I have mentioned it a couple times before but no one, save Jeff, took notice. My Uncle is George Costanza (Jason Alexander). He's the coolest guy you could ever meet and could not be further from the character that made him famous.
My wife's uncle, Umberto Ciccolella, invented the exer-cycle that people use for spinning classes. The one without the chain. Sold it to Reebok and now lives happily in Santa Monica. And I have may have mentioned before that my Dad is a Bush appointee, he is U.S. Director of the Asian Development Bank.
Well that reminds me; some relative of mine (like 3rd cousin on my mommy's side or something) is the US Ambassador to Venezuela. Not blood related though.
Well, give me his number so he can instruct his prettiest female employee to give me a tour of Caracas .
Oh, you're a feisty one. I've never met the guy, at least I don't think so. I'll go pester the mother about this one.
Ken Griffey Jr. is my second cousin. (Well, he's my cousin's cousin. I guess that makes him my second cousin!)
Yeah that's him. I like the Googling skills. Might as well use mine: So B-ball freak, your grandmother's maiden name was Greenspan?
Oh yeah, this is not a relative but pretty cool nonetheless. My father-in-law was in the same High School class as Bill Clinton. He didn't like him then and he doesn't like him now. He definitely inhaled. They had their last class reunion at the White House.
I'm related to this guy. Like him, I'm a gentleman and I've never killed anybody that didn't need killin'. I also come from a line of original Virginia crackers, but they were too busy swapping slaves and horses to join the ranks of Washington, Jefferson, and others, though one did become a firebrand preacher during the Great Awakening. Before the Civil War, one group went north, eventually settling in Illinois with some moving on to Oregon. The other branch (mine) went South to Alabama and then to Texas. I still remember my great-grandmother who came from Alabama to Polk county as a kid in the 1880's in a wagon. She was still tough when she was in her nineties. (There's also a Confederate Colonel who served with Hood's Brigade in the Civil War.) ___________________ Old West outlaw and gunslinger John Wesley Hardin was born May 26, 1853, in Bonham, Texas. Rumored to be so mean he once shot a man for snoring, Hardin was shot to death in El Paso on August 19, 1895, by a man he had hired to kill someone else. John's father, James G. Hardin, was a Methodist preacher, lawyer, schoolteacher and circuit rider. His mother was Elizabeth Hardin. At age fourteen, John stabbed a schoolmate. At age fifteen, he shot a black man to death in Polk County. While fleeing from the law following that murder, he killed at least one, and possibly four Union soldiers who were attempting to apprehend him. As a cowboy on the Chisolm Trail in 1871, Hardin killed seven people. He killed three more upon arriving in Abilene, Kansas. Back in Texas, following a run-in with the State Police back in Gonzales County, Hardin got married, settled down and had three children. But he soon resumed his murder spree, killing 4 more times before surrendering to the Cherokee County sheriff in September 1872. He broke out of jail after a couple of weeks, however. Hardin next killed Jack Helm, a former State Police captain, who led the fight against the anti-Reconstructionist forces of Jim Taylor in the Sutton-Taylor Feud. Hardin had become a supporter of Taylor's from 1873 to 1874. In May 1874, Hardin killed a deputy sheriff in Brown County while visiting the town of Comanche. Fleeing to Florida with his family, Hardin was captured by Texas Rangers in Pensacola on July 23, 1877. During that flight, he killed at least one, and perhaps as many as five more victims. On September 28, 1878, Hardin was sentenced to twenty-five years for the Brown County deputy's murder. He was pardoned on March 16, 1894. Having studied law while in prison, Hardin was admitted to the Texas bar soon after his release. In 1895, Hardin went to El Paso to testify for the defense in a murder trial. Following the trial, he stayed and established a law practice. Just when he seemed to finally be going straight, Hardin began an affair with one of his married female clients. Her husband found out about the affair and Hardin hired some law officials to kill him. One of the hired gunmen, however, Constable John Selman, shot Hardin instead. Legend has it that his last words were, "Four sixes to beat, Henry." When killed, Hardin was shooting dice with local furniture dealer Henry Brown at the Acme saloon in El Paso. Thus ended the life and career of one of Texas deadliest gunslingers. Despite his killing of over thirty people, Hardin had a reputation as a gentleman among those who knew him, and he always claimed he never killed anyone who didn't need killing.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/spotlight/2001-06-22-alexander-scleroderma.htm Here is an article with my mom and J.
