I learned a surprising fact today. I am one of the millions of people around the world who cannot spell chlorophyll. Yep. Moi. I discovered this little known fact while doing a search on Answers.com for words that rhyme with this obscurely spelled dictionary enigma. It started off with much confidence…cloraphyl (negative), quickly morphed to chloraphyl (yeah right) and escalated to an embarrassing caloraphil (at this point the search bar was begging me to leave). Now you might be wondering why I was so interested this particular search. It actually had to do with this week’s Featured Contributor, Re723phyl. I thought I would get quirky and rhyme out an intro. And the only word that came to mind was chlorophyll (which has two “L’s”, not one – shame on me). But enough dwelling on my spelling inadequacies – here is more on this week’s awesome, super intelligent and all around great Featured Cloraphyl – I mean Contributor. Introducing the wickedly cool Re723phyl!
What is your Answers.com user name and the history behind it?
Re723phyl – We had a small, Fiat X-19. Because of its’ mileage, we had a personalized plate, REPHYL (1st 2 letters of mine and 1st 4 letters of my wife, Phyllis’ names) as phonetically similar to REFILL (the gas tank).
Are you a Floating or Category Supervisor (which categories)?
I’m the Category Supervisor of Unemployment.
What is your first name?
Rex
What is your age?
72 years young
Would you care to tell us about your family?
I’ve been married over 51 years to my wonderful wife, Phyllis. We had 6 children, 10 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren.
Do you have any pets?
We have 2 Yorkies, 4 cats, a parrot and pond full of Choi fish.
Where do you live, how long have you lived there and why do you like the area?
We have lived in Las Vegas the past 49 years. It’s vibrant (grown from 50,000 when we moved here, to 2 million) and very diversified. The weather is perfect with no calamities suffered by elsewhere.
Where did you grow up and do you have any special memories of your childhood?
I grew up in Washington. I loved school and would have been a professional student, if there had been such a thing.
What educational information would you like to share?
I received my Bachelor of Science (Business & Economics) and MBA at UNLV and later became president of the Alumni Association.
What are some of your past and/or present occupations?
I was the first Commissioner of Consumer Affairs for the state, taught Real Estate at the University and Money and Banking at the community college. I’ve sold real estate, insurance, investments and been in law enforcement, a lab technician and in electronics (US Navy). Retired for the last 4 years.
What are your key area(s) of knowledge, interests or expertise?
Business, math, economics, authored “The Problem: Unemployment or Underemployment?” for WICHE. I saw no future in the work I was doing before starting college (a security guard raising 6 children) and had an aptitude for the subjects I took. I finished both degrees in 3 1/2 years while working full time.
Do you have any collections or hobbies?
I have thousands of books on all non-fiction topics (I’m an “information junky”). Before my eyesight started failing, I built model sailing ships.
What do you like to do for recreation?
I love debating, solving problems, working puzzles, and doing Answers.com Supervisor functions.
What are a few random facts about yourself?
I’m learning to be a fair cook.
Do you have any special talents you’d like to share?
Practical and methodical problem solving, efficiency.
What accomplishments are you proud of?
I helped create and enforce many of the state’s consumer protection laws and was one of the founding fathers of the local non-profit Consumer Credit Counseling Service.
What are your special goals or dreams?
To make the world a better place by helping people solve their problems through education, information, motivation and the means to do so.
How would you describe yourself or personality?
A stickler for details, results oriented, unwilling to compromise on honesty and fair play.
What brought you to Answers.com?
Surfing the ‘Net’ at Wikipedia and Google for answers to a question. I became acquainted with a wonderful Mentor, Stupid little Genius (“the rest is history” as they say).
What kept you coming back to Answers.com?
I saw an opportunity for improving its already huge potential for helping people all over the world through voluntary (the best) means of addressing vital issues of our times.
What is your favorite Answers.com activity?
Researching answers to very good questions, improving challenging and very interesting questions and improving their mostly good, but sometimes confusing answers.
What do you get when you mix an industrial part of town, the energy of a few hundred geeks, a microphone and Google’s VP of Search Products & Experience, Marissa Mayer?
For the first time you can now connect your account at Answers.com with your account at Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo!, Google, or LinkedIn. If you link with your Facebook account your Facebook profile picture will be displayed on your Answers.com bio page. You will also get a link to your profile on the appropriate site at the top of your bio page and have one less password to remember (you will be able to use your username and password from one of those 5 networks to sign in to Answers.com!).
Well, social webbies, you’ve got the Facebook, you’ve got the Twitter, the Yahoo! and Google accounts to play around with. And now you’re about to spend more time online with those IDs. Answers.com 
, Twitter
or Yahoo!
account. What’s the advantage? As mentioned, it’s a great way to build on your already existent social web ID and if you connect through Facebook, it adds the real-life human element to your answers and bolsters your online reputation.
