True, I had been telling Charie for some time that I thought we were having twins, but when the Ultrasound tech actually said, “I have something to show you…”, a slight breeze would have tossed me.

It was quite the scene, really. Char was a minute or two behind me going into the room, so when the tech pointed out “Baby A and Baby B”, her first reaction was to ask if I had put her up to telling us it was twins. I hadn’t.

Since then, I’ve learned some interesting things about multiple births. Turns out that twins run on the woman’s side of the family and, though I’ve been blamed for this turn of events, I actually had very little to do with it. Well, I had about half to do with the kids, but very little to do with the fact that we’re having more than one.

With the increasing use of fertility drugs, women waiting until older ages to have children, multiple births are becoming more common.

This seems like a story that should have gotten wider coverage than it did, but I’ve neither seen nor heard it anywhere else. Here’s a news brief from the January 12, 2004 Newsweek:

Iranian President Mohammed Khatami said last week that U.S. aid to earthquake victims in Bam would not alter relations between the two coutries, which broke off ties a quarter century ago, and President George W. Bush said moves to help Iran do not indicate a thaw. But in the wake of the Dec. 26 disaster that killed at least 30,000 people and left tens of thousands homeless, some Iranians who lost loved ones are engaging in more reconciliatory dialogue.

They’re angry at their government’s inefficiency in coordinating help – and appreciative of foreign relief. “We’ve said ‘Death to America’ for 25 years, and now they’re helping us when we need them,” says Javad Alavi, hospitalized in Tehran. He lost 25 family members, but an American rescue team found his nephew. “They came here with their [search] dogs, which [the Iranian government] says is a dirty animal. But write that I love Americans and I love their dogs.”

Reported by Maziar Bahari

And I am, of course. Great wife, beautiful kids, good family. But wouldn’t a few million bucks be nice?

The 15 cooks of a small school district in Roseville, Minnesota, showed up for work on Monday, even though they all knew they didn’t need the job. “The kids come first,” one said. Each of them put a quarter in a pot to buy four Powerball tickets; something they’ve been doing every pay period for the past 13 years. (I haven’t bothered with the math, but I think they could have done this for several thousand years and it would have still paid off; the consortium won half of a $190 million pot, which netted them about $6.5 million each. Not bad.

And only in Minnesota (or perhaps North Dakota) would you see this:

The women started their first Monday as millionaires back on the school lunch line where they fed the students in the tiny Holdingford School District before hopping a bus to the state lottery headquarters to claim their prize.

“It was really tough to be concentrating on the meal,” said winner Karen Overman. “I know there’s a need for news conferences in the morning, but we’ve got breakfast to put out.”

God bless them.

Oh, by the way, the other half of the pot hasn’t been claimed yet, but goes to the holder of a ticket purchased in a “southwestern Indiana town”. Check your pockets.

And in an oddly related story, I heard recently that Jeff Probst (of Survivor fame) has directed a new movie starring James Earl Jones and titled “Finder’s Fee“. The premise: What would you do if you found a wallet containing a winning lottery ticket worth $6 million?”