You may have heard about a thing being run in the UK where they are taking votes for the "greatest English person in history" or some such title.

Now, I always think such polls are doomed from the start, as "greatest" is not defined in any way at all. Given the huge number of fields of human endeavour, it would be hard enough to choose even the most *influential* English person, if it was defined that way. So it was no surprise to me that the shortlist of contenders, chosen from the last several thousand years of history, included people such as (you guessed it) Princess Diana. Anyway. Onward to the point.

Today I read a small follow-up report in the paper, which RULED THE WORLD. Apparently two of the leading contenders are Isambard Brunel (the great 19th century engineer) and Charles Darwin (dunno what he's famous for). Both of these are excellent choices, as their effect on the world and the course of history has been much wider than simply being great within their own particular fields of work.

It seems that Brunel University has been encouraging its students to vote for ol' Izzy. In retaliation, the Natural History Museum decided to promote Darwin. Now just wait for this. They did this by, and I quote, "hiring a Darwin impersonator".

All right. So I suspect that this was just poor wording by some reporter, and what they really did is "hire a guy to dress up as Darwin." But still. Isn't it a beautiful feeling to think that somewhere, somehow, Great Britain teems with professional Darwin impersonators?

Brunnen-"what a wonderful world that would be"G