Quote:The monster in the Sound



We interrupt today's regularly scheduled column for a special report. Pardon the flip beginning, but how else can I possibly introduce this incredible "big fish" story?



Only it's not about a fish. Not exactly.



It's about a gigantic, squid-like creature that was seen yesterday squirming its way through the deeper parts of Long Island Sound, startling several eyewitnesses, including at least one fisherman, some revelers on the deck of a swingers excursion boat and a former member of an auxiliary harbor police patrol.



The U.S. Coast Guard was notified, but nothing was found after extensive patrols and sonar testing.



Nevertheless, the multiple sightings have suddenly rekindled scientific interest in an all-but-forgotten legend going back to the early days of the Algonquian Indians who supposedly chronicled the existence of a ferocious sea monster that ruled the waters of the great glacial trough long before it became a playground for recreational sailors. A scattering of reports about such a monster have popped up over the centuries, dating back to the days of the first explorers of the New World, but those accounts were invariably dismissed out of hand.



Now, the so-called experts are apparently changing their haughty tune....