This exciting discovery raises the possibility that the name of the youth association, The Sharks, featured in Leonard Bernstein's hit Broadway musical West Side Story, a show based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, may signal a connection between Shakespeare and a Greenland Shark.
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| William Shakespeare thinking about a Greenland Shark |
Following painstaking literary research the Space Alien concludes that such a relationship existed based on the following incontrovertible facts: a) the elderly Greenland Shark is blind, as was King Lear, and b) the Greenland Shark has a well-developed sense of smell, as did Marcellus, who observed in Hamlet that "Something is rotten in Denmark."
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| Greenland Shark thinking about William Shakespeare |
From this and other evidence, the Space Alien can only conclude that William Shakespeare had a fine-tuned understanding of the Greenland Shark
that could only be derived from close association. However, rumors that the "Dark Lady of the Sonnets" was a Greenland Shark are probably unfounded.
Epilogue 1:
Shortly after the above story went to press, one of the legions of loyal readers of the SAG informed the Space Alien about a young Illinois man who recently had a horrific encounter with a shark while swimming in the Bahamas. This was almost certainly not an elderly Greenland Shark. To read more click here.
The Space Alien joins the entire staff of the Space Alien Gazette in wishing this young man a speedy and complete recovery.
Epilogue 2:
In response to this posting, one of the Space Alien's thousands of loyal readers sent this picture of himself about to enter the jaws of a shark. The Space Alien urges all readers to exercise extreme caution. Do not assume that every shark you meet will back off when you tell them, quoting Comedy of Errors, that "unquiet meals make ill digestions."
Epilogue 3:
Your extremely busy Editor will not waste her valuable time elaborating on the origin of the term "Jumping the Shark." Interested Loyal Readers may Google this on their own time.
Epilogue 4:
November 28, 2016. The Greenland Shark was revisited on National Public Radio today. Listen here.