The Sh*t L*st

Surfed yesterday morning. Experienced first-hand the latest scum epidemic plaguing the San Diego shoreline. It's a heavy white froth -- presumably harmless -- that gathers at the waterline like the head on a Guinness. In the line-up, usually after a set wave, it's sometimes thick enough to skim off the surface and make a Santa beard with. I mentioned it to a biologist friend of mine at poker last night. She supposed it was the corpses of microorganisms -- the death rattle of the red tide that had been out in the waters the last few weeks.