X Marks the Johns

May 19 turns out to be the birthday for both Johns Hopkins and Malcolm X (if 130 years apart). Here's a case where hopping into the Way Back Machine in order to play "switched at birth" would be particularly instructive, if genetically messy. First, it would be something to have all those medical experts reporting from Malcolm X University Hospital. Second, according to legend Hopkins made a good part of his fortune running guns to the Confederacy, not exactly an idea that might pop into Malcolm X's head. Third, would he end up being Malcolms X? or maybe Malcolm XI? Fourth, when a student got caught cheating on an exam in a class he needed to graduate, he was reported to say, "By any means necessary." Fifth, Mark Twain, upon receiving an honorary degree from Hopkins, wrote, "I said the public is sensitive to little things, and they wouldn't have full confidence in a college that didn't know how to spell the name 'John'." Sixth, the school is in Maryland, a Civil War border state, so if it was renamed, that surely would have put Malcolm in the Middle. Seventh, why am I counting?