Hero: a person admired or idealized for courage

"Don’t make me out to be a hero."

That’s what Carl Loando, 54, a ControlPoint Surveying employee, told the Star-Advertiser on Wednesday soon after he had rescued 80-something Helen Choy from a spectacular fire that completely destroyed her home on Wilhelmina Rise.

Choy’s husband, Kenneth, had tried to rescue her himself, but had dropped her while trying to get her into her wheelchair. He was standing at the door when Loando, who had been doing survey work nearby, approached. Hearing of Helen’s predicament, Loando risked his own life to crawl into the house amid the pitch black smoke and save her.

Loando said he didn’t know what prompted him to do that. But the Choys, no doubt, are grateful he did — and no matter what he says, he’s a hero to us.

Her friends called her Ann

This tidbit among the birther hoopla: President Barack Obama’s mother appears to have included her legal first name as an afterthought on the long form of his birth certificate.

"Stanley" appears in parentheses above the signature of Ann Dunham Obama on the certificate. Stanley Dunham was the name of her father, who had wanted a son. Upon her emergence from childhood, Stanley Ann Dunham dropped being identified socially by the masculine first name given to her by her parents. And she reportedly apologized for her name every time she was introduced in a new town.