All Hopped Up

Tense, people, tense!

I opened up my browser this morning to see this alarming factoid posted by msn.com: Who was Engelbert Humperdinck? Was?! Could it be true that in my hectic life I was too otherwise engaged to note the passing of the former Gerry Dorsey, the "King of Romance"?

Fyoosh! Turns out the folks at msn.com are just a bit verb-tense challenged. The big man is still with us. . . and he still hates Tom Jones (albeit in a showbiz kinda way).

Could be the english deficient pop-quiz-meisters were in fact referring to the original Engelbert Humperdinck, but if so you think they would've linked to his wikipedia page and not that of the modern pop crooner. One interesting factoid--the heirs of the original E.H. (a German operatic Wagner-wannabe best known for penning the opera version of Hansel and Gretel) sued the heartthrob for copyright infringement, thus in Germany and Austria he is known only as Engelbert.