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| Gus Van Sant, not Tim. Cool picture though, eh? |
I felt like asking Tim VanSant some dumbass questions.
Q: Are you Gus Van Sant's brother? And was Steve Van Zandt your other brother only he was the black sheep of the family so all you other Van Sants ganged up on him and made him change his spelling?
A: Short answers: no and no. And you didn't ask, but here are a few other people I'm also not closely related to: Townes Van Zandt [singer/songwriter], Ronnie, Donnie, and Johnny Van Zant [brothers and musicians, most notably with Lynyrd Skynyrd and .38 Special], Peter Van Sant [television news reporter], and Tom Van Sant [artist]. God, now I feel like such a loser.
Here's a bit of trivia though. Gus Van Sant and I were born in the same city and on the same day, but not the same year. Here's another bit of trivia. The original [Dutch] spelling of my last name is Van Zandt. So if there were any black sheep forced to change the spelling, they would have been one of my ancestors, not Steve's. The black sheep idea is a lot more interesting than what probably really happened; the name changed due to Americanization and illiteracy. There are more than a dozen variations that all trace back to a few original Van Zandt families.
It just occurred to me, I'm a bit of a black sheep in my family [okay, more of a dingy off-white or slightly grey, but I got street cred] and I always write my last name as VanSant instead of Van Sant. Yeah. That's right. I'm bad. So maybe your theory is right after all.
Bored yet?
~Tim
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On the Interweb: www.timvansant.com
On the Blog: www.timvansant.com/otoh
On the Twitter: www.twitter.com/timvansant
On the Facebook: www.facebook.com/tim.vansant.writes
On the Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/timvansantwrites
On Dasher, on Dancer, on Donner, on Blitzen....
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| The Van Zandts of Lynyrd Skynyrd. None of them are Tim. |
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| Steve Van Zandt from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band as well as Silvio from The Sopranos. Also not Tim. |
Haha, I adore that he went on to list other people he isn't related to.
ReplyDeleteI know, right? I was literally laughing out loud when I read his e-mail.
DeleteI've always wanted to know who Tim wasn't related to. :)
ReplyDeleteMe too!
DeleteNice to know Tim ISN'T related to all those famous people - no-one can accuse him of literary success based on his 'connections'! ;-p
ReplyDelete(As for 'black sheep' - as a keen amateur genealogist, some of my favourite ancestors were definitely the 'outcasts'! )
Sue, I was noticing a little bit of black fluff around your pearly edges. Meant to ask you about that....
DeleteFor the record, I never called your questions "dumbass questions." I'm not disagreeing with your description, but I never called them that. And I suppose that explains why you got such dumbass answers from me.
ReplyDelete;-)
Oh no they're dumbass questions alright! There would be no point in asking boring ones. For the record, I think you're one of the funniest guys on the interweeb - any time you comment here you crack me up, Mr. Not-Related-To-Half-The-Planet.
DeleteHahahahaha! I think Tim is the coolest VanSant of all! (note the spelling)
ReplyDeleteHe totally is.
DeleteNow I want to know about the street cred...
ReplyDeleteVanSant in all its guises is an evocative name, isn't it? I think your so-called dumbass question sparked some entertaining non-connections!
ReplyDeleteHysterical. When do we get numero dos?
ReplyDeleteWell, Mr. VanSant I feel I now know who you're not! Tee-hee
ReplyDeleteJohn, G.P., and Sue, there are, of course MANY more people I am not related to. Also Sue, at this point no one can accuse me of literary success at all.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Laurita! ;-)
OK, Laura. You caught me. I have no cred of any kind, especially not street.
Yeah, Susan. It was fun.
Numero Dos is in the works, Richard. But the scheduling is up to Cathy, of course.
Well, Ms.Howell. You actually know a little more about who I'm not. I'm really not a whole lot more than this. ;-)