This time Wikipedia has gone too far. As you’ve no doubt read by now, the encyclopedia that any moron can edit managed to send Sinbad to an early grave – as in pronouncing him dead while he is still very much alive.
While this particular wiki-vandalism may be garden-variety, the damage – raising Sinbad’s profile from C-list “celebrity” to apparent if (one must hope) temporary genuine fame – is downright inexcusable. I mean just look at how he is being described in news reports:
Actor-comedian Sinbad … renowned comedian, Sinbad … the 50-year-old actor and comedian whose real name is David Adkins … American comedian SINBAD (a Canadian outlet rubs it in) … and perhaps most appallingly of all, Sinbad has joined the ranks of Mark Twain, a theme repeated ad nauseum throughout the hundreds upon hundreds of accounts.
Despite the fact that Sinbad has been doing whatever it is he does for several decades now, this – thanks to a thoughtless Wiki-vandal – may be the man’s real 15 minutes of fame.
Jail time for the vandal is all I have left to say about Sinbad.
By the way, the premature publishing of obituaries – whether by accident or mischievously – is a time-honored tradition in America, one in which I have played a small role.
Anyone out there holding a copy of the 1980 Northeastern University yearbook – The Cauldron, which I edited – will notice a news item, which I wrote, reporting the death of Karen Ann Quinlin (the Terri Schiavo of that era). Quinlin was removed from life support in 1976.
One problem with what I wrote and I’ll let Wikipedia explain: “Although Quinlan was removed from active life support in 1976, she lived on in a coma for almost a decade until her death from pneumonia in 1985.”
Oops, my sinbad.
(Update: Say what you will about Wikipedia, but they’ve got just about everything covered, including this list of premature obituaries – and, yes, it’s been updated to include Sinbad.)
