Move over, Luke Ravenstahl, you old man.

It was deemed such a big deal when Mayor Luke ascended to his present position at age 26 that David Letterman invited him to sit for a chat on national television. But that's nothing compared to John Tyler Hammons.

Mr. Hammons last month became mayor of Muskogee, Okla., at age 19, and he did it the old-fashioned way: He earned it (use your best John Houseman accent there). The University of Oklahoma freshman won by a 2-to-1 margin over a former mayor.

So now he's moving back in with his parents to run things, as dorm rooms apparently aren't suitable living quarters for a head of state. ('Cuz what would you do if the mayor of Pawhuska comes for a visit and your roommate refuses to turn down the Gnarls Barkley on his iHome?)

Mayor is an unpaid position in the city of 38,000, but that doesn't mean Mr. Hammons has no influence. The Republican's first priorities are creating both an independent ethics commission to monitor Muskogee officials and campaign finance reporting requirements for local candidates. (Sounds like he read about Luke's troubles somewhere.)

Mr. Hammons' dream is to become governor of Oklahoma. That won't happen, however, until he's old enough to drink.

The last person who made you think of Mr. Hammons' hometown before this Morning File author was Merle Haggard (and yes, we do get compared to him a lot).

His "Okie From Muskogee" reached No. 1 on the country charts in 1969 by describing squares like the new mayor (we're going out on a limb and applying the term to him, since he was president of both the Young Republicans and Young Democrats clubs in high school) in the following way:

Mr. Hammons has nothing on another college student, Moshe Kai Cavalin, in the prodigy department.

Moshe has just finished his second year at East Los Angeles College at age 10. Instead of getting his education primarily from Nickelodeon, like kids are supposed to do, Moshe is studying statistics, Chinese and other college subjects. He gets straight A's, and in his spare time (what's that?) he plays piano and practices martial arts.

You'd expect such a super-smart boy to come off like an alien -- or worse, like Bobby Fischer -- but reports are to the contrary.

"He is the youngest college student I've ever taught and one of the hardest working," his statistics professor, Daniel Judge, told The Associated Press. "He's actually a pleasure to have in class. He's a well-adjusted, nice little boy."

And like other nice, well-adjusted 10-year-olds, Moshe wants to transfer to a prestigious four-year school and study astrophysics.

Moshe has something in common with Michael Kearney, who is credited as the youngest university graduate ever: They were both home-schooled, so that no teacher's fancy ideas about pedagogy could get in the way of their education.

Mr. Kearney, now 24, graduated from the University of South Alabama as an anthropology major at age 10. He had a master's degree by 14, taught at Vanderbilt University at 16 and went on to get additional degrees.

So what does someone that smart really want to do with his life? Cure cancer? Prevent global warming? Invent a drive-thru speaker that's comprehensible?

No, actually -- from boyhood, Mr. Kearney's dream was to be a game show host. He studied all of Bob Barker's and Alex Trebek's mannerisms. His Hollywood efforts in that direction haven't panned out, however, so he has instead carved out a niche as a game show participant.

In 2006, he competed in "Gold Rush," an online pop culture quiz sponsored by AOL, and won $1 million. In April, he was a contestant on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" and took home $25,000.

Look for him to clean up soon on "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?"

First Published: June 2, 2008, 8:00 a.m.