'Doppelganger' is in eye of the beholder
The Germans have given pop culture some great words. (As Sherlock Holmes once said, "Though unmusical, German is the most expressive of all languages.")
Which brings us to the hot word of the week: Doppelganger. In its original usage, a doppelganger is the ghostly double of a living person, usually a harbinger of bad luck or even death. The English poet Shelley was a magnet for doppelgangers: He wrote that he'd encountered them in the weeks before his wife's miscarriage and again before his own demise.
Today the word has a happier outlook. On Sunday, Facebook users were challenged to find a picture of a famous person "you have been told you look like" - and substitute that person's picture for their own profile photo. Netizens have gone wild over the idea.
