When he got into the business 31 years ago, Bush tied himself to his monkey every night for three weeks. His wife would say goodnight and shut him in the family room and turn up the volume on the television.

"Look, this is the real McCoy here, pal, just me and you," Bush would say to the monkey, a white-faced capuchin named George.

Then the monkey would holler at Bush and Bush would holler at the monkey until they were both so exhausted that they passed out. After three weeks they started to develop a mutual understanding.

The wife left him, and Bush and George performed together for 15 years. When George died, Bush didn't want to pay top dollar for taxidermy, so he had George freeze-dried and set him on a shelf in the study, where he still sits today, paws extended in midair. That, as Bush would say, is another story.

When a frog bites off more than it can chew, it has an advantage over a human who does the same: Frogs can pull in their eyes through the roofs of their mouths to help push the food down their throats.

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