Remember Paul the octopus who could accurately predict the winners of World Cup games? Paul's dead now, but his gift lives on through a camel in New Jersey.
Princess, a Bactrian camel in a New Jersey zoo, picks Super Bowl winners. She's nailed five of the last six Lombardi trophy winners and she went 14-6 in the regular season.
Here's how the majestic two-humped beast works her magic: John Bergmann, the Zoo's general manager, presents her with two crackers; each one with a team's name written on it. In this case, of course, the crackers represented the Giants and Patriots. The cracker she eats first represents her pick.
On Wednesday (drum roll) … she scarfed down the Giants cracker.
A New Jersey resident favoring the Giants ‒ I can hear you now. You suspect hometown bias. I assure you that's unlikely, because the Bactrian camel is native to the deserts of central Asia. Also, we're talking about a camel here, so just calm down.
Princess doesn't pick against the spread (sorry, it's Mongolian custom) which only makes her pick that much bolder. Vegas currently has the Giants as three-point underdogs. Princess like them to win outright.
Also of note is that Princess once belonged to Doris Duke, who, according to Wikipedia, is someone I probably should've heard of. Doris was the daughter of James Buchanan Duke, who probably did something else noteworthy, but is only mentioned here as a man wealthy enough to buy his daughter a camel native to remote desert regions of Mongolia.
Oh, Princess. She once lived a lavish lifestyle with the rich and famous, and now she's back in New Jersey, picking winners. She's like the Sam "Ace" Rothstein of camels.