If you're a fan of "The Simpsons" you might remember the episode in which Homer turns out to look just like "Mr. Sparkle," the spokes-cartoon for a Japanese laundry detergent. In the end it was all coincidence; when the light bulb logo of one company was merged with the fish logo of a second company in the joint venture, the resulting image looked exactly like our anti-hero.
Because my last name is misspelled and arugably misapplied -- it's a long story -- I know that everyone named Tanzilo is one of us; a member of my relatively small clan. So, when I see the name on the Internet, I always take notice.
Today, I got an e-mail that alerted me to a computer programming blog with Tanzilo in the URL. I wondered which of us started blogging and I clicked the "about me" link and learned the blog is by a certain Tanzil Al Gazmir in Bangladesh. Not likely even a distant cousin. Did his finger slip while creating his blog profile? Maybe once it was up and running, it didn't seem worth correcting the error.
It reminded me that a few years ago there was apparently a hit song in Germany with a title that included the word "Tanzilo," which must mean something in German (just don't ask Alta Vista's Babel Fish Web translator ... it doesn't know). Or maybe some drum machine jockey over there was paying tribute to or lashing out at me or a relative. That, however, seems unlikely. What did we ever do to the German club scene? And what on Earth does this mean? " Tanzilo -- huhu -- komm und beiß ein Blättchen ab... *genausofrechzurückwink*"
I also found 24-year-old Ilonka's page on which a commenter refers to her (I think) as "The Tanzilo."
More recently, I saw this blog which refers to "Tanzilo" and a fictional conversation with "Paulsen (the other one)." And that one really caught my eye because it mentions "Mozilo," who I presume is former Countrywide mortgage CEO Angelo Mozilo. One of my oldest friends is named Mozzillo. But it's not Angelo.
All of this tells me that the Internet, while simplifying and clarifying a lot of things, has also turned into a veritable tower of Babel, dishing up tons of matches for virtually any word, name or random string of letters in nearly every language.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
