Alaska's First Family

Reader Liz brought a serious problem to our attention in the last post's comments. No matter what your politics are, I think we can all agree that Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, and Trig Paxson Van could have used a re-think. Particularly the first two and the last one. Particularly because Trig doesn't appear to be any kind of "Nordic" name, as the family claims. There's "Trygg", a Norwegian name which means "safe" or "reliable" - but there's unfortunately no "brave victory." Maybe they should have just been straight with us and confessed it's short for "Trigger." NRA family, you know? Or maybe "Trigonometry?" Palin's probably good with numbers?

Willow? I'll survive. Piper? Not my fave, but hey. But Bristol is a girl. And Track is... a sport. And Trig just really, really, really needs to be good at math in high school. At least algebra. Seriously.