There are monsters in Montauk! On Tuesday, Gawker posted a photo of this amazing beastie that turned up on a beach in Montauk, New York on some undisclosed day in the recent past (or future):

I’ll agree that this is a strange looking thing. Is it a monster? I’m guessing it’s a dog who’s been bashed around in the ocean a little bit. Gawker, in their infinite insider wisdom, assumed it was viral marketing:

This is an actual monster, some sort of rodent-like creature with a dinosaur beak. A tipster says that there is “a government animal testing facility very close by in Long Island,” but unless the government is trying to design horrible Montauk monsters that will eat IEDs and fart fire at bad Iraqis, we’re not sure why they would create such an unthinkable beast. Our guess is that it’s viral marketing for something.

As I’ve noted before, I am entirely sick of the Internet. Why can’t a monster on a beach just be a monster on a beach? I think my generation, being raised on TV, is somewhat skeptical of ads. The generation below us, or maybe even the generation below that (I lose track of where we are at this point), sees marketing efforts everywhere. I don’t see how it couldn’t affect your view of everyday reality.

Or maybe it’s just Gawker, and by extension, the hip New York media world. I had some good times living in New York, don’t get me wrong. But the “I am not impressed with anything you do” attitude did get to me after awhile. In LA, people at least pretend to be interested in what you do. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I will take fake kindness over real rudeness any day.