The Fish That Looks Like a Monk!
I’ve been holding this guy in my back pocket all summer waiting for submissions to ramp back up a bit, cause i think there’s a lot of good to be had here. The Bishop Fish is a legendary sea creature from medieval Europe. Said to be a fish close to human sized, but with a front (or down in fish world) facing mouth and eyes and conical head that resembles a bishop’s miter (you know like a pope hat). But that’s not all! His front fins looked like giant claw-like hands and his tail fins are said to resemble a set of fishermans boots… now what medieval European fisherman covered their toes in? I leave that for you to decide.
As legend goes, in 1531 a Bishop Fish was caught of the coast of Poland and brought in front of a group of bishops whereupon our fishly hero immediately began to gesture towards the sea asking to be set free. Once the bishops had conferred and agreed to release him, the fish used his talon like fins to make the sign of the cross in farewell and jumped back into the sea never to be seen again.
Our Judge this week was my longtime friend, old roomate, drummer for the once was Boneface, the guy who married us, my wife’s high school cohort and fishing buddy, arch nemesis of John Almonte, and fan of shot upon shot of whiskey: Paul Jurkowski. Nowadays he’s married, a proud father of two and an IT guy for a major media conglomerate. But I’ll always remember him fondly as a guy who could make the worst first impression ever, find trouble in a room full of kittens and oft times raced (or grumpily stumbled) to the rescue of a very inebriated younger me! I went out to his place last night to get a live judgement, so I don’t have written commentary, but I’ll try to paraphrase as best I can!
