Living Information

2003-05-15

[Lead-In]

1. A popular New York has had a makeover: an eye job, a nose fix and a belly button pierce. The only catch is this creature is 30 meters long. CNN's Jeanne Moos has this whale of a tale.

[Story]

2. Name the creature who's recently undergone a nose job, an eye job, a tail tuck and a belly button surgery?

a. Michael Jackson
b. Joan Rivers
c. The blue whale

The answer is c. the blue whale.

"It has a belly button?"

Now it does.

3. The blue whale is perhaps the most beloved occupant of the American Museum of Natural History. Sure, there are more famous whales from Baby Shamoo, to the whale that swallowed Pinocchio, to the star of "Free Willy".

"Go Willy! Go!"

But the blue whale isn't going anywhere. She's been bolted to the ceiling of the museum for over 30 years.

4. When the Hall of Oceans underwent a major renovation, so did the blue whale. There was a problem with her blowhole.

"Singularly lacking in any anatomical detail. It was basically just a hole punched on the top of the head."

Not any more, now she has two nostrils and a sort of a lip.

She also needed an eye job.

"...had huge goggly bulging eyes."

5. Perhaps because she was modeled after a dead whale, a carcass. Her eyelift was done in place. Her new eyes are more streamlined. She also had her tail tucked and a paint job. She even has her own billboard in Time Square. Since whales are mammal, she should've had a belly button. But since it was inexplicably missing, they added one: an innie as opposed to an outie.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.