I
was at the library today, in the used book section, they were selling their
reference copy of Karl F. Lagler’s Fishes of the Great Lakes. Dr. Lagler was an influential and very well
respected ichthyologist . I was fortunate to have him as a professor.
Dr. Lagler was an extremely interesting and entertaining
individual. I always made sure to sit
within earshot of him on the bus when we went on field trips. He had a ton of great stories. One of my favorites was for some reason or
other, he had applied rotenone to a pond on a farmer’s field. The next day the farmer called and said 12 of
his cows had died. Lagler told him it
couldn’t be because of the rotenone, it was safe, so safe he’d come over and
drink a glass of it. He said he was
sweating bullets as he drove over to the farm, he wasn’t exactly sure what
might happen to him if he was to actually drink the stuff. When he got out of his car at the farm, the
farmer came out and apologized for bothering him. He went on to explain there was a
thunderstorm the previous night, and maybe the cows got struck by lightning. Lagler quickly agreed, got back in his car,
drove home and had a couple of stiff drinks.
