"Don't Ever Look at a Mermaid" is a story from England and vicinity, about a mermaid's infatuation with a mortal man; and like last week's story, it entails humans, or in this case, humanoids, assuming animal form. The mermaid motif, which is particularly common in Europe but also crops up in other cultures around the world (including Native American), may have inspired Hans Christian Andersen to write "The Little Mermaid" -- which in turn inspired Disney, as so many stories have, to put the same title on a very different story. In this version, the mermaid seems to represent temptation, which, like the mermaid herself, never completely goes away but reappears every so often.

We bring you this story from icy, storm-ravaged Arkansas, where we're visiting friends and relatives (not necessarily in that order). But we're recapping some of our adventures in sunny Florida, specifically the two
occasions when we donned snorkels. The first was at Biscayne National Park near Key Biscayne, the only national park that is almost completely underwater. We saw some coral, a few fish, a couple of lobsters (uncooked, of course) and the largest seahorse we've ever witnessed.

The second time, we were at Crystal River, where we bathed with a few manatees who, like the humans who marvel at them, vacation in The Sunshine State at this time of year. Having learned our lesson from Key Biscayne, we rented wetsuits along with our kayak. The water was crystal-river clear, and we were able to get within a few feet of
these incredible beasts, who generally stayed quite still on the bottom but occasionally swam right by us. We can understand how sailors might have mistaken them for boulders, but mermaids??

As you may have noticed, this is a bonus podcast, wedged into our biweekly schedule because there's been just so much material to cover lately!

Happy listening,
Dennis (Hans), Kimberly (Mermaid, Wife, Dog) and Zephyr (Narrator)

"The Castle in the Lake" from Tibet is a tale about a poor herdsman who undertakes a quest to change his fortunes. Like many other stories from many other cultures, he does so by submerging himself into a body of water. And the story also includes an animal transformation motif and a concealed identity motif, rather similar to "Lohengrin" and "East of the Sun and West of the Moon".

We bring it to you from Everglades National Park in Florida, where we took a bicycle tour to snuggle up to those notorious Florida gators in their natural habitat. How many do you suppose we counted on a 15-mile trek on our Treks?

We also spent some time in Homestead, where we caught a Mardi Gras parade in the city's old town section, a parade that included an outstanding (or outmarching) band and some wild animals -- including an alligator!

And what would a homestead be without an outhouse? Hopefully the outhouses they had in homesteading days stayed stationary, unlike the ones we saw, which were on wheels and used in races. It was the 14th annual chili cook-off and outhouse race (is there a connection there?), and it was quite a memorable event that included some artistically designed and decorated outhouses.

And then there was a truly unique homestead in Homestead, the Coral Castle. It was constructed by Latvian immigrant Edward Leedskalnin from about 1920-1940, though he continued to modify it until his death in 1951. Though Ed was physically very small, he built this imposing complex by himself from granite blocks weighing several tons. Nobody knows exactly how -- one might call it (and many have) the Florida Stonehenge. He certainly was a brilliant technician, and also very good at fashioning tools from scrap metal. you'd be amazed how comfortable it can be to sit on a chair made of coral!

Happy Listening!
Dennis (Herdsman), Kimberly (Narrator & Woman) and Zephyr (Servant, King, Chief's Son)