HOW TO MEET YOUR DOPPELGANGER

Doppelganger comes from Germany, where doppel means double and ganger is a walker, that is, a person who looks like you. If you encounter your doppelganger, recent scientific evidence indicates that you probably have similar genetics.

We all have hair in the same area of the body and the same number of limbs, eyes, nose, and so on. With 8 billion of us living on the same planet, it's only to be expected that some will have physical counterparts.

Let's take someone at random. Say, the writer Ernest Hemingway, who passed away around 60 years ago.

In 1977 an International Imitation Hemingway Competition began in Harry's Bar and American Grill, Century City, California. The winner got two round-trip tickets to Florence, Italy, and dinner for two at Harry's. Not sure why, for the Harry's Bar where Hemingway drank was in Venice. The contest is now held at Sloppy Joe's in Key West, where he frequented for a dozen years when he lived there. Actually, there are/were three SJ's, one in Havana, and he went to all of them.

He drank virtually anything, but imbibed a lot of gin, and especially scotch and soda. Had four wives, was mentally ill, and at the age of 61, killed himself with a firearm, just like his father.

According to Wikipedia, there were more than 24,000 entries only in the first ten years of operation. In the 11th, HB&AG closed, so the contest was moved to Harry's in San Francisco, then to Key West. The latest competition was won by Jon Avuil (left) over 124 contestants.

The whole point of the above is that there similarly could be thousands of individuals who look like you in the world. However, in 2015 Teghan Lucas of Australia calculated that two people matching up exactly in eight key facial features is one in a trillion. Even if you include the 100 billion Homo sapiens who have ever lived, the odds are then low that anyone ever looked exactly like you. Yet, according to Lucas, there is a one in 135 chance that someone kind of looks like you somewhere on Earth. So maybe there is hope for you.

But what are the chances of you seeing your double? Probably low, except that today you have search options. What about Facebook? Has worked for some. Here are 8 online tools at your disposal:

1. Twin Strangers

2. ILookLikeYou

3. My Twin Finder

4. StarByFace

5. Celebs

6. Google Arts and Culture

7. FamilySearch

8. Reverse Image Search

If you look like Abraham Lincoln or Mary Todd, and you want to be dazzled in a sea of doppelgangers, at 11AM on Saturday, October 1, 2022, go to the 51st annual Lincoln Days Celebration in Hodgenville, KY, the birthplace of our 16th president. Both Abraham and Mary look-alikes will be selected. A bit more than physical, for contestants need to spend three minutes doing something related to them. Winners get $125 each.

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

OSAKA EXPO: Day One

Well, the day finally came for us to go to the Osaka Expo. We were told ahead of time that the long walks would be fearful, giant lines will need to be tolerated just to get into the Expo, with those ocean breezes, it would really be cold, and so forth. Maybe it was pure luck, but we avoided all the above warnings We had a grand day, and are looking forward to Sunday, our second day at the Expo. So come along for an enjoyable ride. Our hotel is adjacent to the Tennoji Station, a very large one with several lines. We upgraded our Suica card and caught the Misosuji red line towards Umeda. Transferred to the Chuo green line at the Hommachi Station. This Osaka Metro train took us to the Yumeshima Station at the Expo site. It was a very large mob leaving the train and heading to the entrance. Took only a few minutes to get to the entrance. This mob was multiplied by at least a factor of ten of those already waiting to enter. However...

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that Oktoberfest in Germany is mostly in September? The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3. Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September? The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich? These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11. Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town. It was drizzling a bit. We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served. We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall. So no one came to serve us beer. After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine. Thus, we might have been the ...

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