Who2 Editorial Blog

Notes and Commentary from the Editors

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Rats!

Nick Symmonds is out of the Olympics.

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 10:30 AM 0 comments

Rumer Willis, All Grown Up

Seems like only a few years ago that Bruce Willis and Demi Moore were married and having kids.

Now their daughter Rumer is playing a nerdy college coed in the movie The House Bunny.

She's had a handful of small roles over the past few years, it seems. Rumer was born in 1988 -- she just turned 20 -- and she looks like, well, a cross between Bruce Willis and Demi Moore.

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 6:46 AM 0 comments

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Beaus of Obama's Beaus

A modest coincidence: Both Joe Biden and Evan Bayh -- the leading candidates to be Barack Obama's running mate -- have sons named after themselves and nicknamed Beau.

Beau Biden (Joseph R. Biden III) was born in 1969 and is now attorney general of Delaware.

Beau Bayh (Birch Evans Bayh IV) was born in 1995 and is a twin. His father, Birch Evans Bayh III, goes by the name Evan (with no "s"). His grandfather, Birch Evans Bayh II, was also an Indiana senator and ran for president in 1976.

Nothing earth-shattering, agreed. But still an unusual scenario.

As a further meandering aside: We have nobody named Beau (yet) in our 3200+ Who2 profiles.

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 10:32 PM 0 comments

Symmonds Through to Semis

Runner Nick Symmonds won his quarterfinal heat in the Olympic 800 meters today. He's through to a semifinal heat on Thursday.

Alas, his teammates Andrew Wheating and Christian Smith didn't make the cut.

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 6:42 AM 0 comments

Georgia "Bigfoot" is a Rubber Monkey

Oh, dear. The lastest Bigfoot sighting turns out to be a hoax.

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 4:26 AM 3 comments

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

"Veep Shortlisters"

The Associated Press runs down the potential vice-presidential nominees.

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 5:40 PM 0 comments

Shirkieville or Terre Haute?

Our new profile of Indiana Senator Evan Bayh lists his place of birth as Terre Haute, Indiana.

We're swimming against the tide there. Most sources, including his officlal Senate website and the Indianapolis Star, say he was born in 1955 in Shirkieville, Indiana.

Shirkieville is the small town where Bayh's family had a farm from 1952 until 1957. The Associated Press even ran a recent story (excerpted here) on how Shirkieville is "pumped up" about Bayh maybe being the vice-presidential pick of Barack Obama.

But! When we checked Bayh's 2003 autobiography, From Father to Son, we found a different story. There Bayh says, on page 49:

"After [father Birch Bayh] served his first session, he and my mother decided to have a baby, a fortunate decision since it turned out she was already pregnant. I was born later that year in Terre Haute's Union Hospital, on the day after Christmas."

As Google Maps shows, Shirkieville is a crossroads near the Illinois border. It's too small to have its own hospital, and Terre Haute is the county seat about 15 miles away.


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It's hard to imagine why Bayh would specify a particular hospital in Terre Haute if he was actually born on the farm or elsewhere in Shirkieville.

It seems more likely that he normally shorthands the truth a wee bit, giving his hometown as his place of birth, to make it sound like he was born in small-town, farm-town Indiana. (We presume that's an advantage in Indiana politics.)

That shorthand would be more of a fudge than a major lie, after all.

But still, we're taking Bayh's word for it as stated in his autobiography: Shirkieville for home town, but Terre Haute for place of birth.

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 6:51 AM 0 comments

Happy 35th Birthday, Jar Jar Binks!

Actor Ahmed Best was born on this day in 1973.

Best, you may recall, voiced the horse-faced goofball Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. The 1999 film was the big Star Wars comeback sequel, and Best must have figured he was getting the career break of a lifetime -- until he found himself tangled up in Jar Jar hate from fans, plus accusations that Jar Jar's accent was racist.

None of it seemed to be Best's fault. Jar Jar was merely the homely symbol of George Lucas's weird plunge into babytalk names and blithering backstory arcana. ("Jar Jar guided the Jedi to the underwater city of Otoh Gunga, where they secured transport to the Naboo capital of Theed," notes his official bio. Exciting!) Whatever else he was, Jar Jar was no R2-D2.

Best seems to have kept mildly busy in the decade since, mainly with voice work in Star Wars sequels and video games. Here's hoping for better things for you, Mr. Best, in the decade to come!

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 4:52 AM 0 comments

Monday, August 18, 2008

Nick Symmonds Runs in Beijing

A point of personal pride here: Nick Symmonds will run the 800 meters in the Olympics this week.

Symmonds is a 2006 graduate of Willamette University, the alma mater of three members of the Who2 staff. The school now has a handsome special page set up to track Symmonds. He's scheduled to run in the quarterfinals on Wednesday morning (August 20th) at 9:00 am Eastern time.

Symmonds punched his ticket to Beijing by winning a thrilling 800-meter final at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon. Symmonds fought free of the pack with an amazing kick in the final 200 meters.

He was followed by fellow Oregon runners Andrew Wheating and a diving-at-the-finish-line Christian Smith, as local fans cheered their heads off. Here's the video:

Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 8:09 AM 0 comments