Robbers broke into TV host Mark Morrone’s Parrots of the World pet store and stole $58,000 worth of parrots, including African Greys, Cockatoos, and a Toucan:

Brazen, cage-toting burglars smashed through the rear window of a Rockville Centre pet store early yesterday and made off with 45 exotic birds, worth a total of $58,000, police and the store’s owner said yesterday.

Marc Morrone, the “pet-keeper” for “The Martha Stewart Show,” who has owned Parrots of the World on Sunrise Highway since 1978, told the Daily News the early morning heist was not the work of bird-brained thieves. […]

The bandits stole 20 African Grey parrots, 20 Blue-Faced Amazon parrots, 4 Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and one toucan. The birds retail for $1,200 each.

“This is a terrible tragedy,” Morrone said. “They hurt me emotionally. It’s a personal violation.”

More than his financial loss, Morrone said, he’s worried about the safety of his birds.

Mark Morrone has done so much for animal welfare and education and its such a shame that he was targeted like this.

Here’s a video from YouTube to show you what the store’s bird room looks like and how many birds are typically in there at any given time:

Having been to the store and having met Mark, I can tell you that he is one of the nicest and most sincere people I’ve ever met. He certainly didn’t deserve to have the birds he spent so much time socializing and hand-feeding stolen right out from under him.

The last time I was at Parrots of the World, I found Mark in the expansive bird room, his shirt covered in a mixture of poop and baby bird formula, hand-feeding several parrots. After finishing the morning feedings with the help of his staff, he began to personally great each customer who walked into the store, answering question along the way.

I approached him at one point and asked him about the degus he had for sale. He stopped what he was doing behind the sales counter and came over to the cage of degus on a wall that included possums, hedgehogs, and sugar gliders. He reached into the cage, pulled out a degu, and suddenly put one on my shoulder.

Now, I’ve owned degus before — I adopted a pair of them and had them for 2 years before they succumbed to diabetes after being fed a sugar-inclusive diet of hamster food by their original owners. And they would almost always let me handle them.

But the experience I had in Mark’s pet store was different. He and his staff had handled and socialized this degu so well that not only would it let me hold it, but it climbed across my shoulders, up onto my head, and up and down my back several times, and never tried to get away or jump down to the floor. It was amazing.

And if I didn’t have several other pets at home at the time, I would have bought that degu right there on the spot.

Anyway, my point is that a theft of this magnitude couldn’t have happened to a better person and it just is plain wrong that it did.

If you or someone you know has any information about this crime, please call CrimeStoppers at 1-800-244-TIPS. Let’s hope all those birds don’t die in vain as a result of these robbers’ actions.

As the show enters it’s final week and prepares to reveal it’s million dollar director, I want to share with you my favorite movie of the competition.

Its a musical, of all things, called Dough: The Musical by contestant Adam Stein:

How funny is that? And he wrote, shot, and directed the movie in less than a week.

Does he deserve to win a $1 million moviemaking contract with Dreamworks and a chance to work with Steven Spielberg? I think so. But I have a feeling a different director-contestant, Will, shall emerge victorious.

We’ll see who wins next Tuesday…

Yankees Hall-of-Famer Phil Rizzuto died Tuesday at the age of 89, after years of declining health:

Phil Rizzuto, the Hall of Fame shortstop during the Yankees’ dynasty years and beloved by a generation of fans who delighted in hearing him exclaim “Holy cow!” as a broadcaster, died Tuesday. He was 89. […]

Rizzuto, known as “The Scooter,” was the oldest living Hall of Famer. He played for the Yankees throughout the 1940s and ’50s, won seven World Series titles, was an AL MVP and played in five All-Star games.

Rizzuto later announced Yankees games for four decades and his No. 10 was retired by baseball’s most storied team.

Phil Rizzuto was deservedly a Hall-of-Famer and even this Mets fan can understand and appreciate his contributions to our national pastime. HOLY COW, Phil! You’ll be missed.

Merv Griffin, the legendary entertainer and game show creator, died today at the age of 82:

Griffin died of prostate cancer, according to a statement from his family that was released by Marcia Newberger, spokeswoman for The Griffin Group/Merv Griffin Entertainment.

From his beginning as a $100-a-week San Francisco, California, radio singer, Griffin moved on as vocalist for Freddy Martin’s band, sometime film actor and TV game and talk show host. His “The Merv Griffin Show” lasted more than 20 years, and Griffin said his capacity to listen contributed to his success.

“If the host is sitting there thinking about his next joke, he isn’t listening,” Griffin reasoned in a recent interview.[…]

But his biggest break financially came from inventing and producing “Jeopardy” in the 1960s and “Wheel of Fortune” in the 1970s.

Merv Griffin may have made millions by creating hit game shows and made millions laugh while watching his talk show, but I think the funniest thing about his life is that he was the first person to have a celebrity feud with Donald Trump (way before Rosie O’Donnell):

Griffin bought the slightly passe hotel [the Beverly Hilton] for $100.2 million and completely refurbished it for $25 million. Then he made a move for control of Resorts International, which operated hotels and casinos from Atlantic City to the Caribbean.

That touched off a feud with real estate tycoon Donald Trump. Griffin eventually acquired Resorts for $240 million, netting a reported paper profit of $100 million.

Merv, so happy to know you, glad you came along…

Former Governor Tommy Thompson has dropped out of the 2008 presidential race following a lackluster showing in the Iowa straw poll, leaving only one GOP candidate with the last name of Thompson (still unofficially):

Thompson, who also served in the Bush Cabinet, did not meet the expectations he set for himself in the Ames Republican straw poll held Saturday. […]

Thompson, former secretary of Health and Human Services, had hoped to place second in the poll. Instead, he finished sixth.

Speaking to reporters Sunday, he smiled and said he simply needed to accept that he “lost.”

Granted, I have no idea what a straw poll is exactly — only that it probably something that can only be held in a state like Iowa or Kansas — but at least Thompson stuck to his word about dropping out.

AND THEN THERE’S THIS: For those scoring the 2008 Presidential Race at home, Thompson is the second GOP (and overall) candidate to drop out of the race. The first candidate to abandon his campaign was Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack in February. I bet he knows what a straw poll is…

Barry Bonds hit his 756th homerun Tuesday night in San Francisco, breaking Hank Aaron’s 33-year record for career homeruns.

And while there is tremendous controversy surrounding Bond’s alleged steroids usage, the best part for me is that a vacationing Mets fan, Matt Murphy, emerged from the rightfield stands-turned-mosh pit with the record-breaking ball. Take that, Giants fans!

Hank Aaron proved again just how much of a class act he is by taping that recorded congratulations that was played on the scoreboard after the record was broken.

Many people will view 756 with an asterisk after it, but here’s another footnote: In the game where Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s career homerun record, the Giants were defeated 8-6 by the Washington Nationals.

Mets pitcher Tom Glavine won his 300th game Sunday! Glavine became the 23rd pitcher in big-league history to win 300 games, and only the fifth left-handed pitcher to do so:

With a performance that reinforced his image as a brilliant pitcher, an intense competitor and a pretty competent batsman, Tom Glavine changed his baseball identity Sunday night. No longer is he merely the two-time Cy Young Award winner or the five-time 20-game winner. Now, first, foremost and forever, Glavine is a 300-game winner. With an HOF chaser on order.

Not only has the Mets ace reached an exclusive pitchers’ club in baseball, but he also may be the last to join, considering the way the game is played today. Randy Johnson has 284 career wins, but he is out for the season getting back surgery and may not even return to the game. No other pitchers are even close to 300.

ESPN did a great job getting the reactions between the Mets players at the end of the game, including the hugs all around and the interactions between Glavine and Paul LoDuca and also Billy Wagner.

Kudos to the Cubs’ fans for their standing ovations for Glavine. Very classy, Chicago! Glavine was also congratulated by a scoreboard display at the end of the game.

Glavine is the fourth 300-game winner to pitch for the Mets.