Nessie’s starring role

The Loch Ness monster was born not in Scotland, said Daniel Loxton, but in Hollywood.

OF ALL THE “real” monsters that stir the Western imagination, there are few so romantic as the Loch Ness monster. I’m not even slightly immune to that romance. My love affair with Nessie blossomed early and strongly. What could be more wonderful than the idea that a living plesiosaur might slide undetected through the frigid waters of a Scottish lake?

I studied the famous cases, marveled at the amazing photographs of arching necks and underwater flippers, and absorbed the standard arguments. “Loch Ness is connected to the sea through underwater tunnels,” I told my classmates at recess. (I was unaware that the surface of Loch Ness is more than 50 feet above sea level.) “Do you know why Nessie wasn’t reported until 1933?” I asked on the playground. “Because that’s when they finally built the road beside the loch!” (I now know that the road predates Nessie by more than a century.)

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