Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Sea Turtles, Candidates, or whatever

I wanted to write an article on sea turtles. I can't believe what the first draft turned into.

Turtles are washing back to the beaches all over the world, especially in colder countries. Since I read this news yesterday, the turtles probably escaped our Super Tuesday. Also in the news, I saw a two-headed turtle and two turtles born attached to each other. The pollution in the seas must have gotten to them. Or like us, they didn’t know which way to look and at which party to look with all that flipping and flopping.

Sea turtles sometimes die as the result of crashing into boats’ propellers. Other sea turtles die in shrimp nets. Some candidates have had it after the New Hampshire primary; others wait until they are totally drained.

Adult sea turtles are considered delicacies by the large sharks and killer whales. Out of the norm candidates are also delicacies for the media.

In my neck of the woods or should I say in my neck of the beaches, sea turtles come ashore to hatch. Come election time, candidates, too, arrive to kiss babies and send pre-taped messages over the phone lines. Although the turtles are protected species, with all the seaside condo construction, they can find little space to do their nesting, egg-laying, and hatching. Candidates don’t like to be exposed also.

Artificial lighting fools the turtles as to the time of the day, because these animals are nocturnal nesters. I guess bright limelights and fanfare fool candidates, too.

Then when the adult turtles succeed to nest and leave their eggs to hatch, the hatchlings have a difficult time finding the sea because of the city and street lights and the crowds on the beaches. Some are eaten by other animals like seabirds, raccoons, dogs, and ghost crabs, or are crushed by cars. In Florida, votes for candidates are eaten by faulty voting machines even after pregnant chads gave birth and their pain was forgotten…well, sort of.

The luckier turtles that can evade all these dangers live to be 50 to 80 years of age. The age of a turtle can be determined by the growth rings on the carapace or the shell of the turtle. With the candidates, the age is determined by the video of his everyday workout, mostly running, even if he is running zigzag. (I watched Huckabee run.)

Sea turtles become social, offshore, when they congregate or when they travel together to nesting grounds. Boy, all this reminds me of the candidates traveling together to each state for campaigning against each other. Candidates campaign for states; turtles campaign for nesting grounds. Turtles are done away by other living things, candidates by their own kind.

I know I shouldn’t be so involved with politics when I am writing about turtles, but the mind is a funny thing and I can’t help myself. But then, this is all free flow.

So much for sea turtles. When I get my head together, I may write a decent sea turtle article. For now, my brain is partied out.