The Who2 Blog

Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien would be 115 today.Factoid: Dude was born in South Africa, 30 short years before heart-switching playboy Christiaan Barnard.

Nearly seven years have passed since intern Chandra Levy disappeared in Washington, D.C. Her remains were found a year later, but nobody has ever been charged with her murder. Now students at Bauder College in Atlanta will spend a year digging into the case, according to The Modesto Bee.

The San Francisco Chronicle has an extremely colorful report today on Sarah Jane Moore, who tried to shoot President Gerald Ford in 1975.

What a way to start the new year. Officials at Rawalpindi General Hospital now say that the chief of police prevented them from doing an autopsy on the body of Benazir Bhutto.The government apparently removed all medical records from the hospital immediately after Bhuttos death — and then told doctors to keep quiet.

[1/1/08 Update: The Cincinnati Post and Clooney column links below are already dead — apparently turned off by Baby New Year as he passed through town at the stroke of midnight.]Sad news for newspaper fans: the Cincinnati Post published its last edition today, ending its 126-year run and ending Cincinnati’s days as a two-newspaper town.

Happy birthday to Who2’s unofficial mascot, Ulrich Zwingli. The oft-forgotten Swiss theologian turns 624 on New Year’s Day.We can’t describe Zwingli better than we did in last year’s tribute: “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.”

Tom Brady set a new season record for touchdown passes (50) as the New England Patriots became the first NFL team to go undefeated in a 16-game season. NFL.com has photos galore.

The shocking death of Benazir Bhutto has turned into a confounding argument over the cause.Early reports said she’d died in a bomb blast. Then reports of gunshots surfaced. Now amateur photos show two possible attackers: a clean-cut (alleged) gunman and a head-scarf-wearing (alleged) bomber.

Two years ago we noted that TV host Dick Clark was born the same year as Anne Frank and Martin Luther King, Jr..

The New York Times has posted a rather stunning slideshow with commentary by John Moore, a photographer who covered the last rally of Benazir Bhutto and saw her killed.

The BBC and the International Herald Tribune report that Benazir Bhutto has been killed at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. She was reportedly shot by an assassin who then detonated a suicide bomb.

Novelists Kurt Vonnegut and Norman Mailer… evangelists Jerry Falwell and Tammy Faye Bakker… Derby champ Barbaro and talking chimp Washoe. They’re all celebrities who passed away in 2007.Here’s our full list.

Rough water has blocked Revolutionary War buffs from reenacting George Washington’s historic crossing of the Delaware River.”This time, Delaware crosses up Washington” reports the Newark Star-Ledger.

Look at ’em all.

On Christmas Eve of 1968, the astronauts of Apollo 8 read aloud from the book of Genesis as they circled the moon.

Sign o’ the times: Queen Elizabeth’s Christmas Address will appear on YouTube.

This is the last day of the working or school year for many of our users.With that in mind: Happy holidays! And thanks to you all for another wonderful year. Who2 will turn 10 years old in 2008, and we wouldn’t have done it without you.Yes, Virginia, the Internet is a Santa Claus, with more gifties, tinsel, lumps of coal and candy canes than any of us could have imagined in 1998.And Groundhog’s Day is only six weeks away!

In its entirety, from Who2 user G. Peters:”Is there any truth to the story that Abe Vigoda and Erik Estrada are working on a new comedy series called Fish & CHiPs?”

California Governor Arnold Scwharzenegger says he’ll sue the federal government to allow California to set its own aggressive emissions standards for cars.George W. Bush’s EPA head, Stephen Johnson, rejected the necessary waiver on Thursday, after two years of consideration.