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Ozzie Canseco, twin brother of baseball player/author Jose Canseco
(Instructions: select the story you think is false)
Although Ozzie’s brief major-league career never included a home run, he and Jose formed their own set of Bash Brothers during a 2001 Miami Beach bar brawl. The hulking twins took on two men and left one with a broken nose and the other in need of 20 stitches.
Ozzie was once so depressed over the end of a relationship, he considered turning his machine gun on himself. Why did he have a machine gun in the first place? He used it to shoot sharks, of course.
ANSWER: This one’s allegedly real, but it’s actually Jose and is written up in his autobiography/magnum opus Juiced. This one’s allegedly real, but it’s actually Jose and is written up in his autobiography/magnum opus Juiced.
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Hugh Rodham, brother of Senator Hillary Clinton
In 1999 the former Penn State backup quarterback ran afoul of the State Department and brother-in-law Bill Clinton when he and younger brother Tony launched a $118 million scheme to grow and export hazelnuts from the Republic of Georgia. Unfortunately, their business partner also happened to be the top rival of a key American ally in the region, and they were forced to stop. It’s unconfirmed, but this whole debacle may have been an elaborate scheme to make Roger Clinton look better by comparison.
Hugh drew heavy criticism in 2000 for allegedly arranging a presidential pardon from his brother-in-law for carny Edgar Allen Gregory Jr. and his wife Vonna Jo. The pair operated a carnival and had been convicted of bank fraud in 1982. Although the couple never went to jail, their conviction precluded them from doing business in some states, not to mention the damage a felony conviction can do to someone in the image-conscious traveling-amusement industry.
ANSWER: This one’s actually little brother Tony Rodham’s doing. If all goes well for Hillary, Tony’s got the inside track on being the cabinet’s first-ever Secretary of Tilt-a-Whirl. This one’s actually little brother Tony Rodham’s doing. If all goes well for Hillary, Tony’s got the inside track on being the cabinet’s first-ever Secretary of Tilt-a-Whirl.
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Frank Stallone, brother of Sylvester Stallone
In the 1970s Stallone, who has since recorded and toured as a big-band crooner in the style of Sinatra, was in a band called Valentine. Who played lead guitar in this rockin’ act? None other than Daryl Hall, who later went on to achieve immortality in Hall & Oates.
Like his older brother, Frank is an avid boxing fan. In addition to serving as a consultant for the boxing reality series The Contender, he once defeated Geraldo Rivera in a match on Howard Stern’s show. Boxing’s several dozen governing bodies did not recognize the match as a legitimate title bout, possibly due to Stallone’s frequent use of below-the-mustache blows.
ANSWER: Not true, but tantalizingly close: Valentine featured the lead guitar work of none other than John Oates of Hall & Oates fame. Not true, but tantalizingly close: Valentine featured the lead guitar work of none other than John Oates of Hall & Oates fame.
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Alec Waugh, novelist and older brother of English writer Evelyn Waugh
Although Alec isn’t remembered for the kind of violent stirs Evelyn’s prose could provoke, his first novel, The Loom of Youth, was a shocker in its own right. The semi-autobiographical work featured frank accounts of homosexual relationships between private-school boys, which so incensed Alec’s alma mater, Sherborne School, that the alumni society gave him the boot.
Despite Alec’s inferior literary abilities (his nephew Alexander wrote in a family history that Alec “wrote many books, each worse than the last”), he had a talent for booze. In addition to writing a number of books on wine, he also invented the cocktail party.
ANSWER: Although many, including Wikipedia, credit Waugh for this innovation, Alec himself claimed that painter C.R.W. Nevison invented the cocktail party, while the Wall Street Journal’s Eric Felten gives the honor to Mrs. Julius S. Walsh Jr. of Saint Louis. Although many, including Wikipedia, credit Waugh for this innovation, Alec himself claimed that painter C.R.W. Nevison invented the cocktail party, while the Wall Street Journal’s Eric Felten gives the honor to Mrs. Julius S. Walsh Jr. of Saint Louis.
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Brent Gretzky, younger brother of hockey great Wayne Gretzky
When Tampa Bay selected Gretzky in the third round of the 1992 NHL Entry Draft, Lightning GM Phil Esposito famously called it the steal of the draft. “We hope we’ve gotten the best Gretzky yet!” he optimistically yelled.
The younger Gretzky, a minor league journeyman, was once subpoenaed as part of a fraud investigation against James Galante, an alleged Mob figure, garbage mogul, and owner of the United Hockey League’s Danbury Trashers. Galante was then one of 29 people affiliated with the team to be indicted for fraud.
ANSWER: This one isn’t even remotely believable. No team has ever been excited to acquire Brent Gretzky. Yes, even the ECHL’s Elmira Jackals, just one of the many marquee teams for which he’s played. This one isn’t even remotely believable. No team has ever been excited to acquire Brent Gretzky. Yes, even the ECHL’s Elmira Jackals, just one of the many marquee teams for which he’s played.
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Daniel Baldwin, second-oldest Baldwin brother
Daniel appeared as the Eastsiders’ team captain on the first season of Celebrity Fit Club and lost 28 pounds, but failed to show up for the final weigh-in. When producers finally tracked him down, Baldwin revealed that he missed the weigh-in because he’d relapsed into an addiction to painkillers and cocaine.
As a committed vegan, Daniel has been nominated several times for PETA’s “World Sexiest Vegetarian” honor. When a script called for an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street called for his character, Detective Beau Felton, to eat a steak, Baldwin refused to shoot the scene.
ANSWER: Apparently Daniel has yet to convert to the vegetarian cause, but brothers Alec and William have both been nominated for this honor, which in 2007 went to Carrie Underwood and Kevin Eubanks. Apparently Daniel has yet to convert to the vegetarian cause, but brothers Alec and William have both been nominated for this honor, which in 2007 went to Carrie Underwood and Kevin Eubanks.
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Marcus Vick, younger brother of Michael Vick
Although Vick’s stomping of Louisville’s Elvis Dumervil might have been the last straw for Vick’s time at Virginia Tech, coaches credited his dismissal to the cumulative effects of many incidents, including one in which he challenged 59-year-old head coach Frank Beamer to a fistfight. Beamer declined, presumably because he preferred to settle things with sound special teams play.
Shortly after his dismissal from Virginia Tech’s football team, the younger Vick was charged with brandishing a firearm at three men outside of a McDonald’s in Suffolk, Virginia. Vick later contended that he was waving a Blackberry, not a gun, at the men, apparently to show that he wasn’t afraid to send them a terse-but-threatening email.
ANSWER: This one’s not true, but take a moment to reflect on how insane you’d need to be to have a reputation as the black sheep of the family when family that also includes Michael Vick. This one’s not true, but take a moment to reflect on how insane you’d need to be to have a reputation as the black sheep of the family when family that also includes Michael Vick.
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Anne Bronte, younger sister of Emily and Charlotte Bronte
While she may not have enjoyed her sisters’ enduring success as a novelist, Anne trumped them both in another business: the governess racket. Although all three Bronte sisters tried their hand at being either teachers or governesses, only Anne stuck it out for any appreciable length of time.
As the youngest of Victorian literature’s female answer to the Baldwin brothers, Anne was also the most rebellious and refused to attend church. After Anne fell asleep or walked out during services on multiple occasions, the family just gave up and quit making her go.
ANSWER: In truth, Anne was possibly the most pious of the sisters and often professed a deep belief in universalism. In 1837 she allegedly worked herself into such a huff while weighing the merits of certain religious beliefs that she became physically ill. In truth, Anne was possibly the most pious of the sisters and often professed a deep belief in universalism. In 1837 she allegedly worked herself into such a huff while weighing the merits of certain religious beliefs that she became physically ill.
