Four of Them

This blog is about twins, so we usually avoid covering higher-order multiples. We, do, however, have a long-standing exception for identical quadruplets.

In this spirit, I bring you the news that four identical quadruplet girls were born in Leipzig.

I take issue, however, with the following part of the news story:

They were conceived naturally and were delivered by Caesarean section.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I don't believe the circumstances of conception belong in a birth announcement.

It brings to mind the following lines from Douglas Adams:

 "You were about to ask me," she said, "a question."

"Yes," said Arthur.

"We can do it together if you like," said Fenchurch.

"Was I found..."

"...in a handbag," joined in Arthur.

"...in the Left Luggage office," they said together.

"...at Fenchurch Street Station," they finished.

"And the answer," said Fenchurch, "is no."

"Fine," said Arthur.

"I was conceived there."

"What?"

"I was con--"

"In the Left Luggage office?" hooted Arthur.

"No, of couse not. Don't be silly. What would my parents be doing in the Left Luggage office?" she said, rather taken aback by the suggestion.

"Well, I don't know," sputtered Arthur, "or rather--"

"It was in the ticket queue."

"The--"

"The ticket queue. Or so they claim. They refuse to elaborate. They only say you wouldn't believe how bored it is possible to get in the ticket queue at Fenchurch Street Station."

Twin Criminals: More White Supremacists?

I'm hoping not to make posts about white supremacist twins a regular feature of this site, but it was too hard to pass up this one.

The twins are accused of sending a mail bomb in early 2004 to a government diversity office in Scottsdale, Ariz., injuring the office’s director and two of his employees. Both are charged with conspiring to blow up a government building while Dennis Mahon is also charged with carrying out the bombing as well as teaching someone else how to make a bomb.

The FBI used the informant in interesting ways in this case.

In one example, Williams testified that the investigators got her to pose for photographs wearing a bathing suit with a grenade hanging down from her neck in between her breasts. For the pictures, she stood in front of a pickup truck and a swastika flag. The photos were then mailed to the brothers.

Great Fathers of Twins: Desmond Howard

One of the pleasures of my senior year at the University of Michigan was watching Desmond Howard have one of the most incredible seasons in college football history. Howard, also a senior, graduated with our class, and we shared a graduation ceremony. (It was funny to hear people criticize him for leaving school "early". If you can get a degree in four years while being a standout athlete, that's not early.) I was happy when he went to my Washington Redskins, though that didn't work out as well as anyone hoped.

Still I've followed his career with some interest, and I follow him on Twitter. My interest was piqued yesterday when he tweeted,

Picked up my 5 yr olds and 1 says,"I watched a movie on MLKJr today,I wanna use your iPad to learn more about him before I play"

My interest was piqued. Now, "5 yr olds" -- there's more than one way to go about it, but the most straightforward way is twins. Could it be? We share so much already -- Michigan, class of 1992, Super Bowl MVP (kidding), could we also have the twin father bond?

Looks like it.  Further, he met his wife in DC while with the Redskins, so I guess that worked out well enough after all.

Neat Pictures of Twins

National Geographic has an article about identical twins in their latest issue. Check out some really beautiful pictures from it.