Let's see, there was Stacey's birthday party, a couple of football games, including the New York sucks bus trip to the Coliseum, Caron's wedding, the summer kickoff party, plus a couple of Thursdays thrown in for good measure. We also managed a trip to Atlantic City that I am thoroughly regretting now that I'm broke, and some random movies and bodycounts. No wonder June flew by so fast.

Now it's almost the 4th of July, and I am appropriately reading Close to Shore. In fact, today is the anniversary of the first attack in 1916. I think I just read that it was the first documented death by shark on American shores. Charles Epting Vansant was bitten by what was probably a great white in shallow water close to shore, and when a lifeguard ran in to pull him out of the water the shark fought back and they had a bit of a tug of war. The shark wouldn't let go until he scraped the bottom, until he was almost up on the beach. And this being 1916 and no such thing as 911 or medivac helicopters, Charles Vansant died of blood loss in the office of the resort he was staying in with his family. He was just about to get married. I think he was only 22 years old. His family was from Philadelphia and the attack happened at Beach Haven, which is on LBI. So it's all very close to home, and happened exactly 92 years ago today.

That was supposedly the same shark that then went inland up a creek and attacked more people, only one of whom survived. It was the inspiration for Peter Benchley to write Jaws. I've always had a little bit of an obsession with sharks, an obsession tinged by fear. When I was younger I was afraid to go swimming even in the pool at my own house. I am terrified of going in the ocean. Out on boat trips with my dad I would either stay out of the water or freak out the entire time that I was about to be bitten in half. Especially when we were in the Indian River in Florida, which is only separated from the ocean by a VERY thin strip of land.

All of that comes from watching Jaws, one of my all time favorite movies. It ranks right up there with Fear & Loathing and I probably know just as many behind-the-scenes facts about it. I know all about how the robot shark wasn't working for most of the filming and THAT is why the movie keeps you in such suspense, never showing the monster until almost the end. It's a tactic that other films have adopted over the years even though it was unintentional. I also know the whole story behind the monologue about the USS Indianapolis and how many times it was re-written, the last time by Robert Shaw, the actor who had to perform it. I know all the differences between the book and the movie, and for Jaws at least the movie version is better. That was also true about Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Even after all these years, even knowing that more people die in car accidents, plane crashes and by getting hit on the head by a coconut than by shark attacks, I still have a fear of going into the water. And especially now that I know it was all based on real events, I don't think I'll be getting over that fear any time soon.