But the best is yet to come: Superwoman dives with sharks – and not with any harmless specimens, but with great white sharks, the most dangerous predators of the seas. As if all of this wasn’t already monstrous, this famous creature went one better when she said her name. Her first name is, seriously, Ocean. Her name is Ocean Ramsey.
That I, who has been almost obsessive about sharks for years, comes across such a woman could only be a fabulous sign of fate. “Come on, Frank, let’s dive with the sharks,” she said. Ocean is an environmental activist and wants to make the world aware that the badly reputed and endangered great white sharks are really peaceful people. A wonderful cause, I thought , in love as I was. So I started preparing for the dive. Suddenly I remembered meeting a very nice, somewhat water-shy French man a few years ago.
This man, Jean-Marie Ghislain, once overcame his fear of the deep by also diving with sharks, without a cage or harpoon – like Ocean. Once Ghislain went down with several men. There was a cook with us who had never had much to do with diving or sharks and was therefore quite excited.
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In the water, the group actually met a great white shark, it was a female. The predatory fish picked out the trembling cook straight away, circled him, nudged him. Sharks are very peculiar creatures. They can probably hear our heartbeat; and who knows what they can see in us with their deep black eyes.
It was in that moment that I realized that I am like the cook. I love sharks, but I am very happy that they live in water and I live on land. Ocean had not escaped my hesitation. She looked at me seriously and said, “Frank, aren’t you the man I thought you were?” From that moment on, her image became indistinct and I was still feverishly thinking: “Ocean, if Steven Spielberg had met you at the right time, you would have been sure to have a role in ‘The Great White Shark’ – as the surfer girl who started the Film is badly bitten by the main actor “.
Then I woke up from my daydream. I wasn’t on the beach in Hawaii at all, but in my home office in Berlin. Covid-19 was raging outside, Ocean was gone. But I was only disappointed for a moment.
Strange sometimes, these environmental activists, I thought dazedly.
Heartily
Your Frank Thadeusz
PS: By the way, Ocean Ramsey really does exist, see our picture of the week, also the cook, who survived the episode reasonably safe, and I actually met Jean-Marie Ghislain.
Abstract
My reading recommendations this week
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Perhaps someone can still remember: There were times when the ever-widening hole in the ozone layer seemed to be our greatest concern. Now it looks like it will close completely by 2050.
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And one more piece of good news for the environment: the butterfly population is recovering – at least in the UK.
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Visits to the concert hall are currently taboo. When the symphonic orchestra plays again one day, you should know that during the concert you have much more in common with the musicians on stage than you think.
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Some will shudder at these images, others will recognize a certain beauty in them: a tiny intruder made our world a different one within a few weeks and “social distancing” became a global phenomenon.
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A classic from the Spiegel archive by my colleague Samiha Shafy, which is very topical again at the moment: What actually happens to us and in our brain when we are afraid or panic?
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Quiz*
1. Which unlikely namesake is the inspiration for the Bluetooth technology?
2. In which occupation doubles (for women) or triples (for men) a German’s risk of suffering a heart attack?
3. Which household appliance, which should not be missing from any Sunday brunch, causes more than a hundred times more people to die than shark attacks?
* You can find the answers at the bottom of the newsletter.
Picture of the week
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Two meters away are good for your health, as can currently be seen on land, and the distance should also be maintained underwater. Otherwise, Ocean Ramsey (that’s really her name) has little fear of contact with large fish. The environmental activist is particularly fond of great white sharks. Ramsey elegantly dips the predatory fish to demonstrate the peaceful character of the walkers. So far it has gone well.
SPIEGEL + recommendations from science
*Quizantworten:
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The Viking King Harald I “Blue Tooth” Gormsson, who lived in the 10th century, was not known as a technology visionary; However, he was considered a Prince of Peace, who was said to have extremely binding abilities. In the days of Blauzahn, however, this applied to people, not devices.
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When watching games of the German national soccer team, as a team of German heart specialists found out during the 2006 World Cup.
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Around 700 people are electrocuted to their toaster every year; the number of fatal shark attacks has varied between four and six in recent years.
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