The Who2 Blog

Holy cow, it happened: Paul Newman died yesterday.

Ken Jennings, eternal Jeopardy maestro, reports on his blog that he went 24 of 38 on our recent are-you-ready-to-be-president quiz. 24 answers qualifies him for Honored Citizen status, and it’s also a scary good score. He had a close call on the Snickers question, sounds like. Thanks for the mention, Ken!

Jim Henson’s Muppets are “getting the Hannah Montana treatment” with today’s kiddies, says The New York Times.It never occurred to us that the Muppet Show Muppets were considered such separate entities from the Sesame Street Muppets. Says The Times:

Speaking as a former game show champ, I want my president to know a lot of facts. Rock-solid facts. World capitals, world leaders, currencies, the works.Not facts for their own sake, but because knowing facts is the residue of knowing a lot about the world and how it works. It’s a handy test for global savvy.

Entertainment Weekly cracks on stuntmeister David Blaine.[Update: The Times of London says Blaine is being “rubbished” over the breaks. And The NY Daily News suggests the stunt deserves “an asterisk.”]

Comedian Phil Hartman was born 60 years ago today.And it’s been 10 years now since he was killed, alas.

Fascinating: Law professor Lawrence Lessig dashes through the backgrounds of all the U.S. vice-presidents in history, comparing them to the experience of Sarah Palin.His conclusion: Palin has significantly less experience than any VP except Chester Alan Arthur and (arguably) Spiro Agnew.

Speaking of crazy endings, here’s the NFL version: the Dave Hampton game.

It was 100 years ago today.(And Three-Finger Brown was a minor footnote.)

Turns out Sen. Everett Dirksen never said “a billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”(Great research. Who knew there was a Dirksen Center?)