Monday, October 12, 2009

Collecting

It's becoming more difficult to keep up my collection of other Benjamin Rosenbaums.

At the time I wrote Biographical Notes to 'A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, with Air-Planes', by Benjamin Rosenbaum I included all the Ben or Benjamin Rosenbaums I knew about: the one in the Scarlet Pimpernel, the Iowa Poet, the children's book author. These are the Benjamin Rosenbaums who used to greet me when I first began the filthy habit of googling my name.

In the meantime they have sprouted like weeds. There are 32 on facebook at this writing. There are actors (also high school thespians; that's not the same guy, is it? They look oddly familiar but are not the same age) and congressional staffers and firemen and sports reporters, students, doctors, and brokers.

So far there are not, however, any aquatic, robot, or chlorine-breathing Benjamin Rosenbaums.

Much to my disappointment.

Anyway, Mazel Tov to the Benjamin Rosenbaum who just got married (he appears to be a fireman too, distinct from the Wayside, Wisconsin Benjamin Rosenbaum fireman. Unless he moved).

Benjamin Rosenbaums of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your illusions of uniqueness!