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A Shark-Hater Fesses Up

Distaste for 'tigers of the deep' is no longer politically correect

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 8, 2008 12:34 PM CDT

(Newser) – Sharks were once eminently despicable creatures. Remember Jaws? Now, though, perceptions have shifted—they’re seen as endangered, misunderstood animals who chomp humans only when they mistake them for seals. (That's why they take one bite and "sheepishly" move on.) It's a source of great disappointment to Joe Queenan, who laments in the Los Angeles Times that he just can't find an acceptable replacement for his hatred.

"In the end, I have decided to go on hating sharks in private while toeing a politically line in public. The last time I took a dip in the Atlantic, I announced to friends that if a shark ate me, I would accept this as a misfortune I set in motion as soon as I intruded into an ecosystem in which all animate creatures are a potential source of nutrition. But I was lying."

[Images (4)]

[Quotes (1)]

It used to be perfectly acceptable to hate sharks. (Shutterstock)

Now, hating sharks isn't politically correct. (Shutterstock)

Joe Queenan is an avowed shark-hater. (Shutterstock)

Queenan has decided "to go on hating sharks in private." (Shutterstock)

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I only hope that if a shark ever does eat me, he does so because he detects that I am a shark-loathing reactionary. ... I'd hate to get eaten just because some shark mistook me for a seal. - Joe Queenan, LA Times

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A Shark-Hater Fesses Up