Death’s repeated attempts to claim Dick Van Dyke via grisly ottomen-trippings never panned out, and now the actor lives another day thanks to porpoise interjection. The Chitty Chitty Bang Bang star fell asleep on his surfboard recently. When he awoke, land was nowhere in sight. The 84-year old began paddling inward with the swells when he was suddenly surrounded by fins.

He’d figured he was done for, but it turned out that the fins belonged to a pod of porpoises. The heroic cetaceans then pushed him in to shore. Van Dyke recounted this tale with the note, “I’m not kidding.” Wow. This is even more amazing than that time that Sarah Jessica Parker was raised by horses. Who knew that Aquaman was such a fan of “Diagnosis Murder?” (Guardian)