It’s World Croc Day

As promised in our National Alligator Day post — an entirely separate one on crocodiles. Because we are crazy in just that way! This one will be very brief in comparison with the alligator post, and the why of it should not be mysterious. Gators are American (the American ones, that is; there’s also a Chinese species), whereas crocs are found on every continent except Europe and Antarctica. The only place where the two species coexist naturally is Florida, because of course! Anyway: here are some notable pop culture crocodiles:

French tennis champ René Lacoste (1904-1996) was known as “The Crocodile” after he bet someone his crocodile skin bag that he would win a match, and he did. It became his emblem, and was sewn onto all his clothes. In 1929 he created the Lacoste shirt, although the brand, with the distinctive crocodile logo over the left breast, was introduced in 1933. Izod began manufacturing the product in the 1950s. I was in junior high school and high school in the late ’70s and early ’80s when these shirts were at the peak of fashion. Growing up across the bay from Newport, Rhode Island, this preppy thing raged like a house afire. I fought it for as long as I could, but yes, I have been guilty of wearing them. Although, in our ignorance we called them “alligator” shirts, not realizing that the little guy was a crocodile. I have perhaps been doing too much thinking about it if I observe that Napoleon conquered Egypt, so of course the French would be more apt to latch onto a crocodile than an alligator.

Tick Tock was the terror of Captain Hook in Walt Disney’s Peter Pan (1953).

Bernard Waber’s children’s book character Lyle the Crocodile was introduced in 1962. It is now a movie series as well.

Charles Nelson Reilly played Uncle Croc on the 1975 kids show I wrote about here.

Crocs, the plastic (and thus amphibious) clog/sandal/shoe thingy arrived in 2002, just in time to be the preferred foot apparel of my children. Which is the most basic sentence I will ever utter, apart from the one about my wearing Izod shirts in high school.

Burt the Crocodile, animal co-star of the surprise 1986 hit Crocodile Dundee and its sequels, died back in December, which is in fact what gave me the very idea for this oh so brilliant blogpost. Burt (named after Burt Reynolds — but didn’t they know he was GATOR?) was 94 at the time of his passing, and living at a croc sanctuary in his native Darwin, Australia. The titular Crocodile of the films was of course a man, played by the droll Paul Hogan.