John Langdon Down
This celebrity goo was created by Scott Hardie.
publication date: Thursday, August 6, 2026 (part of August 2026)
category: 
Health
clue: He wasn't a politician from New Hampshire. He was the British physician who first described a common syndrome, though he might not have used such racist terms to classify it if he'd known that his own grandson would be born with it. Ooh-wah-ah-ah-ah!
explanation: Down is the doctor who first described Trisomy 21, better known as Down syndrome or Down's syndrome. He classified different types of it using terms such as Mongolism that are considered racist today. The clue references the Disturbed song "Down with the Sickness" with its gibberish refrain. more…
intended difficulty: easy
solved by: Russ Wilhelm and Richard Slominsky
trivia: This goo was inspired by founding father John Langdon.
You're Not My Real Founding Fathers!: America loves its Founding Fathers, and the nation's 250th anniversary makes for a fine opportunity to celebrate them. But wait—who are these imitators? These are actors, and musicians, and authors, and athletes! Their John Hancocks are very similar, but these aren't the real Founding Fathers! Starting apropos on Father's Day, here are a whopping fifty goos to challenge your knowledge of patriotic trivia. Can you identify these fifty fake signatories to a Declaration of Independence that never was? With luck, you\ll hold these goos to be self-evident.Similar Goos
Alice Hamilton
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John Harvey Kellogg
He wasn't a builder from Virginia. He was a sanitarium director whose beliefs about racial superiority and holistic medicine put the flake in cornflakes. Go »
Penny Johnson Jerald
She isn't a lawyer from North Carolina. She's a TV actress who must have so enjoyed playing a ship captain and eventual wife in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that she went on to play a different kind of captain in Castle, a different kind of wife in 24, and in a different kind of Star Trek in The Orville. Go »
Frances Benjamin Johnston
She wasn't a polymath from Pennsylvania. She was a journalist who discovered a love of photography as art, who used her connections with the White House and other institutions to take pictures of such notable Americans as Mark Twain, William Howard Taft, Edith Wharton, George Washington Carver, Susan B. Anthony, Daniel Coit Gilman, Booker T. Washington, George Dewey, Isadora Duncan, and Teddy, Edith & Alice Roosevelt. Go »
George H. Ross
He isn't an uncle from Pennsylvania. He's a corporate lawyer most famous for his advice about which apprentice to fire. Go »
