I have a special attachment to this question. I have had two dear friends who both had two different-color eyes. Ramsey, I am sorry that I am putting you in the same group with Winnie, the Old English sheep dog that we had growing up, but he was special too.

Heterochromia iridium is the fancy medical name for two different-color eyes in the same person. This is relatively rare in humans, but can be seen frequently in some animals, such as Siamese cats and Australian sheperds. Heterochromia can be the result of an inherited trait, a medical syndrome, or a physical accident. It is thought to result from a change in one of the genes that controls eye color.

A variation on this condition is heterochromis iridis, where different parts of a single eye vary in color. This occurs when one part of the iris has a different amount of pigment (melanin) due to injury, drugs, disease, or a simple birthmark.

Nowadays, all you need is a fancy set of contact lenses and you can have instant heterochromia-just like Marilyn Manson.