Dead Ringers

This has absolutely nothing to do with chess, except in a tangental way.  Years ago, when we all had a lot more energy, with some help from Mr. Don I put together a chess spoof called The International Chessoid. It still makes me chuckle when I think of it. Unfortunately I deleted it all when I junked my very first computer - a Gateway desktop - more than 10 years ago. I was able to locate some stuff on The Way Back Machine because I happened to remember the old urls that I had assigned to TIC, as we called it (of course, it was a take-off and pun on TWIC -- The Week in Chess). But lots of parts were lost forever, including many of the photographs I used as parts of our spoofs.

One of the features of TIC was called "Dead Ringers." Sound familiar? It might because a new television series starring Buffy, the ex-vampire slayer, is now showing on some network or other and I believe it's called "Dead Ringer."

In our TIC Dead Ringers, I would find a photo of a chessplayer and then match him or her with an historical figure or actor/actress or otherwise recognizable personality. I had a lot of fun with that! I remember I matched a photo of Alexei Shirov from when he was very young and very trim and very very handsome, with a photo of a bust of Alexander the Great. It was one of my more successful match-ups!

So, when I was watching another new show a few days ago, Prime Suspect, Maria Bello, the actress and main character of the show, appears on the screen and as I'm watching her I kept thinking OHMYGODDESS, THAT'S 'SIS! I was struck by the resemblance - facially, body type, even how she moves - the nuances of how she holds her head and hands, for instance. So, I hunted around for a photograph of 'Sis to compare to the actress Maria Bello dressed as her character in the show. Now I've got plenty of photographs of 'Sis, but none had exactly the right angle of face, lighting, hat, no sunglasses - well, you get the picture. This was the best I can do:










Updated Sunday, September 25, 2011:

I think I convinced 'Sis that she and Maria Bello were separated at birth...  'Sis sent me a few photographs taken by Michelle recently.  I really want Michelle to take some photographs of me, maybe she can make me look in a photograph the way I think I look.  LOL! 

Which one is Maria Bello, and which one is Georgia a/k/a Isis?  Are you sure? 

Egyptian Carving Looks Like Michael Jackson

I couldn't resist. This story reminded me of a feature we used to run in The International Chessoid, featuring chess players and look-alikes from the past. This image was posted on July 28, 2008 but as far as I know, articles about it have only recently appeared. Image is from the website Totally Looks Like. The statue is from the New Kingdom period, part of the collection at the Field Museum in Chicago. By the way, it's a woman :) Egyptian statue 'looks like Jackson'