born 6 January 1970

Gabrielle Reece, island of Trinidad, volleyball player/actress/fit person

Jim Connell, Lowell, Massachusetts, animator

Joanna Strzelecka, Lódz, Poland, production manager

Julie Chen, New York, New York, TV personality

Julie Dove, McKinney, Texas, writer/director/actress

Keenan McCardell, Houston, Texas, NFL football player

Manoushka Zeegelaar-Breeveld, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, actress

Norman Gregory McGuire, Shreveport, Louisiana, extra

Peter Perski, birthplace unspecified, Scandinavian actor

Susanne Evers, Dessau, East Germany, actress

Tove Wiréen, Nacka, Sweden, actress

Zachary Bell, Cambridge, Massachusetts, reality TV editor

I am indebted to Manoushka Zeegelaar-Breeveld’s life story, for reminding me that there is a Dutch-speaking country on the South American mainland. I knew that, but it still doesn’t quite make sense somehow.

The likes of Julie Chen have always been with us. Her authentically synthetic delivery is tailor-made for the ersatz and deeply unappetizing American “Big Brother”. No sense lamenting her success; these things just are.

Today’s Winner is Gabrielle Reece. I recall her pretty well from her days as a too-tall Brooke Shields look-alike who’d turn up on MTV and such. There was always something real about her to me: an anti-Julie Chen, if you will. She’s married to the surfer Laird Hamilton*, who is a really freaking good surfer.

* Here I break a personal rule of mine never to link my blog to Wikipedia, on the grounds that Laird Hamilton's entry is exemplary. A model biographical Wikipedia article, which should explain what makes a person special, must consist of both a well-organized general summary of that person's accomplishments, and a large but not excessively large offering of random, interesting small specific details. This one balances out perfectly.