Floating feet

“Why,” asks the Globe and Mail, “are newshounds around the world so enraptured by a grim West Coast story about human flotsam?”

OK, it’s a rhetorical question — every reporter and reader knows it’s an engaging story; the fact that it’s engaging is why the Globe devotes yet more ink to a story about the coverage — which the Globe well knows.

But let’s bite anyway: why?

Because almost all people like mysteries? Because the feet suggest drama both sad and macabre? Because the tale causes shivers up the spine? Because it’s already the summer silly season?