More Martins Than Carter Has Pills

My sainted mother used to say the above phrase on a routine basis when refering to the Martin family, which on reflection must mean that at some point in her life she and my father went to North Georgia, where there are indeed a KFC bucketful of Martins. In our particular line of Martins, north Georgia still holds more distant relatives than anyplace else, though many of them are getting on in years (like our 102-year old Aunt Austell, bless her heart).

By what is surely the strangest of coincidences, we have discovered that our new adopted hometown, and indeed the whole adopted country, is crawling with Martins. There are so many of them in this region that it's downright uncanny. A few examples:

* The Prime Minister of Canada until 2006? Paul Martin
* Canadian currently in the news for being held in Mexico illegally? Brenda Martin
* Canada's most famous world-class snowboarder? Brad Martin
* Captain of the Canadian national curling team? Kevin Martin
* The NDP MP who successfully repealed a penny of the sales tax? Pat Martin
* Star of the Victoria Belfry Theatre's season opener, Homechild? Margaret Martin
* Liberal MP for Esquimalt, right across the bay from us? Keith Martin
* Fourth most likely surname in the entire country? That would be ... Martin!

Martin is not exactly the world's most uncommon surname, I grant you, but in the US the name "Martin" ranks about 17th or so (at least it did in 2000). We were just watching the news and noticing that three of the stories had someone named "Martin" either in them or reporting them. Wow.

In other news, the latest episode of Chas' Crusty Old Wave is up. If you subscribed via iTunes, it will fetch it for you automatically. Otherwise, use the link.

Lastly, today's high was 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Nice enough to open the window for a while.

If you're recoiling in horror at the above sentence, you're in Florida. :)