Brett (lizard boy), George, Me, Bryna
So, I met George Atamian, the current reigning King of Sea Monkeys, well, the COO of the Sea Monkey division of Educational Insights at any rate.
I contacted George when I first started this blog and I expected a cordial businessman, hopefully one who would send the oddly obsessed Sea Monkey blogger a few free toys to blog about. George turned out to be one of the friendliest, most vibrant and warm people you're likely to meet. He laughed loudly and promised to send me a box of Sea Monkey goodies, which he did. He told me to look him up if I ever made it down to LA and he started introducing me via e-mail to all the other Sea Monkey obsessives he knew.
When I'm not blogging about Sea Monkeys I am
a comedian and as such I do in fact head down to LA quite often. My buddy Brett and I had been looking forward to eating bugs at a Thai Restaurant down there with all kinds of creepy crawlies on their menu. George didn't sound to enthusiastic about the bugs but he and his son did agree to meet Bryna (my fiancee) and I at Torung; a great non-bug cooking Thai Restaurant in Hollywood.
George and George Junior piled hot peppers on their food, sweated accordingly, and gave us a quick run down of their life stories thus far. Junior is a set dresser for films and tv shows. George is an astronomer who invented a unique aquatic microscope. The Sea Monkey folks contacted him, excited about this microscope which seemed the ideal way to view their miniature aquatic pets. The rest, as they say, is history.
I invited the Georges to see Brett's collection of reptiles (my buddy is
The World Famous Lizard Boy.) As we walked through the west Hollywood neighborhood we had to stop repeatedly as George was amazed by the architecture, the palm trees, the cool posters on the telephone poles.
Brett's lizards thrilled him and when I told Brett that George was an astrologist, he snapped "ASTRONOMIST" so swiftly I had to check my pulse to make sure I was still amongst the living. Then the big smile, "Ha ha, astrologist. Get out of here, astrologist, HA!"
It was awesome to meet Mr. Sea Monkey and to see that Sea Monkeys are in such great hands (for now at least.) I hope to hear more of George's great stories of traveling the world as an ambassador of instant pets.
You may recall our discovery a while back that a Mexican company was selling a Sea Monkey knock off called Gluppy's. Click here for that story. The Gluppy's folks seemed to have gotten as far as negotiating a deal with McDonalds.
One interesting feature of "Sea Dragons" is that they have little pals available! "Teeny Weeny Winkles" (please punish whoever named these guys) are little purple snails that are marketed as perfect tank mates for "Sea Dragons." Hmmm. I would love to have some little purple snails in my Sea Monkey tanks. I hope to experiment with some reef snails from my local aquarium shop soon.
