Wednesday, October 29, 2003

Stuff you couldn't make up: a great-great-grandson of one of the original Siamese twins -- that is, one of the conjoined brothers from Siam who became famous touring with P.T. Barnum in the 19th century -- has been freed after serving time for killing his own twin brother. Chang and Eng Bunker married sisters from North Carolina and fathered 21 kids between them. Hundreds of people in Surry County are descended from the slave-owning circus stars, inlcuding Brian Bunker, who killed his twin brother Brad with a shotgun this summer. 1:01:03 PM    comment []

"(I)n the 1850 census, after four years in America, Cone was still living in a boarding house, owned no real estate, and little of personal value." Fortunately, things picked up after a while for my great-great-grandfather, as documented by Ned Irwin of East Tennessee State University in latest edition of The Journal of East Tennessee History. Irwin's article (not posted) about the family business in Jonesborough, TN won an award as the best work in the 2002 Journal. 12:48:33 PM    comment []

The John Kerry blog is holding a live chat with Ambassador Joe Wilson (Mr. Valerie Plame; debunker of the Niger-uranium story) this morning at 11:00. 8:29:51 AM    comment []

"Bush in 30 seconds: Create a TV ad that tells the truth about George W. Bush."   "All eligible submissions will be posted on this web site and rated by visitors. The top rated ads will then be voted on by our panel of esteemed judges, including Michael Moore, Donna Brazile, Jack Black, Janeane Garofalo, and Gus Van Sant. The winning ad idea will be broadcast on television during the week of Bush's 2004 State of the Union address, and the winner will receive a recording of the ad as broadcast."   (via Monkeytime, who rails against "the absurdly vague and tepid loser commercials we're seeing from the mainstream ad folks now advising the Democratic field.")   8:25:01 AM    comment []

"I was thankful to have a guide to get me to the hotel. I'd thought, looking at the map in my guidebook, that the hotel might be a short walk down the street, but it became pretty clear looking at this place at night that would have been Not A Good Idea."   Dave Carr is in Sierra Leone, on his way to Liberia, working on an article about UN peacekeeping forces for Baseline. 7:59:08 AM    comment []