Apparently the folks at PETA have way too much time on their hands. So they've started a campaign to save the "Sea Kittens."
What's a Sea Kitten you ask? Read this.
PETA has decided that if fish are portrayed as being adorable; people will think twice about sticking a hook or a fork in them."PETA thought that by renaming fish sea kittens, compassionate people who would never dream of hurting a dog or a cat might extend that sympathy to fish, or sea kittens," PETA campaign coordinator Ashley Byrne says.
Whatever you say Ashley. But first, pass the tartar sauce!
From my files:
July 10, 1984...Yvonne Agneta Ryding, a 21 yr. old nurse from Sweden has breakfast in bed in a $1,700-a-night suite at the Hotel Intercontinental in downtown Miami.
The night before a group of judges at the Knight Center declared her the most beautiful woman in the world and crowned her Miss Universe.
Her hometown newspaper, Kvallsposten, has hired me to document her first day as Miss Universe.
I, along with other photographers, reporters, Miss Universe officials and an ever-present chaperone set out for a day of sightseeing and shopping and photo ops.
I don't remember a whole lot of what happened that day. But thanks to this picture which I recently unearthed in my files, my final minutes with Yvonne are crystal clear.
After ditching her entourage, she retired to her room with just her chaperone, myself and and the Swedish reporter in tow..
Yvonne was exhausted and as her chaperone disappeared into another room, the world's most beautiful woman collapsed on the couch.
Finally, after a day of staged photo-ops, I finally had a candid moment.
I swung my Nikon FM2 in her direction and focused the 28mm lens and hit the motor drive.
I was able to snap three or four frames before the chaperone re-entered the room and scolded Yvonne for allowing herself to be photographed in a pose not befitting a queen.
But I already had the picture that perfectly summed up the 18 hours since young Yvonne had been told she was the fairest of them all.
The editors at Kvallsposten loved the picture and ran it on the front page with the headline: "EXHAUSTED."
Yvonne went back to Sweden and became a TV personality and now has her own line of skin care products.
A day after The Herald quietly raised the single copy price of the paper, I found myself in downtown Miami near the Miami-Dade Government Center.
Directly in front of the Metro Rail entrance and a block away on Flagler street were two Miami Herald promotional kiosks loaded with stacks of the Herald and el Nuevo Herald. The kiosks were also brimming with Miami Hurricane and Miami Dolphin t-shirts.
The men at the kiosks were buttonholing passersby, handing out free copies of the paper and at the same time trying to sell subscriptions to the paper. I guess if you bought a subscription to the paper you got a free t-shirt.
I didn't hang around long enough to find out.
I'm not sure a hundred kiosks at every corner along Flagler Street from Miami Avenue to Sweetwater could sell enough subscriptions to salvage what's left of the Herald. It's hard to imagine anyone in South Florida slapping themselves in the forehead and saying "Yeah, today's a good subscribe to the Herald," no matter how many free t-shirts are offered as a premium.
The Herald's circulation is steadily declining. To be fair, the price increase is the first in 18 years. But you don't need a PhD in economics to figure out what a price increase now is going to do to already sagging circulation numbers.
All three South Florida papers are going through hard times but things are especially bad at the Herald.
Massive staff reductions, declining circulation and ad revenue have taken a toll on what was once the largest and most influential paper in the state.
The Herald's parent company McClatchy is saddled with massive debt and its stock is selling for somewhere in the buck-a-share range. And reports say McClatchy wants to unload the Herald
One financial writer predicts that won't happen."The Herald won't be sold. There is too much risk here for a buyer. The most likely fate of the paper is that it will be merged with the Ft. Lauderdale paper or some other media in south Florida."
Expect big changes on the South Florida media horizon in the next 12 months.
Thanks to everyone who voted for me at SFDB. And, as always, thanks to Rick for all the kind words.
I guess I must be doing something right!
