2016, July 16: The Missing Daughter

On July 16, 2016, Mike Pence and his family wanted to fly home and rest after a very big weekend in New York, USA: Pence had just been announced as the chosen 2016 Vice Presidential nominee for the Republican party, running with Presidential nominee Donald Trump. After the highly televised fanfare, the family needed a little break.

        They didn't get one.

        First off, their flight home was delayed... delayed enough that they all figured they had enough time to get a meal at a restaurant. Next, they headed to a Chili's restaurant to get that meal, and Pence tweeted his followers a shot of the family at the restaurant before they started eating as a general campaign "here's what I'm up to" update... and he got slammed by tweeters for choosing to eat at a chain restaurant rather than any local New York favorite, slammed hard enough that newspapers and news websites took note.

        And, worst of all, Mike Pence's daughter, Charlotte, was accused of being a vampire. See why?

A meal at Chili's [Larger version here]

        Yep. She has no reflection.

        A somewhat more realistic accusation regarding this problem was also leveled on the nominee... that he had the image photoshopped to insert his daughter, but the person doing the job had forgotten to include the reflection. Of course, you have to wonder what the realistic benefit is of photoshopping your daughter into a meal at Chili's as opposed to, say, photoshopping a movie star into the shot for a campaign boost.

        The most prosaic possible answer is simple: Pence's daughter's reflection is blocked by her father. However, you don't have to accept that if you don't want to.

        All of which reminds me of one of those questions that forever bothers me: if people are so sure that vampires have no reflection, then why would they appear in pictures to begin with?