Guess Who?

Beyond rational belief, last week's Guess Who? has been correctly identified by Chris F. as Spencer Elden, the infant who appeared on one of the most memorable album covers of all time, Nirvana's Nevermind.

Now 17 years old, Elden experiences the natural anxiety a teen might feel from having such a picture taken, but not nearly as much anxiety as I would have felt in allowing any infant of mine to be dropped in a pool of water.

Either way, nine million people bought that album, and yes, Elden is a big fan too.

According to him:

Elden said he is a true Nirvana fan but has never met any of the
bandmembers. He's had a platinum record for Nevermind hanging in his bedroom
since his first birthday. But Spencer hasn't seen any royalties from the
record's sales; his parents were paid just $200 for allowing him to be
photographed.

"My dad went to art school over here in Pasadena, and while he
was going there, he had a good friend named Kirk, who was, at one time, a Navy
Seal and an underwater-demolition expert," Elden, who is often asked to sign
copies of the album, explained. "And so, to go to art school, he gave up diving.
One day, he and my mom were sitting at the dinner table during a party, and my
mom actually came up with the idea. He was saying how he missed scuba diving,
and she said, 'Why don't you just do underwater photography?' When he graduated, the first gig he got was the Nirvana album, and he needed a baby. So they just threw me in the pool, snapped a whole roll of film in like a second, and that's how it happened."

The idea of dropping a baby in a pool never struck me one way or the other when I was a freshman in high school....I just thought the band was really cool. Now, as a parent, there is no way I would let one of mine be dropped in a pool, even if it was for a matter of seconds.

Am I alone on this? I guess the whole water birth theory contradicts me, but I wouldn't do that either.

Maybe I'm just neurotic.

Whatever. Nevermind.