WTF Weds: Dopplegangers at the Louvre

Posted on

Jun 26, 2013

Like most couples who’ve been together for way, waaaay too long, Rand and I have started seeing things the same way.

I am acutely aware of how obnoxious this is for our friends and relatives. I will walk in to a room, and make an observation (“Hey! They have dry-cured olives! I love dry-cured olives!”), and a few minutes later Rand will walk in and do the exact same thing.

Hanging out with us is basically like watching the same episode of a TV show, twice. And it’s not even that good of an episode.

I won’t even touch on all the times we’ve each told the same corny joke, back-to-back, at the same party. Needless to say, it’s a miracle anyone hangs out with us at all.

There is one area of our lives, though, in which we differ radically, and it seems that we might never be on the same page. Rand and I have an uncanny ability to disagree on who people resemble. During our travels, I will spot a stranger who (in my estimation) looks exactly like someone we know.

And Rand will politely tell me that I’ve lost it.

“Baby! Baby! Look at that woman over there. Doesn’t she look exactly my cousin?”

“In that they are both adult females of the same species, yes. The resemblance is shocking.”

While in Paris, I went to the Louvre by myself because Rand had heard less than stellar reviews – turned out he was right to skip out, but more on that in another post.

When I returned, he browsed through some of my photos (I occasionally break my no-photos-in-museums-rule for the sake of the blog. I still maintain that those who spend hours snapping photos of paintings without actually looking at the works should be smacked upside the head. Myself included.)

“Why did you take so many pictures of this one painting?” he asked, indicating a portrait of a Venetian man by Tiziano Vecellio.

“Um, because it looks EXACTLY LIKE STEPHEN.”

“Maybe a little.”

A little? No way. This painting basically IS Stephen. Let’s compare the two, shall we? First, I need to find an appropriate photo of Stephen to show you.

Unfortunately, that’s kind of difficult.

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Stephen has this tendency to be … well … so very Stephen in every photo you take of him.

Notice how Rand has to stand on his tippy-toes to hug them. #adorable

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Not gonna lie, though. This one is just amazing:

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Just when I sort of started to give up on finding a decent picture …

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I came across a few lovely ones of him and Jane:

All together now: Awwwwwwwww.

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Okay, so now that you’ve got an idea of what Stephen looks like (indeed, his image is probably seared onto your retinas. PLEASANT DREAMS FOR ALL!), here’s the painting I saw at the Louvre:

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