Can I blame it on the red tide?

Yes.

Whatever it is, I am completely comfortable with having you blame it on the red tide.

When we were in Florida last week, we learned that the red tide is a perfectly acceptable scapegoat phenomenon.

Have a cough? Red tide! Pile of dead stuff on the beach? Red tide! Feeling generally kinda gritty? Red tide!

Go ahead.

I don’t think much of anything can be more sinister than an algae bloom caused by an organism that’s name is literally “whirling scourge.” It is begging to be blamed for everything.

[Even though the musical dancing algae link is broken on the Scientific American article, Fernando Gómez is keeping the concept alive on youtube. All microbe videos should have a lounge soundtrack, I think.]