re: #169 EPR-radar

At least I have a spectacularly rare last name. I’m reasonably sure my parents are the only two other people in the US with that last name.

That bbc article on dopplegangers has some scary? fascinating? pictures of doppelgangers. And it discusses one researcher who asked “What is the possibility of an innocent doppleganger being accused of a crime?”.

My last name is fairly common.

One interesting thing is when a last name is transcribed from a non-Latin alphabet or a marginally literate area. You can get all sorts of variations.

And, of course, there are the stories, likely apocryphal such as this:

A young German lad at Ellis Island had been separated from his parents. What’s you name barked the unsympathetic Immigration Officer? The lad replied tremulously ‘Ich vergessen’. The Officer shouted ‘Sign this Ike Ferguson you’re in’ .

— Professor Denim (@profdenim) March 14, 2020