Banff Merman

 It's amazing that here we are, halfway through September, and I still have material from my June trips that I haven't posted. I'll give myself credit for devoting so much time to writing; it may be an excuse, but I'll take what I can get. We watched the Calgary Stampeders game on Saturday (I need to post on that as well, and how we barely, and heroically, survived), but because of a scheduling glitch we had all day Sunday to kill before heading back to Edmonton that night. Kevin suggested that we head up into the Canada Rockies to Banff, which led me to reply: You mean to see the Merman, right? Kevin, inexplicably, knew nothing about the Banff Merman. We tracked him down in the Banff Trading Post, and he was worth the trip. And, oh, the Merman swag that I brought home . . .

OK, so he's clearly a paper mache head glued on to a preserved fish, but he's still in the Cryptozoology Hall of Fame.

His origins, at least in this world, are murky, and he made the rounds of countless county fairs over the years, until the owner of the Banff Trading Post purchased him and gave him a good home.