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Jan Olinger, CPE.

Electrolysis. Hair Removal.

Victoria * 9852-443-2479

Catholic United Financial

Carol Lindner 952-657-2210

I learned last month, through online news, that scientists discovered a species of ancient predatory fish that lived 375 million years ago in North American waterways. That number has six zeroes and looks like this: 375,000,000.

I learned that this time period is often described as the Age of Fishes because of the variety of aquatic fish that populated the earth's waters at that time. This wasn't a dog-eat-dog kind of world; it was a fish-eat-fish kind of world and the biggest and strongest survived.

I learned that the name of the new fish is Laccognathus Embry which, in my opinion, could just as easily been named Bullfish or Toadface or something else easier to pronounce. Oh, well.

I learned that the fish probably grew to be five or six feet long, had a wide head with small eyes and robust jaws with large piercing teeth. It had thick, quarter-size scales and a wide mouth. Okay, they could have named it Fathead or Toothy.

Alas, it was named after a Canadian geologist (Ashton Embry) whose Arctic research was part of the fieldwork. The big "L" word is nomenclature for a genus of fish. Remember Biology 101?

Such a fish might have been caught on that unusually big hook that I hid in the October issue of the Gazette (on page 33 in the big pumpkin that was part of the Arboretum's decor) if fishhooks or people with fishing poles had existed 375 million years ago. As it is, the big hook threw many of today's people for a loop. Seems those ghouls and goblins played a trick on you this fall.

But Linda Erickson of Chaska wasn't fooled and so she was swimming around in my minnow bucket -- with a few others -- until I pulled her out to win this monthly drawing for $10. Congratulations, Linda. It's too late to spend it on candy for your trick or treaters, but if sweets are your cup of tea, ten dollars can buy quite a few chocolate kisses for yourself.

There's another fishhook hidden in this issue of the Gazette. What size is it? You won't know until you find it. If you do, email Sue@VictoriaGazette.com, telling of its location or drop a line to P.O. Box 387 in Victoria, MN 55386 and sinker in the mail. I'm afraid it's still the Age of Aquarius.