More On The Wu-Nobay Vows: The Leprous Truth
We apologize for taking so long to bring you this Vows news, but we have to admit, we kind of thought this one was boring. Well, we did like the part about how Frances Wu joined an online dating site because, at almost-30, she was worried about being considered a "Christmas cake." (Now we have a new insult for the Sadshaws in our lives!) But other than that: bleh! Rommel Nobay, Frances Wu's intended, speaks a lot of languages and went to many fancy colleges! Mr. Nobay and Ms. Wu both like NPR and bagels! We just fell asleep! Oh, but wait . . . what's going on in this paragraph?
As their dating progressed, Ms. Wu researched Mr. Nobay online and learned that in 1998 he sued Princeton, unsuccessfully, for defamation after the university notified medical schools he had applied to that his applications contained misrepresentations and altered his academic record. (In court, he admitted misstatements but says he still believes some of what Princeton presented was inaccurate.)
Ms. Wu was happy when he volunteered the information on an early date. "He knew that I knew, and I knew that he knew that I knew," she said. "I was glad he owned up to it right away."
Hmm, but what KIND of misstatements? We decided to investigate. Psych! We decided to let you know that someone else had investigated.
Intrepid sleuth Adam over at Throwing Things dug up this juicy tidbit about Nobay's suit, from a 1998 AP article:
The graduate, Rommel Nobay, had admitted he told numerous lies and half-truths in applying to Princeton and later to medical school. He claimed that he was part black and a National Merit Scholar and that a family of lepers had donated half their beggings to support his dream. ... Nobay, 30, a computer science teacher from New Haven, admitted that he was not, in fact, a Merit Scholar and that a family of lepers had not helped send him to school. He also acknowledged that he doesn't know whether he has any black blood.
Oh, come on. Who hasn't lied about their ethnicity in their college application? Personally, we're at least 1/100th Assiniboine Sioux. But the leper family — well, that is kind of where our respect for Mr. Nobay fell off a bit.
Another Weekly Installment [Throwing Things]
Frances Wu and Rommel Nobay [NYT]