Sea-Monkeys Swim To Holiday
Eric Johnson
May 16, 2006
You can question the economic viability of my English degree all you want (and trust me ? my family frequently does), but I?d put my Inbox up against anyone?s when it comes to interesting and unusual correspondence.
Anyone, after all, can receive Viagra promotions or chain letters, but how often does anyone you know get an email from a woman whose boss is in Hong Kong on Sea-Monkey business?
That?s right. Sea-Monkey business.
For those of you who don?t have the date circled on your calendar, May 16th is National Sea-Monkey Day, and while I can?t honestly say George Atamian, President and Chief Operating Officer of the Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys, is in Hong Kong to celebrate the holiday ? the demands of international commerce prevented him from replying to my forwarded email in time for this article ? one person I KNOW is celebrating is Susan Barclay, a.k.a. ?The Sea-Monkey Lady.?
Barclay runs the Sea Monkey Worship Page, and as you can probably guess, she?s REALLY into Sea-Monkeys. She?s so ga-ga over them, in fact, she?s even written a book about the little guys: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SEA-MONKEYS, a 178-page tome complete with a Dungeons and Dragons-type role playing game.
So, just what are Sea-Monkeys and why do they inspire such devotion?
Well, the simple answer is they?re a kind of brine shrimp, and while they don?t exactly resemble the pictures used to advertise them (they don?t, for example, wear crowns and mug for the camera) they?re nonetheless adorable creatures with a seemingly endless ability to fascinate both young and old alike.
The brainchild of inventor Harold von Braunhut, the man responsible for such kitsch as Crazy Crabs, Amazing Hair-Raising Monsters and those ever-popular X-Ray Spex, Sea-Monkey ads have been a comic book/kids magazine staple since the 60s, when doubtful department stores and the high cost of television commercials forced von Braunhut to take his amazing creatures directly to the people.
You can imagine how satisfying he must have found it when his Sea-Monkeys got their own CBS sitcom back in 1992.
Why brine shrimp? Basically, it?s because their eggs can be shipped and stored without any special needs, making them a just-add-water form of life.
Actually, it?s not QUITE that easy, but von Braunhut took the natural characteristics of these brine shrimp, mainly the cryptobiosis that allows the eggs to hang around until conditions are right for birth, and figured out a way to keep them alive in the average home.
Not only can they live in the average home, they can live in space as well. In 1998, students at Fort Couch Middle School in Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania earned the right to add Sea-Monkey eggs to the payload of STS 95, subjecting "Artemia Nyos" to weightlessness, radiation and all the hype surrounding John Glenn?s return to space.
By all accounts, the Sea-Monkeys thrived.
As for celebrating National Sea-Monkey Day, the Sea Monkey Lady suggests a meal of baby shrimp Sunomono salad followed by pistachio-crusted pork scaloppini with mango shrimp, a banana strawberry smoothie and fried bananas almandine. Add some Sea-Monkey party hats and party favors and you?ll be all set.
Just keep your curtains closed. Sadly, your neighbors might not understand.
Anyone, after all, can receive Viagra promotions or chain letters, but how often does anyone you know get an email from a woman whose boss is in Hong Kong on Sea-Monkey business?
That?s right. Sea-Monkey business.
For those of you who don?t have the date circled on your calendar, May 16th is National Sea-Monkey Day, and while I can?t honestly say George Atamian, President and Chief Operating Officer of the Amazing Live Sea-Monkeys, is in Hong Kong to celebrate the holiday ? the demands of international commerce prevented him from replying to my forwarded email in time for this article ? one person I KNOW is celebrating is Susan Barclay, a.k.a. ?The Sea-Monkey Lady.?
Barclay runs the Sea Monkey Worship Page, and as you can probably guess, she?s REALLY into Sea-Monkeys. She?s so ga-ga over them, in fact, she?s even written a book about the little guys: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SEA-MONKEYS, a 178-page tome complete with a Dungeons and Dragons-type role playing game.
So, just what are Sea-Monkeys and why do they inspire such devotion?
Well, the simple answer is they?re a kind of brine shrimp, and while they don?t exactly resemble the pictures used to advertise them (they don?t, for example, wear crowns and mug for the camera) they?re nonetheless adorable creatures with a seemingly endless ability to fascinate both young and old alike.
The brainchild of inventor Harold von Braunhut, the man responsible for such kitsch as Crazy Crabs, Amazing Hair-Raising Monsters and those ever-popular X-Ray Spex, Sea-Monkey ads have been a comic book/kids magazine staple since the 60s, when doubtful department stores and the high cost of television commercials forced von Braunhut to take his amazing creatures directly to the people.
You can imagine how satisfying he must have found it when his Sea-Monkeys got their own CBS sitcom back in 1992.
Why brine shrimp? Basically, it?s because their eggs can be shipped and stored without any special needs, making them a just-add-water form of life.
Actually, it?s not QUITE that easy, but von Braunhut took the natural characteristics of these brine shrimp, mainly the cryptobiosis that allows the eggs to hang around until conditions are right for birth, and figured out a way to keep them alive in the average home.
Not only can they live in the average home, they can live in space as well. In 1998, students at Fort Couch Middle School in Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania earned the right to add Sea-Monkey eggs to the payload of STS 95, subjecting "Artemia Nyos" to weightlessness, radiation and all the hype surrounding John Glenn?s return to space.
By all accounts, the Sea-Monkeys thrived.
As for celebrating National Sea-Monkey Day, the Sea Monkey Lady suggests a meal of baby shrimp Sunomono salad followed by pistachio-crusted pork scaloppini with mango shrimp, a banana strawberry smoothie and fried bananas almandine. Add some Sea-Monkey party hats and party favors and you?ll be all set.
Just keep your curtains closed. Sadly, your neighbors might not understand.
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