Q.  Do you welcome suggestions for new entries?

A.  To be honest, not really.  I mean, I always want to keep the door open for a truly great suggestion and I sincerely appreciate the interest people have in the NN&C pages, but somewhere along the line I realized the site had grown too large, so I'm really trying to limit the number of people I add.  When I took over the site in 2005, it was necessary to update it and add several new names, but not now.

Q.  But you should make every effort to include all eligible nonagenarians and centenarians of note on your site, don't you think?

A.  No.  To quote from my own homepage, not everyone of note can be here.  That would be impossible.  With over 800 names currently on the NN&C pages, I'm not going to beat myself up if someone slips through the cracks.

Q.  What about people turning 90 in 2008?

A.  I came up with a list of what I consider to be the most prominent people turning 90 in 2008 and I'm going to try to stick to that list.  I have a few back-up names, of course, but by the end of 2008, I hope there will be just those pre-determined names on the "1918" page.

Q.  If you already have a pre-determined list of people turning 90 in 2008, how do I go about giving you the name of someone I think you should add?

A.  You don't.  If a name is already on my list, it's going to appear on the site, and if a name isn't on my list, you're just going to get an e-mail from me restating I already came up with the names of people I'm going to add.

Q.  What are your criteria for including people on the "Hall of Fame" pages?

A.  An individual has to be at least 90, of course, but other than that, it's totally arbitrary.  Some of the names are renowned and therefore obvious choices (i.e., Churchill, Picasso), while others are more unsung, but, I feel, also important.  Remember, though, as with all aspects of this website, these names are just meant to be a sampling and one man's choices, so please don't take anyone's inclusion on or exclusion from the list as gospel.

Q.  Isn't it kind of fun to have your site used as a missing person's bureau for individuals who nobody is completely sure are still alive?

A.  No!  It might be nice for some site to play Scotland Yard, but not mine.  I just don't have the time, interest, or resources for it.  If I add someone, I want to be as certain as possible he or she is still alive.

Q.  Can you guarantee everyone on your website is still alive?

A.  Within a reasonable doubt I can, but with so many names on the site, I admit there might be some errors.  But since the Internet is my only reference source, I must assume a person is still alive if I can find no evidence to the contrary there.

Q.  What's the Social Security Death Index?

A.  A terrific resource tool for determining if someone is still alive or not!  Click here to check it out.  It contains the names of over 80,000,000 Americans who have died from within the last two months to the past forty years.

Q.  What's the biggest help someone can be to your site?

A.  I always appreciate people taking the time to let me know when someone on the site has died, especially if the individual who passed away is a lesser known or non-American entry whose death may not make the news here in the U.S.  I'm not being morbid, mind you.  I just want to keep the site as accurate and up-to-date as possible.  And I'm also grateful when visitors point out any factual discrepancies or grammatical errors they find.

Q.  If I think a person on your site is listed under the wrong year or birthday, do you want to hear about it?

A.  Definitely!  But rather than just expressing your personal opinion, please include some tangible proof with your e-mail as confirmation, i.e., an Internet site I can research.

Q.  By the way, how do you decide what year or birthday to list for an entry?

A.  I just go by what I find on the Internet.  If the majority of sources lists a person's birth year as 1912, for instance, that's what I'll put.  But if a sizeable amount of sources claims 1911, I'll reference that, too.  It's all guesswork with some of these folks, so sometimes I end up playing eeny, meeny, miny, moe and hoping I've made the right choice.

Q.  If I send you a link to an article in a language other than English, say a French Wikipedia entry, that's OK, right?

A.  No.  I only speak English, so I'll have no way of knowing what it says.

Q.  Why do you link most of the pictures to Wikipedia?  And why are some of them in a language other than English?  I thought you just said you only speak English.

A.  Linking the pictures to Wikipedia is basically something I do for my convenience so I have a quick way of checking if a person on the site is listed as still alive.  It doesn't matter to me if the listing is in English or not.  I don't have to be bilingual to spot if a death date has been added.  My theory is a foreign person's entry will more likely be updated in his or her native tongue than in the English-language equivalent.

Q.  So you're a big believer in Wikipedia?

A.  Just the opposite!!!  I'm continually appalled by the horrible writing there.  I'm no Hemingway, mind you, but I think I can write rings around most of their entries!  And I seriously question how scholarly a tome Wikipedia can be if any Tom, Dick, or Harry can readily change the information.  I do think, however, most of their articles will be updated fairly quickly and accurately when someone dies.

Q.  Why is your policy to limit the "In Memoriam" pages to only those individuals who were on your site while they were alive?

A.  Because if I didn't, I'd continually be offered suggestions on which recently deceased people to add, and I'd end up running two separate sites – one for the living and one for the dead.  Besides, the "In Memoriam" pages are just meant to be a by-product of the main site, a nice way of remembering and retaining those individuals who died during the year without having to completely eliminate them.  The real focus of the NN&C site should be on the people who are still living.

Q.  My grandmother is 104.  How do I go about having her added to your website?

A.  The most important questions is, what is she noted for?  If only for being 104, then I don't consider her to be good NN&C material.  Remember that the first "N" in NN&C stands for "Noted".  Besides, with the exception of the "Supercentenarians" page, I try not to add anyone to the site just for being old.  That's not what this website is supposed to be about.

Q.  Excuse me?

A.  It isn't.  It's supposed to be about people who were noted during their lifetimes and then happened to grow old.  And speaking of supercentenarians (people 110+ years of age), if you think you know an individual who qualifies as being one, please contact Mr. Robert Young of the Gerontology Research Group.  His e-mail address is robertdouglasyoung@yahoo.com.  He'll be happy to help you.  I have nothing to do with that type of thing.

Q.  So you're not interested in adding a 100-year-old water-skier or a 105-year-old bowler to the site?

A.  No.  They're fascinating, of course, and should be featured in some newspaper's Sunday supplement, but they're basically in the spotlight for something they're doing just because of their advanced ages, not for something noted they've done most of their lives.

Q.  What's your definition of "noted"?

A.  Good question.  None of the synonyms seem to fit exactly – celebrated, eminent, famed, famous, illustrious, preeminent, renowned.  They all imply the people on my site are well-known to a large segment of the population, which most aren't.  And yet they're not just a favorite aunt or an elderly neighbor.  So how about this for a definition: "distinguished by reputation"?  That would imply these people have shone in their chosen fields, which theoretically all have, and therefore achieved a certain degree of notoriety.

Q.  How do you decide who makes your site and who doesn't?

A.  It's a total judgment call, but since I run the site, I get to make the call!!!  You know, some people write criticizing my inclusion of baseball players and others write giving me more baseball players.  One person says I should add all the eligible cardinals and another person calls them "decrepit".  I tried early on to accommodate everyone who wrote to me, but as the late entertainer Rick Nelson so aptly sang, "You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself!"

Q.  I live in Uruguay.  Wouldn't you like to know who our oldest man and woman are so you can add them?

A.  I might consider adding them, but only if they're included on the Gerontology Research Group's list of "Validated Living Supercentenarians" (click here to see the list).

Q.  Do you have addresses for the people on your site so I can write to them?

A.  I don't, but I know celebrity address sites exist somewhere on the Internet.  I've just never used them.  Try typing "celebrity addresses" into a Google search and see what comes up.

Q.  I want to know if Betty White is still alive and, if so, how old she is.  How do I do that?

A.  You don't, at least not on my website.  I have no search engine.  Try doing a Google search of her or check out a website called Dead or Alive?.  It specializes in that kind of thing.

Q.  How did you come to create this website?

A.  I didn't.  It was started in 1997 by a man named Chris Cleary, someone I've never met or even talked to on the phone, by the way.  I was a big fan of the site and we were in e-mail contact over the years.  In May of 2005 I asked Chris if he'd allow me to take over the website if I promised to run it with the same integrity he had, and he graciously agreed.  I don't hear from him very often, but he's doing well.

Q.  What are your credentials for running this website?

A.  Besides having a sincere interest in the subject matter and a commitment to make it as good and accurate as possible, none.

Q.  Is the cost of running the NN&C pages subsidized by the government or a corporation?

A.  No, the cost comes totally out of my own pocket.

Q.  Do you make any money from the website?

A.  Not at all!  It's solely for educational, informational purposes.

Q.  Didn't there used to be an acknowledgments page?

A.  There was, and even though I removed it, I still appreciate everyone who's taken an interest in the site and decided to contact me, especially Mr. Jay Payton, who regularly takes the time to advise me of the latest happenings in the NN&C world (aka when someone on the site dies).  And my eternal thanks go to Mr. Chris Munger for his infinite patience in teaching me how to run a website and for his on-going technical support and troubleshooting.

Q.  Isn't the website dedicated to someone?

A.  Yes, it's dedicated to the memory of my dear friend Bill Naras (1956-2005).  Serdecznie dziękuję for asking!
 

Q.  Who are you, by the way?