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I wrote a few minutes ago:
"Indeed, it appears he was really just repeating a story that was run by space.com in late December. My condolences to the author of that earlier article..."

I've found a really nice analysis by M. Alex Johnson of the origin and growth of this latest social silliness news story:
http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/01/14/5841166-the-twitter-snowball-effect-the-zodiac-and-npr

You'll note that it's traced, not to some guy in Minnesota, but rather to an article on livescience.com which is indeed space.com (they're the same reporters, the same editors, etc., just branded a bit differently for broader science topics). They also point out that this "Ophiuchus" story been around for decades.

By the way, one of my favorite things to ask people in planetarium shows years ago (for laughs) was "which star name do you prefer: the navigator's 'Rasalhague' or the astronomer's 'Alpha Ophiuchi'?" Both are strange, to say the least.

-FER

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