I used to have a plaster model of this gargoyle from Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, but it fell down the stairs and shattered when I was clearing out my desk at the end of my Delta Air Lines career. Seems like that might have been an omen, but I haven't been able to make sense of it. I finally got to see the thing up close last month after waiting in a 2-hour line to climb the cathedral tower. (While in line, I was approached by half a dozen gypsy girls whose gimmick was to ask, "Speak English?" and if you nodded, they'd show you a note written in English asking for money.)

I hadn't noticed before that the gargoyle was female. In the plaster model, you can see the the little hands of whatever is being eaten - they're wrapped around the side of the larger creature's mouth in futile resistance to being consumed.