Chinese Gandalf

So, one of the nice incidentals about being back in Milwaukee again earlier this month was that I had the chance to pick up a copy of THE SHEPHERD EXPRESS, the radical free newspaper formerly known as THE CRAZY SHEPHERD. It was interesting to leaf through it again after a long time. Don't know if they've mellowed or I've become much more progressive, but I found it much more moderate than I remembered. Maybe it's just that Seattle progressive is a bit edgier than Milwaukee progressive.

In any case, one feature I was glad to see was NEWS OF THE WEIRD by Chuck Shepherd. I used to enjoy this back when we took THE FUNNY TIMES, and was amused to find a Tolkien reference therein. Here's the clip:

Leading Economic Indicators

News Corporation Australia reported in 

September the enviable success of a 16-year-

old British entrepreneur, Beau Jessup, who

has so far earned about $84,000 with a simple

online app to help rich Chinese parents select

prosperous-sounding English names for their

babies. Users choose among 12 personality

traits they hope their baby to have, then

received three suggestions (including a list of

famous people with those names). Jessup got

the idea when living in China and noticing

that some babies of the rich were given lame

names, such as "Gandalf" and "Cinderella".

[Sept. 22 2016 issue, p. 37]

I'd be interested to learn if this is for real or some reporter's idea of a joke that made it into print during a slow news days.

--John R.