At 101D today, the clue was “Manatee,” and the answer was SEA COW. The always sunny Lewis noted: For Manatee I threw in “dugong” immediately, which, of course didn’t work. But it got me wondering about dugongs, and during a quick investigation, I learned that they are related to manatees, with the main difference being the tail. The dugong’s is forked (bifurcated), while the manatee’s is paddle-like. Amazingly, dugongs and manatees are more related to elephants than they are to other marine mammals!

Here’s a manatee with its paddle-like tail:

And here’s a dugong:

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Does the name Buddy Sorrell ring a bell? Dig down — it was Morey Amsterdam’s character’s name on The Dick Van Dyke Show. He visited the puzzle today! Remember the classic theme song at the opening of the show with DVD falling over the ottoman (or, later, skirting it)? Check it out:

In an interview on NPR in 2010, Van Dyke revealed that Amsterdam wrote lyrics for the tune which were never used. He sang them. Here they are:

So you think that you’ve got trouble?
Well, trouble’s a bubble
So tell old Mr. Trouble to get lost!

Why not hold your head up high and
Stop cryin’, start tryin’
And don’t forget to keep your fingers crossed.

When you find the joy of livin’
Is lovin’ and givin’
You’ll be there when the winning dice are tossed.

A smile is just a frown that’s turned upside down
So smile, and that frown will defrost.

And don’t forget to keep your fingers crossed

Amsterdam was his real last name. His first name was Moritz. He was so quick at churning out jokes that he became known as the “human joke machine.” He sometimes performed with a mock machine on his chest, hanging by a strap. He turned a crank and paper rolled out; he would then pretend to read the machine’s joke, although actually the paper was blank. He was also an accomplished cellist, and very knowledgeable on the Bible.

He was born in Chicago on 12/14/1908, and died in LA at age 87 on 10/28/1996. He said his neighborhood in Beverly Hills was so exclusive that even the police had an unlisted number. He was married for twelve years (’33 – ’45) to actress Mabel Todd, and was married to Kay Patrick from 1949 until his death did them part. He had two kids with Kay, a son Gregory and a daughter Cathy.

His character on the DVD show was one of the few openly Jewish TV characters of the era. One episode centered on his adult Bar-Mitzvah. I remember it and it was wonderful. Carl Reiner, who created the show, said Amsterdam’s character was based on Mel Brooks.

Here’s one of his lines: According to statistics, a man eats a prune every twenty seconds. I don’t know who this fellow is, but I know where to find him.

This is the first time I recall him appearing in a puzzle. Please pop by again soon, Buddy — We love you!

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If you’re at all like me, you leaped out of your seat while watching the horrific events of Jan. 6 and shouted, “OMG, I think that’s Logan James Barnhart, 41, of Holt, Michigan, participating in the mayhem (or, more accurately, the januaryhem)!”

Barnhart, of course, is the male model who has been on the cover of numerous romance novels, including Owl Chatter fave: Stepbrother UnSEALed: A Bad Boy Military Romance. Barnhart was sentenced to 36 months in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers with a dangerous weapon.

Et tu, Barnhart?  

“The way I was acting seems so foreign to me,” Barnhart told the U.S. district judge, Rudolph Contreras, in what seems like a pretty dopey exculpatory statement. But the feeling here is that Barnhart was not put on this planet for his brains.

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And, speaking of a lack of brains, the NYT reported today that thieves broke into a truck parked at a Walmart in Philadelphia and made off with $200,000 in cash. The only problem is it was made up entirely of dimes. The truck was transporting the dimes from the U.S. Mint in Philly to Florida. There were ten thieves, and they made off with roughly two million dimes, weighing five tons.

Officer Miguel Torres, a spokescop for the Philly police wondered how the robbers would be able to spend the money. That’s a damn good question Torres. You’ve got a bright future ahead of you.

Aaron J. Chalfin, a professor of criminology at U. Penn, intent on revealing himself to be an idiot, said: “Millions of dimes is a lot of money, so it doesn’t seem so silly.” It doesn’t? What the f**k planet are you living on?

Cops arriving on the scene found thousands of dimes scattered on the parking lot ground. Owl Chatter photographers, of course, were on the spot as well. Here’s a close-up shot they managed to capture before the cops sealed off the area.

The article in today’s NYT ended with (and I’m not kidding):

As the department continues its investigation, Officer Torres offered some advice to those possibly harboring stuffed piggy banks. “If for some reason you have a lot of dimes at home,” he said, “this is probably not the time to cash them in.”

Yup. Right on target again, Torres.

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Looking back: Did you ever catch the wind? Not everyone does. You have to be very lucky. Very very lucky. And if you manage it — don’t let go.

When sundown pales the sky
I want to hide a while behind your smile
And everywhere I’d look, your eyes I’d find.

Here’s Donovan’s song. It’s held up over the years, for sure. The owls are sending it out tonight to friends Hank and Judy, who are in our thoughts, and who got very very lucky, many years ago, and held on.

See you tomorrow.