In an all-luring story that has rocked the boat of the sports fishing  industry, federal investigators, after years of infiltrating the deepest pockets of the business, were caught in a dragnet of controversy.

After spending millions of pounds/yuan/dollars in coordinating with international police authorities, our national team of crack crimestoppers, unwilling to let any criminal activity go unpunished, no matter how insignificant its effect on our general economy, finally revealed the information that freedom fighters have been requesting for decades.

Apparently, sponsors of major fishing tournament winners have long been paying locals to catch, raise and fatten prize fish, then releasing them just in time into secret spots that sponsors then suggested to their celebrity sports fishermen to call their own, thus ensuring their sponsorship money was not wasted and their winners won.

The shock that has rippled through the stream of the sport has turned many of the most diehard fans into temporary doubters, wondering if all that talk about the best bait and the most expensive, yet successful, fishing gear — including boats, sonar equipment, beer kegs and excuses to get away from family in order to catch edible foodstuff — has been in vain.

County, state and federal subcommittees have been called into emergency session to question fish and wildlife employees about fishery and hatchery practices.  Have they been reporting dead fish that were actually sold to locals?  Are they eating fish they killed and claimed as losses?  Are the stuffed and mounted fish on their trophy walls victims of “spoilage” reports filed in dusty government storage boxes?  How far up the government ladder does this go?  Did this cause the housing crisis in some obscure way that gets financial investment companies off the hook?

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Quote for the day:

I hate to break it to you, but your $2,000 designer dog is a mutt.  Puppy stores and breeders have created these cute names like Morkipoos and Puggles, and now people are paying $2,000 for a dog they couldn’t give away at the pound ten years ago.  Whoever started the trend is a marketing genius.” — Dennis Leon, DVM (courtesy of Readers Digest, May 2012 issue)

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Bonus puzzle of the day: I have a fellow secondary school alumnus who is a local state representative.  I have a fellow secondary schoolmate, an employee of a local newspaper, who endorsed a rival candidate running against the state representative.  One, should that affect my mental thought set about the two of them as friends/classmates?  Two, should newspaper (or any mass media) employees publicly endorse political candidates and if so, should they have to make it clear they speak for themselves and not the mass media company that employs them?