Today in twin history: Royal Twins!

Today, December 11, 2014, Prince Albert II and his wife Charlene welcomed crown prince Jacques and his twin sister Gabriella. Though Gabby was born first, Jacques will be taking the throne of Monaco.

Great Fathers of Twins: Elvis Costello

A few years ago, Elvis Costello was on Sesame Street singing "A Monster Went and Ate My Red 2," a re-working of his song "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes." I saw this recently and thought, "He must have small kids." Sure enough, he and jazz artist Diana Krall had twins in December 2006. The new title seemed to be somewhat of a stretch, but honestly, no more so than the old title. In fact, I've come to prefer this version to the original. Attempts to get the kids to prefer this to Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (which they've been reciting/singing incessantly) have been less successful; at the pool the other day, they were singing a mash-up of the two songs.

Eau de Twin

The web site io9 alerts us to a new study that further confirms the research that identical twins smell alike. From what I can tell, this has been known for a while, but previous research did not account for the fact that twins might smell alike from living in the same household, so this study used adult twins who lived apart. Also, previous studies used dogs to sniff, but this study used humans, which just seems weird.

Super Bowl Twin "Insperation"

"A set of 9-year-old twins from Roxbury, Riley and Erin Kovalcik, wrote a letter last week to Seattle Seahawks fullback Derrick Coleman, the NFL's first legally deaf offensive player, calling him their "insperation" (sic) as they shared the same disability."

Quote of the Day

"Why didn't anybody stop us? Why aren't there more regulations about this sort of thing? What fool in their right mind would put me in charge of a baby? Two babies?"

-Miles Vorkosigan, from Lois McMaster Bujold's Diplomatic Immunity

How are toddlers like professional soccer players?

You can tell them apart usually, but it's trickier when they're running away from you.

"Norwich City's identical twins Josh and Jacob Murphy will wear different colour boots to help boss Chris Hughton distinguish between the two."

"It's not so much in close proximity, because there is a difference between the two and they have different playing styles so I can tell them apart."

I like that "playing style" is a differentiating factor. The ways I tell apart our boys include things like gait, or what they're saying, more often than anything like "rounder face."

The Nerdiest Twins in the NBA

I just came across this awesome interview with Robin Lopez of the NBA's Portland Trailblazers. His twin brother, Brook, plays for the Brooklyn Nets.

How many comics do you own? 

Not as many as Brook. He’s pretty much collecting everything DC Comics publishes right now. I have two or three titles I’ve collected and tried to complete those runs.

It gets nerdier than that, but the best Q&A (as called out by Deadspin) is this one:

What are your top three favorite wizards?

Gandalf’s definitely on the list. Trying to pick my favorite Harry Potter wizard, I can easily go with Dumbledore. I always liked Professor Lupin. I’ll put him on the list. [A day after the interview, Lopez asked via his publicist to take Lupin off his list and replace him with Hermione Granger.]

I got to pick a Disney wizard. Can I pick Angela Lansbury in Bedknobs and Broomsticks?

If I re-do my 10 sets of excellent twin athletes, they bump the Morris twins for this answer alone.

Twins in two years!

Forget about twins born on different days. What about these lucky girls?

As partygoers were ringing in the New Year across the Greater Toronto Area, a Mississauga mom was busy giving birth to twin daughters. And though the twins were born eight minutes apart, they’ll share different birthdays – and different birth years.

Proud mom Lindsay Salgueiro delivered the last baby of 2013 at Mississauga’s Credit Valley Hospital before giving birth to the first baby of 2014.

Read more here.