To play "Handshark": Flatten out one hand, fingers held tightly together, and submerge arm and wrist and palm, so that only the fingers are showing above water, forming a handshark fin. Then run this through the water while humming the theme from ''Jaws.'' When you get within range of a victim -- or another handshark -- you shout ''Handshark!'' and pounce, trying to grab your target's arm.

• If you manage to get a good hold, you win. If you miss entirely, you lose.
• If your opponent grabs back and you wind up grasping hands, it's a draw.

It's a silly game, but an entertaining thing to do at the beach.

For those who somehow stumbled in here by accident -- hi! I'm Lawrence Watt-Evans. I'm the author of more than two dozen novels and around a hundred short stories, as well as innumerable articles, comic scripts, poems, and other miscellany. This is my personal website, the Misenchanted Page; the name is a reference to my bestselling novel The Misenchanted Sword.

2/7/05:1202

Latest update: April 1, 2008: HTML Version 1.1
Original report: August-September 1997
First HTML Version: November 23, 1997
Moved to this URL February 7, 2005
An adjunct to the trip report of our Kentucky vacation, 1997.