Last week's News

News article for the week of 5/1/05.

The Search For Atlantis: The Beginning, Dammit!
By Grey Exploration (Continued from episode I)

When I agreed to cover this story one thing I never truly expected was the amount of sheer personal pettiness that would crop up. With so many competing theories on the one subject I am not at all surprised by personal rivalries, professional animosities and even a little jealousy because one expert, I’m not going to mention who, has a book deal on the subject of Atlantis, I was not entirely surprised that there was an equal amount of jealousy because someone, again I’m not mentioning who because it isn’t that easy, has another book deal on a series of Atlantis based fiction, not all of it science and not all of it suitable for sale in the average bookstore.
However what I presently face is an astounding amount of hostility because I am the tiebreaker in terms of a favorite Atlantis debate. Our esteemed sponsor would occupy an equal position, except he is determined to stay neutral. And by neutral that means letting everyone and anyone, myself included, mouth off while he sits back, nods and sips on an alcoholic drink that he deems appropriate to the location we’re in. Though what whisky sours have to do with the Mediterranean I don’t know.
At the moment we are anchored of Sicily, not nearly as Mafia riddled as you’d think, and what is our core debate? Is it the location of Atlantis based on the literary history? Is it the location of Atlantis based upon cultural similarities? Is it even whether Atlantis fathered a myriad of cultures or whether it was incorporated into existing cultures? No.
Our debate at the moment centers on whether or not Atlantis was a tourist hotspot.
This might not have been ridiculous initially, I think the original idea may have been to debate whether Atlantis was a hub of travel, commercial and intellectual, or simply a convenient port.
I had thought I had come in to the debate late, as everyone was arguing whether or no there were “I Heart Atlantis” t-shirts on sale.
Those in against stated that Atlantis inhabitants, being highly dignified and very intelligent people, would not stoop so low as to market novelty clothing for tourists. Those in favor were adamant that those in Atlantis would simply be humans, and therefore as out to make a cheap buck as anyone else.
As a joke I mentioned that they were probably togas, and then it got really ugly.
So I have found out to my disgust the exact caliber of the people I am working with.
Nutbars.
I only found out that they had been debating this point for half an hour before I entered. I don’t know what started it, I don’t want to know. One thing is for certain, they kept up debating this one point for nine hours. Were we not on a well-stocked boat in the Mediterranean, I might be worried.