip.
Harvey affected a look of terror.
Help, help.
It's ripping my arm off.
Darcy sighed, closing her notebook.
I'm going back to the beach, she said, retrieving her pencil box from Harvey so I can concentrate.

(43:55):
Harvey watched Darcy walk away along the rocks.
The wind whipped his hair into crazy shapes.
What am I going to do, Corbin?
He said.
She hates my guts.
Before I could answer, Mike was pointing to the water, screaming, shark, shark.
I jumped to my feet, knocking my notebook into the tide pool.

(44:16):
About 30 yards from shore, a black fin was cutting through the waves.
I ran as fast as I could down the rocks, my heart racing.
Was it possible?
Great whites sometimes came close to shore.
My heart sank as another fin appeared, then a third, slicing in and out of the water.

(44:37):
I hate to disappoint you people, said Miss Brent walking up from behind us.
She was looking through binoculars.
But those ominous fins belonged to a pod of dolphins.
It's hard to tell from far away, Mike said sheepishly.
Dolphins are boring, Shawna drawled.
We've seen them a million times at Sea World, said Shane.

(45:02):
Darcy was ecstatic.
May I borrow your binoculars, Miss Brent?
Of course, Darcy, Miss Brent replied.
Now, if you three find dolphins so incredibly dull, you can help me unpack the water sample
kits from the bin.
She turned to me.
We won't be long, Philip.
Can I trust you and Darcy to keep Harvey out of trouble?

(45:24):
Sure, I barely heard what she said.
My eyes were glued to the shifting waves where the dolphins continued on their journey south.
You've just got to take a look through the binoculars, Philip, Darcy exclaimed and handed
them to me.
Looking through the lenses made it seem like I was hovering on the surface of the water.

(45:45):
I could almost feel cold foam hitting my face as the dolphins flew past, their bodies shiny
and smooth as rubber.
They're swimming toward the jetty down the beach, I said.
Let's go.
Darcy and I raced along the cold sand toward the jetty.
Anxiously, we struggled over the slippery rocks to the tip, only to discover Harvey

(46:09):
had gotten there first.
Before either of us could say anything, Harvey had taken off his t-shirt and sneakers and
dived into the cold, dark water.
He crashed as clumsily into the Pacific Ocean as he had into the swimming pool at the Oasis
Apartments.
Harvey surfaced, waving, Hey, Darcy, why should we swim with dolphins?

(46:30):
Go get Ms. Brent, I said.
I'll take care of Harvey.
I watched Darcy hurry back over the rocks, holding her arms out to the side for balance.
Then I turned to Harvey.
Okay, Shank, come on out.
Jokes over.
We are approaching the climactic moment, Jose.

(46:52):
What do you think is going to happen?
As you go on, I'm having one of those moments where I don't know if I'm creating false memories
for myself, but this is feeling familiar.
I know you said you purchased this from the Scholastic Book Fair, so I've been wondering,

(47:13):
is it possible that I came across this book at some point?
I remember even wondering that when you initially told me about this one, the three or four
times you needed me to find it for you again.
I'm like, I wonder if I read a book of shark stories at some point.

(47:35):
Because yeah, like I said, this is feeling vaguely familiar.
I think that based on that and also based on just my feeling for the story, we're going
to have a moment where a genuine shark does make an appearance.

(47:57):
And maybe Philip, incensed by Harvey's shenanigans, perhaps he recognizes it as being a shark's
fin as opposed to a dolphin's fin.
I feel like, again, am I making this up?
And that this isn't something that I previously read.

(48:19):
Is that maybe kind of the punchline of sorts that the dolphins were being chased by the
shark?
So when the shark's fin slices through the water, Harvey recognizes it as a shark's fin.
Oh, excuse me, Philip recognizes it as a shark's fin, but Harvey doesn't.

(48:40):
Philip has his opportunity to warn Harvey away, but either Harvey doesn't see it or
he does see it and thinks it's a dolphin.
And in his usual macho way decides, oh, I'm going to swim up and say hello.
And he ends up getting chomped up by the shark.

(49:01):
And I feel like we're also going to have a callback to the line that Darcy said that
apparently hatched this scheme or at least the maybe notion of all this panning out when
she said that Harvey is so lame.

(49:23):
I'm like, oh, is he going to get his legs bitten off?
So that's oh, he really is lame now.
Yeah, that's kind of a direction I see.
It would be a very conscientious seating of the ableist language.
Yeah.
Well, you know, I'm not sure that was that was on the top of Jocelyn's Jocelyn.

(49:46):
Right.
I don't think that was on the top of her top of her list of concerns.
I'm just trying to sound like a teenager in a Disney plus series.
Well, you're doing a wonderful job of it so far.
Your team of writers would be very proud.
But I think that's how this bad boy is going to pan out.

(50:09):
And I hope that I can only hope that I'm at least as half as accurate as you were about
uncovered.
Or I should say, what if it's the same ending?
Oh, my God.
What if it's just like there's a kid swimming in the ocean dressed as a toilet paper snowman?

(50:30):
I will probably I don't know.
I don't know what I'll do with myself.
That'd be a great.
Yeah, I would not see that coming.
But I'm hoping I'm just as right about this ending as you were about that one.
So let's see.
Let's find out when last we left off.
The line was OK, Shay, come on out.
The joke's over.

(50:52):
The last moments of Harvey Shanks life were, I'm sure he'd agree, quite pleasant as he
thrashed his way in the direction of the long gone dolphins.
He was totally oblivious to the immense shadow gliding toward him from the other direction.
Shayk.
There was, as it turned out, no time to warn him because the shark had shifted into attack

(51:19):
gear.
I stepped up to the tip of the jetty just as Harvey's body exploded from the surface,
squeezed between the jaws of a giant shark.
I froze.
Harvey's screams were muted by the pressure exerted by the powerful creatures bite.
All I heard from Harvey's mouth was a horrible gurgling sound.

(51:41):
Then the awesome great white took him under.
For a moment, everything was quiet.
I remember something I'd read in the shark book about how sharks sometimes follow seals
and other marine life, waiting for one that lags behind.
You're right, it's because they were following the dolphins.

(52:02):
We are coming, Philip, Miss Brent called.
Her voice sounded faint in the roar and hiss of the ocean.
Something rose from the crimson cloud of water.
A hopeful voice in my head said, Harvey got away.
He poked the shark in the eyes.
He's swimming to the surface injured, but not beyond repair.

(52:28):
He's going to need a hundred stitches, but he'll live.
Harvey did rise to the surface.
Hard of him, anyway.
The churning water quieted to a gentle sloshing as what was left of Harvey's body rocked
back and forth in the bloody foam like a buoy.

(52:49):
Harvey's eyes stared straight ahead, his tattered flesh streaming out from his arms like ribbons.
I don't know what was worse, seeing Harvey's battered corpse afloat in the crimson water
or watching the shark pull him beneath the waves for the last time.
Dajah rose in my throat as I staggered across the jetty.

(53:11):
It seemed as if a million years had passed since Darcy and I had run across the sand,
nope, Darcy and I had run across the sand laughing and carrying on.
By the time the others arrived at the jetty, not a trace of Harvey remained.
Then there's a passage of time as indicated by that cute little shark silhouette.

(53:36):
Each night as I fall asleep, I see Harvey floating in a silent sea.
It's not the choppy surf off Stinson Beach, in fact, it doesn't look like any ocean I've
ever seen.
It must be somewhere past the horizon, a sunless sea where there are no swimmers or boats or
fishermen, many fathoms beneath the surface.

(54:00):
Deeper maybe than where the great whites swim.
After a few weeks, things settled down at school.
The news reporters moved on to some other tragedy and slowly day by day the legend of
Harvey Shank was born.
He was the boy eaten by a giant squid, strangled by an enormous sea snake, drowned by the ghost

(54:21):
of a long dead pirate.
But I alone saw what happened to Harvey Shank and I'm not talking.
That way the legend will continue to grow.
The creatures will become more monstrous and the stories more grotesque.
Harvey would have had a good laugh about that.

(54:46):
The end.
Would he though?
As Top Half would.
Yeah.
Wow.
I'm not sure how to feel about Philip at the end of all of this.
I mean, I guess the story does indicate that he had no, there was no malice involved in

(55:15):
the incident.
It wasn't like he planned it, but I don't know.
Just the tone of the earlier proceedings made me think that he kind of mapped all of this
out.
And also his attitude.
I want to see the scene where Harvey's parents are interrogating Philip like, please, you

(55:39):
were the last one who saw our young boy alive.
Can't you just tell us what happened to him?
And Philip's just like, who could say?
Maybe it was a sea monster.
Maybe it was a ghost pirate.
It's sustaining the folklore of our junior high more important to you than the disappearance

(56:02):
and gruesome death of your son.
Oh, well, when you put it that way, I guess, I guess you got a point there.
Sorry to have bothered you.
Yeah, this should be the sequel to Dear Evan Hansen.
Dear Harvey Schenck.
Oh, man, the sequel we deserve but didn't get.

(56:27):
Wow.
Yeah.
How did you?
So you've said that you have read this book before.
This is the one story that had any shark mutilation or mutilation by shark of note.
So I take it that this as far as I remember.

(56:48):
Yeah, so this was like kind of the story that you remembered from this collection.
Do you remember like what your initial reaction to it was?
And does that differ from how you feel about how you feel about it now?
I think my initial reaction was, oh, this guy is my avatar and he seems to be doing

(57:11):
well with this girl, Darcy.
That makes me feel like I could potentially.
You know, you kind of I think when you're that age, you're kind of primed to be living
through the romantic exploits of the main character in a book.
Oh, totally.
So I think that was my main takeaway.
And then also like the bloody water, Harvey's part of his body floating up to the surface

(57:37):
in a state of horrible.
But I think you know what's funny though is I remember even at the time because when you
were predicting how it was going to end and you were saying that like Philip is maybe
possibly going to see the shark fin and recognize it from his knowledge of, you know, shark
anatomy or whatever from his books and then decide not to warn Harvey like in a way that

(57:59):
would be a better ending because it would actually like.
Have been built up from the story that we heard so far.
And I think I remember even as a kid being like, I enjoyed that story because it was
gory, but also that ending really just kind of came out of nowhere.
The whole story is basically just like and then he got eaten by a great white and you're

(58:22):
like, oh, OK.
So I guess the whole setup was we're in a club where we go to the ocean sometimes.
And that's all you really need to know.
And then one guy got eaten by a shark.
And.
And he was kind of a jerk.
So I guess he deserved it anyway.
Yeah.
And then Philip.
Yeah.

(58:43):
Philip doesn't really seem to have all that much to do as a protagonist, except for just
be like, well, I'm not that sad that I guess.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's too bad it didn't culminate in that way.
This was this one came out in 1999, which I'm pretty sure was also the same year that
Deep Blue Sea came out.

(59:06):
So I had a fever for the flavor of shark stories that year.
And I think Deep Blue Sea wins.
Yeah, I would say so between that movie and this book in that one very specific competition.
Yes, very specific.
Not to go too far afield of the book, but since you kind of brought it up anyway, and

(59:29):
as you said, it's pretty much inevitable with certain subgenres, this being shark attack
stories.
You know, there is the one and then there is all the other ones that sprung forth from
that one works creative loins like Sharkboy.

(59:51):
Yeah, like Sharkboy.
A love story for the ages.
Just kind of, I guess, as brief as you can make it.
What?
You know, you I think you asked.
Oh, okay.
Good luck.
You know, welcome to Blackmagic Treehouse.
Why don't you take five minutes telling me what's going to happen in the next three pages

(01:00:13):
of this story?
I will.
I'll be as brief as possible.
Can you please?
Because you know, we need to save as much airtime for my voice as possible.
Well I say that.
I don't disagree with that.
No.
When it comes to Jaws, like was that a movie, you know, that you encountered in the prime

(01:00:34):
of your youth that had have any kind of impact on you and your desire or fear for over these
kinds of stories at all?
Yeah, I mean, I think Jaws is at the risk of digressing, which I know is always the
fatal flaw of our podcasting dynamic, I guess.

(01:00:55):
I think a lot about how like when I was a kid, watching TV just meant like anything
that happened to be on.
And it could be something that was like new and for you that just came out or it could
be something like The Twilight Zone or something from like 50 years ago.
And I was like, man, that dynamic, I don't think that exists anymore because there's

(01:01:18):
just so much content being made all the time and culture moves forward so quickly.
And I know you always say I sound like an old man when I say stuff like this, but like,
you know what, Jose, sometimes things are different for kids today.
I don't know what to tell you.
I'm not saying it's worse.
I'm just saying it's different.
But so yeah, I don't know what a kid today would make of Jaws because it never occurred

(01:01:42):
to me that it was like an old movie, you know, watching it, this movie from the 70s on TV
in the early 90s.
And yeah, I think it was.
And my sister, who's a year older than me, is also a very shark fascinated kind of person.
So I think I grew up in an atmosphere that was very, yeah, like she had all the books

(01:02:05):
and then there were like pictures in the books of like, this guy was bit by a shark and then
it always had like his leg or his ab or something where it was like that kind of like, I don't
know, like it was kind of healed, but it was also just like the specific like red color
that you only see in like photos of old shark bites or something.

(01:02:28):
So it was like it was like, oh, this guy's OK.
But so you feel kind of safe looking at it, but also like, oh, that's gory and grotesque
and horrible.
I don't know.
And I think maybe part of the reason that, oh, and Jaws for a long time was my favorite

(01:02:48):
movie of all time to answer that question specifically.
But I don't want to talk too much about it because that could be.
Yeah, that could be a whole other hour discussion right there.
I'm sure.
But I think that the thing that is a little bit tricky about the shark subgenre as horror
is that it is like Jaws did kind of cause a boom in like shark killings, unfortunately.

(01:03:15):
And so I sort of wonder if like post that, do authors maybe feel more of a sense of responsibility
to like try and not just portray them as just like, you know, evil creatures that are just
going to come out and kill you like demons?
Because I mean, even in this book, they do have like they do try to throw away the line

(01:03:36):
about like, oh, the shark was probably just following after the dolphins and just took
Harvey for a seal or whatever.
I mean, I don't know if they say that specifically.
So I feel like maybe in order to be I hate the term politically correct, but let's say
politically correct.
Do you have to like be conscientious about the way that you portray sharks now because

(01:03:57):
you don't want to contribute to like public alarm and like unjustified killings of an
animal that is unfortunately across many species extinct or endangered or whatever?
I think you're on the nose, especially with regards to the whole conscientious element

(01:04:21):
at play.
When you said that, it put me in mind of some of our past conversations.
I know we touched on this quite a bit in the creep over episode with regards to witches
or witch like characters.
It seems like these days you if you're going to depict a witch, either one that is a true

(01:04:48):
blue practitioner of the dark arts or someone who is accused of being a witch, you have
to shine a light on the mania of the other people in the scenario, the surrounding characters.

(01:05:15):
Well there's a reason that we use the phrase witch hunt as like a political term, right?
That's kind of like the go-to example of mass hysteria, I guess, in a prejudicial sense.
I feel like we've really had a reckoning of sorts with that in more recent decades where

(01:05:37):
the stories that we so often told ourselves about what these outcast people were up to.
Whereas before we kind of delighted in the gory details of, oh, in Salem this many people
were tried and hung on accusations of practicing witchcraft.

(01:05:59):
And ooh, isn't that kind of a crazy, spooky thing.
But now it seems like, especially when it comes to entertainment, we're more deliberate
about like, okay, look, so this was like a terrible thing that happened and it's not
just a campfire story.
So yeah, I feel like in that way you're right about the shark thing.

(01:06:24):
And it made me wonder, there have been things like that that have happened in the past with
wolves, I know.
So I was just trying to puzzle that out.
Was it in the same way as Jaws?
Was there some kind of story or some kind of narrative that took hold that led to the

(01:06:49):
mass wolf killings?
I think of something like maybe the Beast of Gavauden where people were convinced that
there was like a shapeshifter among them and they claimed it was a wolf-like beast.
So it's like, well, we're just going to be safe.

(01:07:10):
We're going to go out and kill anything that even resembles a wolf.
So yeah, I guess you just kind of have to tread carefully, especially when your work
of art, your form of entertainment could have real life ramifications in that way.

(01:07:34):
So I guess for as...
Jose has the vapors.
Yeah, for as publicly conscious, I don't know if that's the right phrase.
I'd say socially conscious, but I don't know if that applies to sharks.

(01:07:57):
I think so.
Or ecologically conscious.
As ecologically conscious and responsible as those considerations are, at the same time
when you go back to the story or the work of art, whatever you wish to call it, in this

(01:08:20):
sense, in this context of being primarily one in which these horrified emotions are
hoped to be elicited, it kind of takes a little bit of the air out a bit when you kind of
have to backpedal a little bit and say, well, hold it folks.

(01:08:43):
The sharks or the wolves are just acting in a way that they would naturally in nature.
So they're not really the bad guys here.
It's like the greedy developers or the business people who are forcing them into closer quarters

(01:09:05):
or depleting their numbers or maybe depleting their food source.
So now they have to go and find sustenance elsewhere.
Did you see that movie?
Which is like, yes, that is absolutely- The gray?
The gray?
No.
That's another approach.
Except with the wolves.
Yeah.
That's one where there's a plane crash in, I don't know if it's Alaska or some northern

(01:09:31):
country.
Some cold place.
Yeah.
It's just about this group of dudes getting killed off one by one by, well, mostly wolves,
but also just nature.
That one is like, it does kind of, I think, err on the side of, their solution to that
is to kind of almost take a mythical attack, kind of letting you know the wolves are metaphorical

(01:09:59):
for just death or the struggles of life that we try to survive against or whatever.
So I think you're supposed to come away from that being like, okay, they're not literally
talking about wolves are going to kill us all.
But that's another way you could do it.
Well, we should start wrapping up because I don't want to go too far over the short

(01:10:23):
episode that we're trying to create here.
Are there any, because I don't really watch a lot of shark movies.
I'm just primed to think most of them are probably terrible.
But I have seen the Meg and the Meg 2.
I really enjoyed the first Meg.
Second one is very skippable.
And then that movie that I think it was called Shallows, was it?

(01:10:47):
A couple of years ago with Blake Lively as like a surfer who's caught on a rock with
an injured leg.
And there's the tides coming in and there's a shark circling around.
So the whole movie is just her trying to, it's like a chess match.
Can I get back to the land without this shark killing me or whatever?
I saw that one.

(01:11:08):
I thought that was pretty good.
And that's really all the shark movies I can think of having seen.
Do you have any you would recommend?
No, I'm not a big shark movie watcher.
I don't think I've seen anything modern.
Probably Jaws is the only thing I remember seeing like Deep Blue Sea as a kid.
But I've never sought any of them out really intentionally.

(01:11:32):
So I can't really say that I have an opinion on the matter.
I do enjoy Deep Blue Sea for all of its, I mean, for its cheese factor, I guess.
And also for the immortal lyrics of LL Cool J, my hat is like a shark spin.
Well, that's going to be all for this episode.

(01:11:55):
Follow us on, well, we're not on Twitter and I will never call it X.
We have, what do we have?
Instagram, Black Magic Treehouse pod.
Email us, Black Magic Treehouse pod at gmail.com.
Okay.

(01:12:15):
Yeah, they both had pod at the end.
For some reason, I thought one had pod and one did not.
Talk to us about any close encounters you've had with sharks that will make you happy to
share.
I don't know.
If you're a shark that's had a close encounter with a human, be sure to write into the show

(01:12:35):
as well.
We want to hear your side of the story because like we said, we're trying to be as ecologically
conscious as we can.
So your story deserves to be told too, sharks, Rytus.
We'll tell the tooth.
And nothing but the tooth.
All right.
Goodbye, everybody.
Bye.