Monthly Archive: January 2007

A short gem, from Who2 user H.S.:To: [email protected] not have a few not-so-famous people on Who2.com? I am not so famous, but I have a colorful background of accidents and incidents. H.S.

With Groundhog Day looming, we have received a delightful letter from Mr. Ben Hughes of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Mr. Hughes is one of the official handlers for America’s top-dog groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil.Here is what Mr. Hughes had to say:”A correction on your Punxsutawney Phil information.

In December we reported the death of Joseph Barbera, of the Hanna-Barbera animation studios. Now comes the sad news of the demise of Iwao Takamoto, the Hanna-Barbera animator who designed Scooby-Doo. Takamoto was 81 when he died on Monday of heart failure.

Momofuku Ando, the inventor of instant ramen noodles, has died of a heart attack in Japan. Ando was 96. Plucky to the last, he made a new year’s speech at the corporate offices of his company on Wednesday before returning home and falling ill.

January 1st marked the 523rd birthday of Ulrich Zwingli, Who2’s unofficial mascot. Zwingli, you’ll recall, was the Protestant Reformer who survived bubonic plague, had a secret marriage at age 38, and still ended up playing Avis to Martin Luther’s Hertz. Plucky to the last, Zwingli was wounded in a Catholic-vs.-Protestant wrangle and then put to the sword when he refused a Catholic confessor.