Alexander Stoimenow
A Quiz
I seek the identity of a world-famous mathematician, call him Mr.
X. Soon after I got to know him, I noticed that he has a big and
illustrious family, and started collecting information about various
family members. I introduce some of them below, and ask: who is Mr. X?
Historical note: I started this project decades ago, some time
in the late 90s. My original intention was (and I like to keep
it) to restrict myself to names whose encounter I have some
personal memories about (and which give me a certain sense
of achievement to have collected them). I aimed to gather about
40 people, but I increasingly realized that, on my predetermined
terms and at that time, this length was too hard to attain.
Moreover, I saw little priority, which were main reasons
why I increasingly lost motivation and abandoned the project.
But I kept on coming across interesting people,
in particular through the internet. In the meantime, it exploded,
and now allows me to find a myriad of others I had never heard
about. (Wikipedia has an
extra page with a list.) At some point, I decided it is worth taking
the project up again, and bringing it to some end. The internet
remains a main and indispensable resource, but conforming
to my old intention, I restricted myself to personalities I
encounter without deliberate search. Even among these, some
selection was necessary, in part because I found some too
colorful to make the cut. (There were such posing without
underwear, or bandites ‐ I mean, true ones, not only people
looking so, like the majority of ingenious mathematicians!)
Moreover, in order to avoid it getting a lifetime's achievement
(it certainly took longer than anything else I've written, yet it
is not even comparably as important as most of it), on May 28,
2015 I decided to set the release deadline to end of 2016 (timely
for Mr X's birthday) ‐ but with the option to update the
list after release. And I tried to speed it up (thanks to Don
Regan and, of course, M.m.m. M.M.!). My modest output reached the
original goal of 40 on Feb 28, 2016. I also apologise that the
descriptions are to a small part a bit outdated. (One famous
person who was in quite from the beginning died at the final
stretch of the project. May he rest in peace!)
-
Tom: The family is well-represented in the music business.
Here is the Tiger. In old days he adored the green grass of home,
but more recently he likes to be turned on with some particular
type of bomb.
-
David Robert: An equally famous personality in the branch,
though better known under his pseudonym. Also called the Chameleon
(due to his changing musical style, and maybe different color of his
eyes).
-
Mick: Still in the same branch, and more well-known together
with his other band members, who all want to know what love is.
(Also produced my favorite album of Billy Joel.)
-
Howard: A colleague of the above, who is also well-known
for asking: "What is Love?"
-
Grace: Known for her extravagant appearance and clips
during the 80s, tried also (unhappily) to answer her colleague's
previous question with an enemy of James Bond.
-
Norah: A more recent appearance on the market, but now
also quite well-known.
-
Quincy: An icon in the same business.
-
Brian: A stone which rolled and fell into the water.

(A photo by Linda McCartney, as seen at the
Daelim art museum
Seoul.)
-
Jaspa: A German DJ who, together with his partner,
released music inspired by the Cologne Cathedral.
-
Gareth: Working more on the side of the mixing desk. I
noticed him on an album of one of the 80s synth icons, where he
was promoted to a quasi-band member after a long-term fellow had
left. (It was the best album they made, IMHO, despite that I
recognize now how much the departure of that guy cost them.)
-
Tommy Lee: Moving on to actors, here is a good one.
Unfortunately(?), he plays lots of evil-guy roles, but was also
active as Santa Clause in Japanese can coffee commercials.
-
Catherine: A female representative of the acting scene,
due to her compound family name apparently a former wife of Mr. X.
Now she's married to one of his colleagues (specialist in the
same field of mathematics) from Rutgers University.
-
January: Another female colleague of the previous one,
specializing at killing others (not only, but also, and already)
with the way she looks at them.
-
Felicity: Running with Tom Hanks out of (or into?)
the inferno.
-
Rashida: Actress told to be best known for her work in
"The Office" and "Parks and Recreation". I didn't know her or
anything she did until I came across a clip on her latest project,
which is "hot" but very serious.
-
James Earl: I admire him not only for his movies (one is
among the mentioned below), but even more so for his patriotic
attitude (like the president who shares his small names).
But was also a voice of the Dark side of the Force.
-
Alex: Special not only because he shares names of both
of us - another passionate (info) warrior for his country.
-
Patrick: Still on the mike, but buzzing sixty as NASA's
spokesman about creatures with green antennas. (Allegedly,
UN appointed them an embassador already, ts, ts.)
-
Trevor Rees: Among some other assorted colorful personalities,
the bodyguard of a famous royal family member, and only survivor of
the accident in which this royality was killed.
-
Sophie Rhys: Successful saleswoman, now married into the same
royal house, and sometimes claimed to resemble the aforementioned dead.
-
P.: Who was that? She came after Jennifer and before Monica.
Their official opponent knows details, but her emails seem to
be a bigger problem right now.
-
X-y (Here `X' is to be substituted with the family name of
Mr. X): The sonar operator of a certain US submarine in the movie
"The Hunt For Red October", who tried to convince his captain that
they are following a brand new Russian nuclear submarine, while
a $40 mio equipment was telling him that they are following an
earthquake.
-
X-y: This one was truly called "Dr. X", in a science fiction
horror film adaptation of Stephen King (too horrible for me to
watch it until the end), but suffered (as far I did watch) a
tragical traffic accident.
-
X-yboy: The most colorful name among all, but also the
most unfortunate one. I remember a western where two cowboys
were fiddling with a prisoner in the desert, and one said to the
other: "Put away the gun, X-yboy". It was really long ago,
but I think after I had learned about Mr X, and I still
regret that at the time I was so sloppy not to check in the TV
program what it was. I found, though, recently that with high
probability it might be something included
here.
-
Bobby and Steve: now moving to sports; the one is a legend,
the other one at least a major champion (in the same discipline).
-
Marion: ran fast (on the track, and apparently also later
her career into the ground).
-
Leslie: A ghostbuster looking for a designer to dress her
up for the premiere.
-
David: Australian fashion store founder encouraging others to
lead an extraordinary life.
-
Kenya Kinski-: Wearing the stuff for the camera in LA and
dreaming of a lunch date with Carl Sagan in a cat cafe in Tokyo.
(Sadly, it has to be the Tokyo of the other world...)
-
Alfred Winslow: Another capitalist from Down-Under who
went up-over Wall St. by pioneering the hedge fund (greetings
from Larry at Harvard). He had a friend, Louis Fischer, who
wrote a biography of Lenin (did he say anything good about the
class enemy?)
-
Dow: The measure of prosperity the guys over there work for...
-
Melvin: A lion who didn't want to ask for money for
doing something good.

A commemorative stone of his organization in the park
right outside GIST.
-
David: This one was kicking in both number and season 14
on the EPL lawn.
-
Phil: Off the lawn (but for a smaller ball) at the
Royal England Club for interviews.
-
Owen: A younger compatriot also on the mike, but more
passionate about his country's course.
-
Gawain: with the pieces on the board, but often seen
losing, or too lazy to play, drawing in 8 moves at the
Tata Steel 2018 Round 12.
-
Lord Digby: Trade Minister 2007-08. Likes debating Brexit
(he got it now), concerned in particular about short-term job cuts,
and interrupting women. I also found that his successor in office
mutated from an acting role in the 80s as the leader of an
interstellar 7-member rebel squad I enjoyed watching.
-
Van: former president administration official and
heating up on the other side of the water about their own
new version of Super-Brexit.
-
Mother: she also heats up (mostly) on politics,
but in written form and on the same side of the ocean.
-
James: This black Cavalier failed Iguodala's shot, and then
his handshake offer, but could not prevent the Warriors from tying
the NBA final.
-
Roy Jr.: former world heavyweight boxing champion, more
recently fighting with the Russian language (after given
Russian citizenship by the president personally!)
-
J Bruce: Council member (or similar) of BEWAG, the company
providing me heating while I was living in Berlin (and sending me
bills for that, on which I found the name).
-
C K R T: a colleague from dynamics with a contribution to
unlimited mathematics.
- Stephanie Sobey-: a British cellist who accompanied five
gentlemen as they pissed their spectators up (or were done so by
them?) on dry land in a brewery. (Not the
knitwear designer of the same name - I know nothing about her.)
- Bridget: I never watched what was in her diary, and
whether she went out of reason in the sequel 3 years later.
But it seems that at least her mother was played by a true
relative.
- Indiana: the legendary treasure-seeker. I admit (in shame)
I haven't seen even one of his adventures, so I know only one thing
really well about him: you know more about him than I know.
Alexander Stoimenow,
stoimeno_stoimenov.net