Harbor Park Harry

I confess I haven't been monitoring all of the media buzz, so the first name I've seen given to the Menace of Machado Lake comes from Dan Glaister, L.A. correspondent for The Guardian. Leave it to the Brits. His scene story today informs the U.K. audience that the alligator-slash-caiman is "Harbor Park Harry."

By the weekend, crowds of spectators had hunkered down at the park, equipped with folding chairs, binoculars and mountains of provisions, prepared to sit out the wait for the "Monster of Machado Lake", as the Daily Breeze helpfully labelled the beast.

In the absence of specialised big beast teams, locals took matters into their own hands. Jam doughnuts, French bread and wheat tortillas were thrown into the water in an attempt to get the reluctant reptile to at least surface and perhaps even to give itself up.

Park rangers had a better idea: they tied a raw chicken to a soft drinks bottle and plopped it over the side of a boat. If the beast took the bait, they said, they would throw a net over it and drag it to shore.

Well we know how that went. Spooked reptiles apparently prefer their chickens live (or perhaps sauteed with garlic.) Also: Hoy covers the Monstruo del Lago Machado in Spanish.

Busy month so far for Glaister. As the Guardian's man on the Coast, he has also filed in August on the new Getty chief, Snoop Dogg, the 9/11 film by director Paul Greengrass, LACMA, The Clonus Horror-Island dispute, the Watts riot, the death of Barbara Bel Geddes, drugs in the 'burbs, the Marilyn Monroe tapes, farm laborers and the Hollywood box office chill.