I can't find my crocodile!

There is this new thing on Facebook where you are supposed to replace your profile picture, which might look like this:

with a picture of your favorite cartoon character from when you were a kid, which might look something like this:


The point is to show support for violence against children. Or to not show support for violence against children. Or something having to do with beating up kids. I don't know ... I'm sure it's a good cause.

As I was looking for a picture of my favorite character, I was beginning to think that he never existed. That I may in fact be a wee bit senile. It's my fault for not eating fish when I was a kid ... I know that now. I didn't realize that Omega 3 fatty acids were so important that I wouldn't be able to remember cartoon characters properly when I was older if I failed to eat my fish sticks. Now I have to come to terms with the devastating consequences of my mal-nutrition.

Here's how I remembered him: He was an alligator or a crocodile that had a strong resemblance to Alfred Hitchcock. His chest was sort of puffed out, and he took a deep breath before he began speaking. I believe he wore a tie. He was not the main character in the cartoon, but more like a recurring guest star.

Does that sound familiar? No? Ya, I thought not. I did Google image searches on "Alligator Cartoon", "Loony Tunes Crocodile", "Crocodile Alfred Hitchcock", etc .. and I had no luck whatsoever. I found Wally Gator, but that's not the guy.

On my Google Image journey I found endless amounts of other stuff, like this:
and this:

and this:

and even this:

But no Alfred Hitchcock Crocodile. I almost gave up when I realized that I had not done a search on "Alfred Hitchcock alligator". HA! There he is! Alfy Gator! I'm not insane!


He couldn't have been too popular. Even a Google image search of "Alfy Gator" only turns up about a dozen images of him, along with hundreds of unrelated pictures including (unsurprisingly) cheerleaders. He does not even have a Wikipedia page. The Yakky Doodle Wiki page refers to him as a "secondary villain". A YouTube search turns up nothing.

I am sure I could look up Hanna Barbera cartoons on YouTube and find videos with Alfy in them, but I'm not sure I want to. I remember seeing part of The Dark Crystal again as an adult and thinking This is crap! Why on Earth was I so infactuated with this movie as a kid? I would hate to have the same experience with Alfy. I think instead I may just leave my fond but fractured memories alone. Although I can't remember the names of the people that I had dinner with last night at the Christmas party, at least I know that I'm not making up memories of cartoon characters in my brain.

Jon's great adventure

Jon Montgomery, Manitoba's own beer swilling Olympic gold medalist, had a good summer. He was flown all over the world by companies that wanted him to give a motivational talk to their employees, or cut a ribbon, or pose for a picture; and in the process he swam with great white sharks, golfed with Retief Goosen, travelled to Africa with Right To Play, and got engaged to his girlfriend Darla while vacationing on a tropical island.


He did more in one summer than I have in all of my summers combined. Somewhere in that whirlwind "off" season he cobbled together six days to film a television pilot for the Discovery Channel: Best. Trip. Ever. Here's a preview:



Go to the website to view bonus video and other features, but more importantly set your PVR to the Discovery Channel, Saturday at 6:00 pm ... because I know the kind of people who read this blog have way too much going on Saturday nights to watch TV.

(also on at 10:00 PM, according to the Discovery schedule.)