Recently, the genius known as “Nathaniel Tapley” was made known to me. He introduced himself by saying “Hi there! I’m Nathaniel Tapley. I’m a Comedy Genius©!” Yes, it was made simple for me, what with my uncontrollable defect of being born a Canadian.

That birth location is in fact what brings up this post today. I was born in Kamloops, British Columbia. The Royal Inland Hospital is still there, but the wing of the building is no longer standing. You can locate the foundations of it in the lawn, but it’s not very picturesque, and as I was born about four or five floors above that, it’s impossible to be on the very spot of the incident, so why bother?

Why am I babbling about this? A fair question, and well put.

I am more popular among my Kamloops Birthmates than Nathaniel Tapley was with his own of Essex!, as he was declared the fourth least popular. Behold my accomplishment (although clicking the image to make it bigger might help):

That’s me, way down there, at #16, right above baldy. The interesting thing is that the most popular on the list – the guy at the bottom – is someone who played “Guard #1″ in a movie in which I appeared as one of a crowd of people at a wedding scene which was interrupted by the titular villain (which was played during filming by a helicopter hovering close enough above our heads that someone actually reached-up and touched the runners at one point; given we were in the middle of the towers of downtown at the time, it’s a good thing the pilot was a professional).

At the moment, Mr. Tapley is no longer #4 in his list, having moved up the list now declaring him the 148^th Least Popular person. One can only hope to follow his example by being humbled before being raised – Lazarus-like – to new heights.

Isn’t it fascinating what one can accomplish with too much coffee and a broadband connection?

More about the recent trip to the UK soon, once the caffeine wears off, probably.