Sharks

As I have mentioned before, our town pool is closed for renovations for the summer, so we Rowes are temporary members of the Boston Sports Club pool.  At our regular town pool, no outside toys are allowed, but the rules are a lot more lax at the BSC.  Therefore, we have been able to bring some diving toys with us to play with.  In lieu of diving sticks, we have diving sharks, which sink to the bottom after being thrown in, and which have inspired a really macabre game made up by Madeleine and Julia.  They don't quite agree on the name of this game, but the implications are pretty much the same.  Madeleine calls it "Sharks of Death" and Julia calls it "Death to Sharks."

ME: So can you explain to me how you play "Death to Sharks?"
JULIA: So, well, "Death to Sharks" is this game show.  What happens, is: there are two players.  One throws all four sharks in the pool.  The other player has to get them.  And if the sharks are under the water for too long at the bottom of the pool, that means they drown.  So, they're OUT: well, you can still get them, but they're not alive.  If you get a shark three times, then it's back in. It's, like, alive again.  And if ALL the sharks are dead, if you save all the sharks in a round, then all the sharks are alive again.  And also, you can put it on the edge of the pool for, like, a tiny bit, so that they can have a chance to breathe, but they CAN drown on it, if they're there for too long.  And the contestants are:

Torpedo

Gray-Gray

Orange (pronounced like in French: o-ronj)

and

Deep Blue

So here's what I don't get.  The girls are rescuing sharks from their natural habitat (i.e. IN THE WATER) and saving them by putting them above water.  How is this saving the sharks though?  Like, they would actually die by staying ABOVE the water too long.  They're not in any danger while hanging out under the water, unless they are being hunted or something.  I mean, maybe they aren't really sharks.  Maybe the game show is for humans who dress in a shark costume, making it truly necessary to get them back above water before too long.  In that case, though, I can see why the girls kept the title of the game show as it is, because "Death to Humans" would probably be a bit too gruesome-sounding for most game show enthusiasts to watch.

And, of course, sometimes real injuries do occur in this game, as happened today when Madeleine threw a shark and it hit Julia smack-dab in the middle of her forehead.  Now she has a nice old bruise there, reminding me of her self-induced hickey when she stuck a window suction cup to her head.  This is not a good year for Julia's forehead coming into contact with things made out of plastic.  But at least a shark accident sounds a lot more adventurous than a window suction cup accident, so maybe this time around Julia can sport her head bruise with a little bit of swagger.