HARAM - A Possible Cave Tuna Name Revealed

By L. Berk

It was a cold winter night at Biker's Lake in southeastern
Michigan.  When the four Tunas decided to build a fire and roast
some sodium nitrite, they found some wild four by fours stacked
by the cottage next door. Turns out wild four-by-fours burn
real good. Anyhow, the fire got going good and the four-
by-fours were beginning to glow red hot. Suddenly Toby Tuna
said to the other assembled Tunas, "Look, that log has a
message written on the side." The fire had etched a word which
upon closer inspection clearly read HARAM.

Obviously, such a phenomenon could be an accident or an optical
illusion. "Let's see if the log says anything on the other side,
said Tuna Lynn. They carefully turned the log over and looked
at it very carefully. Sure enough, visible on the heavily
charred surface was the word HARAM. Jeffrey Tuna, who was
a great believer in the scientific method, purposed a further
test, "Let's turn it again," he said thoughtfully. The third
side was beginning to disintegrate but a close and careful
inspection revealed the word HARAM once more.

At this point the four Tunas in question thought that maybe they
were simply projecting the words on the log. Maybe they were
seeing it because they wanted to see something or maybe they were
just really tired. Anyhow, Penny, who doesn't have much truck with
mysticism because she works for the County, suggested that they
examine the fourth and final side. Clearly if they were simply
projecting the word, they would project it on that side, too. But
low and behold, there was no HARAM on the fourth side--conclusive
proof they had indeed seen it on the other three aides (science
never fails). The Tunas puzzled and puzzled over the message,
scratched their heads, and puzzled again. It's meaning was unclear
but significant.

    (Later it was determined that HARAM means "forbidden" in
Arabic, but this appears to be merely a coincidence.)