Ding! Ding! Ding! One of our longtime commenters, Downpuppy, expressed more or less the same flashback thought in Wednesday’s comments that Mark expressed today in panel 3:

Indeed, Downpuppy! Now today’s strip does clear up one thing:  Bill Ellis stipulates in panel 2 that Max the Manatee “needs a quick ride back to the ocean.” That means he was originally blown out of the ocean and into the wave pool. I suppose Max must have gotten his name after being tagged by marine biologists.

I have presumed Max the Manatee is male. Bill Ellis also refers to Max that way. But what does he know!? That assumption could have been wrong, as there are plenty of women with the name or nickname “Max.” Perhaps that’s what Mark was thinking of in panel 3 regarding his concern over an inopportune birth event.