It’s the Curse of Tecumseh nobody talks about — the aura of death that surrounded the administrations of U.S. presidents William Henry “Old Tippecanoe” Harrison and John Tyler.Harrison died in office, four of his children died around the same time, and Tyler’s wife died while First Lady. Or as their 1840 campaign slogan proclaimed: Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!Here’s the rundown:
First George Bernard Shaw — now Al Gore has tangled with daredevil Evel Knievel.
Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek has had a minor heart attack. A terse announcement on the show’s official site says he’s fine and will be back on the job in January.
Imagine if Bill Clinton had stepped down in 1996 so that his wife Hillary could be elected to replace him.Then suppose that Bill was elected again in 2000, and Hillary again in 2004 — with Hillary now in year 15 of a Clinton White House.
December 6th is unusual. It’s been known around Who2 HQ as the day nobody was born — the one day on which nobody in our database had a birthday. And we have consistently pledged not to hunt for a December 6th celeb just to artificially fill the gap.
What a biographical bust the 50 State Quarters program turned out to be!
Two users wrote us last week with the same thing on their minds:
Motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel has died at age 69.Knievel was a crafty star of the pre-cable TV age, when a single rare appearance on ABC’s Wide World of Sports would be seen by tens of millions. Nowadays kids in the X Games perform motorcycle jumps, spins and look-ma-no-hands shenanigans that beat anything Evel ever did. But Evel had the P.T. Barnum gene and knew how to milk a jump over 10 Greyhound busses for maximumum publicity, drama, and cash.A spin through the obituary openers:
Grover Cleveland, apparently.(Seems to be borrowed from this.)Interesting side note from the U.S. Treasury: Bills bearing the image of Santa Claus may be legal tender.
The wife of adventurer Steve Fossett has asked a court to declare her husband legally dead.”After nearly three months we feel now that we must accept that Steve did not survive,” Peggy Fossett said in a statement.