Fish Story

City editors know from experience that the rewrite battery is apt to get lyrical during the summer silly season. Last week the New York Daily News's Leonard Smith, face to face with a fish story, let himself go for a half-column. Samples:

"When fishing history is writ, leave room for Edward Snow, who thought he caught a fish of 20 million years ago. . . .

"It was something from a nightmare with an ugly gaping mouth, and had no fins, like other fish, for swimming north and south; this four-foot thing used two long arms to push it 'round the ocean, and (we presume) to wash its face whene'er it had the notion. . . ."

It was "a Lophius Piscatorius, sometimes known as the sea goose, and anyone who thinks they're rare has screws a trifle loose."

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