Good afternoon, everyone. So much news today! We'll get to the important stuff first: Happy the hippo, who lived his whole life at our own National Zoo before being shipped off to a zoo in Milwaukee, is livin' the dream.

That dream, Michael Ruane reports, involves lady hippos -- two of them:

Patti, about 39, is a widow from Dallas, where she was born. She weighs about 2,600 pounds, and has been a little aggressive with Happy, keepers in Milwaukee say. She will walk up to him quickly in a slightly threatening manner. But she's also curious.

. . . Puddles, 33, shorter and a bit heftier at 2,900 pounds, is the offspring of Pinky and Patti. She was born in Milwaukee. She and Happy seem to have hit it off. They have been seen licking each other, although hippos are also known to lick the floor.

Anyhow, both females are on birth-control medicine at the moment, "so that we didn't have hormones when we do interact them," Dowgwillo said. A few ccs are squirted into their mouths daily. "One less thing we have to deal with," she said.

It's only a matter of time before nature takes its course. Brief, through-the-bars hippo snorgling on display in the video above.

Elsewhere in today's Style section: Lou Dobbs resigns from CNN; Howard Kurtz writes about it. A groundbreaking year at the Country Music Awards: Taylor Swift, 19, becomes the youngest CMA entertainer of the year, while Darius Rucker becomes the first black singer to win a CMA (but he'll always be Hootie to us). Monica Hesse chats with Barbara Kingsolver. And Paul Farhi profiles Karl Swanson, Dan Snyder's top spokesman.

Tip? Sightings? E-mail us: reliablesource@washpost.com. And follow us on Twitter: @ReliableSource.

By The Reliable Source  |  November 12, 2009; 12:38 PM ET
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