The Infospigot traffic logs show an unusual number of people arriving here after Googling the question, “Which popular singer is the great-great grandson of Daylight Saving Time inventor William Willett?”
The answer, if you believe the Wikipedia entries on Willett and Daylight Savings Time is Chris Martin of Coldplay.
What I’m not clear on is where the question was asked that so many people are looking for the answer. Six o’clock Mass? [Later: I see that nearly all the Willett/Martin queries are coming from Canada, and more specifically, apparently from the Toronto area starting during the morning commute hour. So I’m guessing this is an early-morning trivia question posed on a radio show up there.]
Technorati Tags: trivia
That is a very acute observation and almost completely on the money. Yes, it’s because of a question asked by a radio station, but it wasn’t an on-air question, it is part of an online community for listeners of this station. The station is The Fan 590, an AM all-sports talk station. As fan club members, we collect points by doing various things like listening to the show for bonus codes, going to special promotional events, visiting sponsor sites AND answering weekly quiz question. The points are redeemable for contest entries and to purchase merchandise. Last week one of teh quiz quetions was the one you mentioned above. That’s why you’ve been getting so many hits with this question, and that’s why I’m here. Thanks for the answer. 😉
This may clarify the issue furthermore. There is a listing on e-bay for an insurance policy from 1885 issued to Willett, and the owner talks about the Coldplay connection. Additionally, there have been many postings in various blogs and forums leading to this document. Stan. this is the link: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Willett-Daylight-Saving-Time-Insurance-Policy-Coldplay_W0QQitemZ170100214317QQihZ007QQcategoryZ4092QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem