Snooty immortalized in NPR game show’s quiz question

On Sunday, a week after the announcement of his tragic death, people were coming to the South Florida Museum to pay their respects to Snooty the manatee, who died at age 69.

It seems Snooty is far from forgotten.

In fact, this past week was eventful in the shaping of Snooty’s enduring legacy, which now includes a mention on National Public Radio.

This past week, museum officials announced they would seek a third party to investigate Snooty’s death by drowning after he got stuck in a life-support area.

Also, a petition gained steam throughout the week to replace the Confederate monument in front of the Manatee County Historic Courthouse with a statue of the 1,300 pound manatee himself.

But, perhaps, no other occurrence cemented itself more onto Snooty’s legacy and mythology than a mention Saturday on NPR’s popular hour-long weekly radio news panel game show, “Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me!”

As Manatee County’s NPR regulars know, during the “Lightning Fill in the Blank” segment host Peter Sagal gives each of his players 60 seconds to answer as many fill-in-the-blank questions as they can.

During player Roxanne Roberts’ turn, Sagal asked her: “In a sign that a community can come together and move on, a petition in Florida is calling for a Confederate statue to be replaced by ‘blank.’”

“Snooty the manatee,” Roberts responded correctly as a national audience listened.

“Yes, a statue of Snooty the manatee,” Sagal said.

NPR mention a tribute to Bradenton

Most human listeners only dream about having a mention on a national stage, but Snooty not only got mentioned but also was a quiz answer, quite a tribute for him and Bradenton, said Stephanie Springer who pushed her son Kai, 3, in a stroller shortly after noon on Sunday as they headed to the tank in the museum’s Parker Aquarium where three manatees are rehabilitating in the place where Snooty used to reign supreme.

“It’s such a tribute to how much Snooty meant to Bradenton,” said Springer, an NPR fan herself who heard the segment from the show after it was broadcast. “He was known all around the world because he was the oldest manatee in captivity.”

“It’s so sad,” Springer added. “It was a really unfortunate accident. He had a good life. We’re going to miss him.”

Springer’s signature is one of the 11,874 as of Sunday on a Change.org petition created by Anthony Pusateri to replace the 93-year-old Confederate obelisk outside the Manatee County Historic Courthouse.

In his petition, Pusateri wrote, “Snooty the manatee has been a symbol of Bradenton ... for almost 70 years. To honor Snooty’s legacy as a positive icon in Bradenton, I propose that the negative symbol of racism and oppression that is the Confederate monument be relocated and replaced with a statue of Snooty.”

Springer said she signed the petition because she thinks it will bring people together rather than separate them.

“I hope the mayor considers replacing the Confederate statue with a statue of Snooty,” Springer said. “Honestly, I think Snooty really brought the city together much more so than any Confederate monument could, so I think it’s a nice way to move forward and think about more recent history.”

According to county officials, Manatee County commissioners will have the final say if a change is considered in the Confederate statue’s location.

This story was originally published July 30, 2017 at 4:19 PM with the headline "Snooty immortalized in NPR game show’s quiz question."