Dolphins are mammals and don't spawn - who knew?


There's some kind of dolphin convergence going on in Napa this week. In my Google News Alert, I saw these two headlines:

Dolphin spotted in Napa, CA river
Former Dolphin spotted in Napa

Story one is about appearance of one or more harbor porpoises in the river in the center of town, a good 3 or 4 miles inland from the Bay. I don't recall ever hearing about any porpoises in the Napa River before, although we do get the occasional sea lion, lots of yachts, and a dead body now and then.

Story two is from the sports page, and something to do with somebody named Russell who plays football. The Oakland Raiders have their summer training camp in Napa, so that means for a couple of weeks each year we get a lot of sports media, silver and black looky-loos, and a dead body now and then.

Having a porpoise in the river has gotten a lot of people excited. The Napa Valley Register even embedded some video on their site, which I believe is a first for them. The line between print and broadcast media fades a little more.

Here's your homework assignment: follow this link to the Register story on the porpoise, read the comments below the story (and start from the bottom so you get the right sequence) and see if you can figure out which two comments are the ones I wrote. Ready? Begin.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I suspect you are the Naturalist ... in the ballroom with the lead pipe?
Please also note that Daunte Culpepper was a Viking before he was a Dolphin, in a true case of evolution run amok ...
Elizabeth
August 6, 2007 at 4:16 PM
Barry Martin said…
OK, Elizabeth, you win the prize for correctly identifying me as "The Naturalist." Your prize is one month of free parking in any downtown Napa municipal garage. Congratulations!
August 6, 2007 at 5:35 PM
DodgerScott said…
Oh, I was going to guess "The Naturalist" too. But I thought you did it with the candlestick in the library.

Barry, tell me you didn't think of our April Fools joke when you read the story in the Register. Can you imagine me reading this story on the news? Nobody would believe me. Well, except that one woman who grabbed her lawn chairs, pulled her kids out of school and got the best spot on the First Street Bridge!
August 21, 2007 at 9:11 AM
Barry Martin said…
Yes, I most definitely was flashing back on April Fools Day and the prank story on how the "dolphins from Marine World will perform today for free in the Napa River." That woman who took her kids out of school was not too happy with us. I'm sure she laughs about it now, right? I know I still do.
August 22, 2007 at 12:32 PM
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