(Commentor Delk‘s dog Gav, who is even cuter than a cartoon bunny in a top hat)
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Upbeat story from the Washington Post:
Anita Foeman’s students had just gotten the results from their genetic tests, and they couldn’t wait to talk…
“Some people have never had a happy conversation about race,” Foeman said. But in her class at West Chester University, there’s laughter. Eagerness. And easy connections where there might have been chasms. “Our differences are fascinating,” she said.
At a time when tensions over race and politics are so raw, the stakes, Foeman said, seem particularly high. Her students have been talking all fall about riots, building walls, terrorist attacks, immigration, the election. “You can feel it buzzing around the halls like electricity,” Foeman said.
Asking people to take DNA tests — an idea that has spread to a campuswide effort at this public university — grew out of consulting work Foeman does in race mediation. Instead of a confrontational approach, trying to provoke people into recognizing their own biases, she wanted something that would pull people together, or at least give them a neutral place from which to start to talk. And with racial divides so stark, she wanted to add some nuance and depth.
She wondered: What if people started finding out things they didn’t know about themselves?
So she begins with a short survey asking people their race and what they know about their ancestry. They spit into a vial. Several weeks later, they get an email with an estimate of their ethnic makeup, a color-coded map of their past.
That leads to questions, stories and curiosity. It is a welcome reset from awkwardness, defensiveness, suspicion. Now that the DNA tests are cheaper, Foeman is able to ask all the students in her honors class — almost all of them freshmen just getting to know or redefine themselves — to take the test…
Foeman, who is African American — and genetically more than one-quarter European, as she now knows — would like to test as many people as she can. It’s a way to study everything from medicine to history. Most of all, she’d like to get everyone talking.
She has found people willing, even eager, to take part, with more than 1,500 on campus volunteering.
“I think people want this,” she said. “That surprises me — in a good way.”…
And to think how excited we were, forty years ago, just to test for our own blood types in freshman biology. The main reason I haven’t (yet) bothered to take one of those mail-order gene tests — apart from the Round Tuit issue — is that I have every reason to believe it would be excessively boring. Celtic, with a strong dash of Nordic-Viking, plus some percentage of Anglo-Saxon from the grandmother we never knew had been born (Irish Protestant) Orange until after she and her only son were dead. I’d probably be more interested if I or any of my five sibs had kids…
***********
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What’s on the agenda as we wrap up the week that (hopefully) wraps up this misbegotten year?
rikyrah
Morning Everyone ???
Baud
@rikyrah:
Morning.
@AL
I’m concerned I’m not 100% human.
Scamp Dog
My niece has already gotten her results back from one of these, my mom and brother have sent in their kits, and they ordered one for me for Christmas. As far as we know from the family background, Dad was German, Mom English, Scottish and French, and niece’s mom Czech (with a bit of Ashkenazi many generations back, according to the test results). Soon we’ll all know the details for the whole gang!
TheMightyTrowel
Mr Trowel is listening to a BBC Radio dramatization of some sort of detective story which included the following phrase ‘the room was a Trump voter’s idea of sumptuous… so, Trumptuous I guess…’
Heh.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I can assure you, you aren’t.
HeartlandLiberal
My wife and I did the National Genome project two years ago. It confirmed me at 3.5% American Indian, which means the great great grandmother story was true in the family tradition, one immediate direct ancestor at that level would trigger that amount. It did NOT confirm any in my wife, putting their family story to rest, however, she had 3% of a north east Siberia rare haplogroup. Geneticists believe a population migrated thousands of years ago from there to the west, into northern Finland, and intermarried with the Laplanders. From there, someone obviously drifted south into Denmark, which was one of the two key areas her DNA pointed to. That and Bulgaria, go figure.. Mine pointed to Germany and Greece. As far as we can tell, all our ancestors from past 500 years came primarily from England and Wales.But the haplogroup studies go deep and way back. We both had a good healthy dose of remnant Neanderthal, too.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Mom was right.
Xboxershorts
@Baud:
Ha! Define 100% Human. I double dog dare ya!
We are all stardust anyways.
PS…A Hack named Drudge claims to have gotten hacked. How quaint.
satby
Happy to see Gav home and on the mend, were they ever able to determine what was wrong? And I’m impressed that he’s leaving those bandages on his legs alone without the cone of shame.
@rikyrah: morning.TGIF!
satby
@Baud: you’re adorable, whatever you are. A day without Baud isn’t a good day.
satby
@HeartlandLiberal: I want to do one now, though like AL, mine is probably boring. But who knows?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Mom is always right.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: when I tell my kids that, they roll their eyes.
NotMax
No interest in any such tests, nor in who schtupped who in the mists of time.
Already know that whatever combination the dice rolled, it is the perfect one for me! ;)
The Pale Scot
A lovely woman;
Singer quits Mormon Tabernacle Choir rather than sing for Trump:
“Throwing roses to Hitler” should probably be a new tag for the coming days
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Obviously, you did not beat them enough.
NotMax
@satby
You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool Mom.
Baud
@The Pale Scot: Wow. That’s awesome. Good for her.
debbie
I did my family’s family tree about five years ago. It still comes in handy when my one Trumpster brother gets all worked up about illegal immigration. Until I showed him otherwise, he was convinced our ancestors came in through Ellis Island.
Percysowner
My maternal grandparents Immigrated from Hungary, so I suspect there is a lot of Eastern European from that side. However, from what I know an army marched into my great grandmother’s town and when they marched out, she was pregnant and unmarried, so there is a good chance that it’s not all Hungarian from that side of the family. My dad’s surname is French, for what that’s worth. His mother was appalled that he married my child of immigrants mother, because her family went back to the Revolution. One of our ancestors led a retreat! Woo, hoo!. So that side could have just about anything on it. I should send away for one of those tests, just for curiosity’s sake.
NOTE: I’m far more impressed with my maternal line. A single woman with a young child gathering the money to come to a new world is a whole lot more impressive, to me, than being here for freaking ever.
Iowa Old Lady
I have to admit I don’t care who my ancestors were. Maybe I’m missing the gene. :-)
Big Ole Hound
I had my dog do one of those DNA tests. Turns out my golden retriever has some red and white setter and some site hound embedded in his bones. Great dog though.
kd bart
Every story regarding Trump should start with a paragraph like this one from Vanity Fair. http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/12/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-press-conferences
Kay
That’s a neat idea. Keep it at the college level though. You would not believe how complicated parentage can get. Sometimes people have been told things that are not true, for various good (and bad!) reasons. You wouldn’t want to spring results that differ from the family story on anyone younger, particularly if sibs can compare.
satby
@Iowa Old Lady: @Big Ole Hound: I think the common link is that the tests prove we’re all mutts. I’m thinking that’s ultimately a good thing, and the best response to any racial purity nonsense.
Baud
@kd bart: Yep. Looks like Vanity Fair and Teen Vogue are going to set the standard for good journalism in the 21st century.
Iowa Old Lady
@kd bart: The only Trump quotes I’ve seen lately are tweets. Reading what he said in that article terrified me all over again.
delk
I knew Gav was feeling a little better because he got up and went to his 6pm spot. Everyday he lays down right there so he can watch the front door for my husband to come home and also use the mirror to watch me in the kitchen.
I’d like to acknowledge the hard working vets, techs, and receptionists that spent their Christmas Eve and Christmas day taking care of Gav. It really was touch and go for a while.
raven
@Big Ole Hound: We did one on Bohdi, Siberian Husky and Samoyed
Patricia Kayden
Gav is a cutie pie and a great way to end the last full week in 2016. Good to see he’s doing okay.
debbie
@Iowa Old Lady:
Really? You don’t see old family pictures and wonder?
Kay
@Iowa Old Lady:
That’s why the only Trump quotes you see are Tweets. He can’t string 4 sentences together in coherent order in response to a question. What I love is how every answer returns to his favorite subject- “what does this mean for Donald Trump?”
debbie
@delk:
Wow, picking the most strategic spot possible! Dogs are smarter than us.
debbie
@Kay:
Trump said his Inauguration speech will be short and uplifting. Tweet-sized sentences, no doubt.
satby
So I have to spend what will likely be a significant amount if time on the phone with FedEx, trying to locate the shipment of two area rugs they say they delivered yesterday to my house, but did not. Since the rugs are both 9×12, and the package includes rug pads, it’s huge and I didn’t miss it. My son was home the entire time too.
They delivered my other two rugs with no problems, but this is upsetting. Not hugely expensive but still, about $450 bucks in missing merchandise.
Baud
@debbie: Low stamina.
Kay
@Iowa Old Lady:
They say “elections?” to Donald Trump and he hears that as “the election of Donald Trump”. There are no other elections. Obama gave a speech on Peal Harbor and Trump thought it was about Donald Trump. Looneytunes.
Betty Cracker
@delk: Glad he’s going to be okay. He’s a cutie!
@Big Ole Hound: My sister got a DNA test on her rescue mutt, and we’re convinced the company randomly slapped some breed info together and assigned percentages on a whim. The dog bears absolutely no resemblance to the primary breed identified and has traits that strongly suggest breeds that were not mentioned at all. Sis felt scammed, but who knows?
debbie
@Baud:
I hope he sniffs his way through it.
Baud
@debbie: I’ll settle for bad weather.
Just One More Canuck
@Baud: Martian? Klingon?
satby
@Baud: super freezing cold. With an endless playback of Pres. Obama and the First Lady getting out of their limo to walk and wave to supporters in freezing cold weather as contrast to the pinched, petulant face you know the moron will be displaying out his limo window.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: They needed a box to shove him into to enhance his chances of adoption so they made one up. Doesn’t really surprise me.
Alex
Interesting piece in The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/12/genetics-race-ancestry-tests/510962/ on how these DNA tests can give the wrong impression. It’s nifty to get a result that says you’re 8 percent Basque or whatever, but not really supported by the science. Especially since the majority of variation occurs within what we think of as ethnic groups, not between them. The variation in Africa alone dwarfs that in the rest of the world because it’s where we all originated.
Iowa Old Lady
@debbie: I have one picture of maternal grandparents and that’s it, so there’s not much to wonder about there.
Kay
@debbie:
As long as he doesn’t attack a federal judge or talk about grabbing pussy he’ll get raves. The bar is really low. Rock bottom. He has no where to go but up.
I can’t stand the way he talks. The boasting, bragging tone gets on my nerves. He sounds like a know it all 12 year old.
Baud
@satby: I’m hoping the crowd will be mostly there to say farewell to Obama rather than to cheer Trump. Probably not, however.
bystander
@The Pale Scot:
It should replace “All the news that fits” at the Times.
raven
@Betty Cracker: People I know who are in genetics think the dog stuff is for entertainment purposes. On the other hand you don’t send a photo, just a spit or blood sample , and Bohdi sure looks like what they said he is.
Baud
@bystander: This.
mai naem mobile
@The Pale Scot: poor woman and her whole family will be getting death threats from Trumpistards
Elmo
@Betty Cracker: Sis was scammed. Sorry. I have no opinion or understanding about the human mapping, but the dog DNA biz is one huge patchwork of guessing and chance. Most modern breed classifications are only a century old or so, and there’s just way too much variation out there to make any reliable breed ID.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
*looks closely at the photo in the article*
Ancestry.com. Good. I was afraid they had gotten suckered by AncestryByDNA.
If they want to really dig into the science of relationships, copying their results to GEDmatch would give them lots of toys to play with, including additional ethnicity models with different reference groups and sequenced ancient DNA to compare to. We were very entertained when one of those ethnicity models identified my Scandinavian (per Ancestry) as Orcadian.
Baud
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
As in Mork?
HRA
I had my DNA done a few years ago. I already knew quite a lot of my ancestry through my Mom’s talks trying to make me feel included since I was the only one born on this side of the Atlantic in our family of 4. Mom’s nephew did our family tree after he retired as a journalist over there in the “old country” of Macedonia and sent copies to my sister and I. It starts in the mid 1700s. Of course there are blanks as names of the early wives on it and very little in my Dad’s side. One part of my Dad’s ancestry carries the surname of a Near East tribe even now.
The only surprised in my results was the Italian in the 64% Greek and Italian. The 30% Near East was larger although not a great surprise than I expected.
It really is fascinating and I recommend doing it.
I must include the story of the raging R who had an office next to mine and spent her days on the ancestry site. One day she comes running into my office to announce she is descended from Zeus. TG she left before my head hit my desk.
‘old country
Kay
@Baud:
I watched the ’08 in. with my eldest son. He was living in Michigan then and came for the day. Such a nice uplifting day.
I’m planning on working for this one. Stay busy! :)
debbie
@Kay:
Calling James Cameron!
OzarkHillbilly
@Alex: Oh sure, piss on our parade and call it rain. ;-)
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Baud: As in Orkney Islands.
As military history addicts, we found that hysterically funny. My husband started sending me photos of my “homeland”.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: Not in this case; the dog was already adopted by my sister, who was just curious about her (the dog’s) breed makeup and did the mail-in test on a lark. I believe the rescue org said the dog was a lab-pit mix.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: My daughter was 10 when PBO was first inaugurated, and I let her stay home from school so we could watch it together. The school wouldn’t excuse the absence, and I was pissed! :)
I don’t plan to watch a minute of the shitgibbon’s ME-fest. My sister and I may be on our way to the women’s march on DC that day anyway, but wherever I am, I’ll be on shitgibbon media blackout.
Kay
@debbie:
The whole Trump Family talks like him. They use so many superlatives- someone should tell them inserting one of those every three words doesn’t make bullshit “great!” – it’s like listening to people who just left a sales seminar.
There’s a word they use in older legal opinions- “puffery”- it’s exaggerated praise- it’s used as the dividing line between telling the truth and fraud in consumer transactions. Puffery is okay, but it can bleed into fraud. That’s what I think of when I listen to them.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: He has barely begun to defile himself!
HRA
Please excuse the errors in my previous comment. The fur boy alpha driven Tiki was getting very anxious for his breakfast. :(
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Alex: OTOH, the results of this British study were fascinating.
Here’s a terrific introduction to ethnicity admixtures, springboarding off the “Cherokee princess” legend in so many families.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Ah, I misread, sorry ’bout that.
PaulWartenberg2016
I still don’t know what blood type I am.
ThresherK (tablet)
Good to see the dog we were all rooting for looking happy.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I’m trying to focus on that, that Obama had 8 and ” a third term” is really unusual.
I don’t feel I owe Trump anything. I really resent that he used the period after the election to continue to attack Clinton. It was classless and graceless behavior, but typical and predictable of him. Fuck him. He’s made it clear he doesn’t represent me or mine since the election. I accept that. Do I think I’m better than him? Yeah, I do. I think most people are better than him. I have higher standards than that and I’m not obligated to lower mine to meet his. I’ll let him know when he starts acting “Presidential”. He has a long way to go to get there.
Elizabelle
Good morning all.
Lovely to see the delkfilm of Gav again.
People, I’m serious. We should keep at least one blogpost with a pet or animal or nature photograph each day. As destressors. Juicers can follow more than one thread. (Otters! Cheetah-cam.)
I’m up for creative resistance and not normalizing the PEOTUS, but have no appetite for 24/7 Trump and all the destruction he can/might inflict.
PaulWartenberg2016
I also don’t know what to do with myself for New Year’s Eve.
I was thinking about going to Ybor to catch an early movie and then hang out until Midnight to see if the downtown fireworks were in view, but my parents are telling me “no it’s not safe” and some of my facebook friends from ye olde days of high school are saying I’m better off just crashing at home.
But there’s not a lot to do when you’re single and lonely on New Year’s.
I’ve just realized this morning that this is a more miserable holiday for me than Valentine’s Day. At least with Valentine’s Day I am fully convinced is designed to intentionally mock and insult every lonely person, so I can just brush it off with a “yeah, so, walk on”. But New Year’s is different. This is a holiday where people are gathering to say farewell to an old year and usher in the new. The focus is different… and yet it still involves people gathering in places as couple or groups to celebrate, which isolates those of us who are introverted, or depressed, or alone.
So yeah. Any other suggestions for New Year’s this Saturday?
Elizabelle
@bystander:
I’m good with that.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
More destressors, less distressers.
NeenerNeener
@kd bart: I love how Trump claims he’s saving jobs, when all the arrangements were made during the Obama administration. I saw a very shouty Trumpster on Book of Faces claiming that Xerox is going to create 100,000 new jobs in the US because of Trump and I fell out of my chair laughing. Ursula Burns has been on Obama’s “100,000 jobs” initiative for the last 4 years, and the only job she’s interested in is her own. Copier manufacturing went to FlexConn in China 11+ years ago under Mulcahey and Burns and I very much doubt it’s coming back unless Trump reaaaaaalllllyyyy pisses off the Chinese. A lot of the software jobs went to Mumbai, so Xerox has been very good about creating new jobs in other countries, but not so much in this one. Ursula did “increase” the headcount at Xerox by buying an existing services company, but she didn’t actually make any new jobs. And the board voted to spin off that services company recently because they were losing money hand over fist, so in the net she’s probably destroyed jobs at Xerox, maybe even her own. But Trumpsters are impervious to reality checks, so there’s no point in arguing with them.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Precisely. I worry about readership falling off. I know I can’t look in on thread after thread of angst.
Elizabelle
TGIF. Our last Friday of 2016.
Tee hee. Maybe the news dump to end all news dumps?
MazeDancer
Putin announced his response to the sanctions. Seems to be basically, Obama bad, Trump good. Trump is my guy. We’re not going to do anything much now. Because Glorious Leader Trump will be good. All Americans are welcome to become Russians, now.
Putin even invited children of American diplomats to the Kremlin for the annual Kids Party.
So, whitewashing Putin will now be on the Trump base agenda. (What poison? What torture?) Except for Our Men in Washington, McCain and Graham.
Are there really enough GOP who will embrace Russia over the US? Prayer candles with pictures of St. Ronnie not going to be in the GOP gift shops anymore? The entire media is going to find a way to promote Russia over US? That seems a stretch even for the NY Times.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: That’s the view I take of it too. Trump will technically be my president since I am an American citizen, but he’s made it clear that it’s all about him, with his family and cronies coming second and his unhinged rally goers a distant third. It’s clear he holds women and nonwhites in contempt. He has made zero effort to reach out to people who didn’t vote for him. So fuck him and his whole tacky-ass circus. I won’t participate in it as a spectator or even acknowledge it except to oppose it as vigorously as I possibly can.
Baud
@Elizabelle: I’ve thought our days are numbered ever before the election. Que sera sera.
ET
I took the ancestry.com test because I am adopted and the only thing I knew was Welsh and English. Not only was I not sure about the veracity of that but I knew that was only 1/2 the story because I figured it may only be what she knew about her family. The results confirmed that.
Not only that but by happenstance, the highest genetic match was a close relative/1st cousin. A few months later someone else took the test and she came up as my mother. While the case may be unusual I agree with something Ancestry said years ago when someone else found their birth mother – that as more people take the test that may be more common.
OzarkHillbilly
@PaulWartenberg2016:
No, Valentine’s Day was created to immiserate every single person in a relationship by making them feel guilty for all the times when maybe they weren’t quite the perfect partner and to make up for it they need to go out and buy a huge, gaudy, diamond pendant that even the queen of England would be embarrassed to wear, or a large box of way overpriced but average tasting chocolates, or several dozen roses that will wilt and turn brown in 3 days. (I’m not sure what a woman is supposed to get for the guy, maybe a new table saw?)
As to what to do on New Years, how about ignoring it and doing what you enjoy doing any other eve? (I always liked heading for the woods, nice and quiet that night)
laura
@rikyrah: I hope you were able to get some sleep, and good morning.
debbie
@Kay:
That’s exactly what they are: salesmen (and woman). Everything is a presentation, a spiel. We will see just how horribly this transfers to governing.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: How about two college football playoff games!!!!!!!
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Skim. I do when it gets to be too much. There isn’t a thread here that hasn’t gone off-topic. You’re sure to find something in every thread.
Pogonip
@Baud: But that would be a good thing! You’d get nearly 100% of the crucial Klingon-American vote!
Alesis
There was an interesting piece in The Atlantic the other day that highlighted to potential complications and drawbacks to the popular Genetic heritage tests. Most people are unaware that modern geneticists have debunked the notion of biological race. Having “African” heritage in the US most likely means having an ancestral link to a smallish slice of Western Sub Sahelian Africa and this does not mean a closer genetic relationship between East African descendant Barack Obama than someone with no “African” ancestry at all.
That said I think despite the concern over entrenching the unscientific idea of race these tests are quite interesting an an opportunity to engage in a more nuanced discussion over ancestry so long as they are accompanied by proper education.
Elizabelle
@debbie: Yes indeed. Skimming is our friend.
EZSmirkzz
Good morning Anne, I know a lot of people don’t or won’t read the NY Times, but John reads Breitbarf so I don’t have to, and this in the Times is worth a little effort on our part,
As you can see, I’m cutting out the juicy parts,
It really should be the business of all Americans. IMHO, to bring all of the troops all of the way home. Perhaps when we deal with the wreckage of our decisions to go to war we will be less inclined to send other people to fight them for us.
kindness
It would be such fun to secretly do this to a bunch of bigots, say KKK or anti-semites to find out they had black, Jewish, Oriental or arab ancestry. Be fun to blow their minds in one of their meetings making sure everyone knew everyone else’s results. I’d be near a door if they were drunk &/or armed.
My sister did it with her family. The results were what we would have expected for our generation. Mutts. UK, Irish, Spanish, touch of Dutch. For the grandkids though, man they had stuff no one knew.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: That could definitely work.
Anne Laurie
@PaulWartenberg2016:
There’s bound to be a few people hanging around here, quite possibly including yours truly. Although I’ll probably leave the keyboard to go watch the midnight fireworks on the tv, since I am a traditionalist that way…
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: We should plan a Balloon Juice meetup in conjunction with the women’s march.
Have not decided whether I will be there or not, but we might have a lot of Juicers and friends streaming in.
Pogonip
@debbie: It’ll be the first inaugural tweet in American history. Imagine the president typing as fast as he can while the silent crowd members bend intently over their phones.
Elizabelle
@PaulWartenberg2016: Some lovely champagne, if you indulge, and kindness. Maybe some good takeout food.
Got to settle in for a long 2017.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@ET: It’s happening a lot now. I am also an adoptee and part of a group specializing in teasing information out of the DNA matches. I came up for air after a deep dive into one set of cousins, and a friend asked about my DNA results. “Interesting,” I said. “Aliens?” she asked. “Weirder,” I replied. “Texas.”
Central Planning
Ancestry.com had a coupon after Thanksgiving so we bought test kits for my parents as well as my wife’s parents. We figure get the oldest relatives possible for better results.
It will be interesting because my FIL was adopted and he doesn’t have much info on his birth parents. My MIL had ancestors on the Mayflower, so that should be interesting too.
I’ve been told my dad’s side is Polish, but he recently said ancestors were on the border of Russia, so there’s a chance we are Russian. If we are, it’s in the nick of time!
Steve in the ATL
@raven:
Winner of the Liberty Bowl goes to the NC game, right? Go Dawgs!
kindness
@HeartlandLiberal: Sorry if I’m repeating what might have already been said. The Mongols when they were finally chased out of Europe & eastern Europe went north to Finland and settled. Most Finns have a reasonable amount in their family tree.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@kindness: Craig Cobb.
Wapiti
@MazeDancer:
GOP is now Gushing Over Putin.
They’re authoritarians, that’s how they roll. On to their backs when a bigger dog makes noises.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: As a fellow Texas expat, you have my sympathies.
Kay
Good. There have to be some standards for adult behavior. I’m on a school committee in a district that is 95% white and went 65% for Trump and Paladino’s rantings wouldn’t fly here from a school board member. They can say whatever they want but “free speech” was never a guarantee of no consequences. Welcome to grownupworld, Mr. Paladino. There are standards. You don’t meet them.
ET
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I got a fairly close connection to a location in the state I was born which I am pretty sure is my biological father (my biological mom was from a far distant state). I had enough information on location and a name for it to be interesting but too far for it to be helpful without years of researching (which I may not need to do if my biological mother contacts me and is willing to give the name).
germy
Every time we watch “Finding Your Roots” on PBS, we’re tempted to have a DNA ancestry test. But recently I saw this at the Atlantic Magazine:
rikyrah
@delk:
That is so cute. Gav is multitasking ??
germy
@Kay: the funny thing is Palladino blamed his outburst on his anger over Obama’s handling of Aleppo. I don’t believe that for a minute. Nothing in crazy carl’s history suggests he’d give a fuck about refugees or a conflict in the Middle East.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Central Planning: One thing I was kind of hoping for with my test was enough Jewish DNA to make an argument for dual citizenship as a possible bolthole. Or being able to prove a recent immigrant from, say, Italy. Failing that, close enough cousins in New Zealand or Canada to have a chance to emigrate.
Alas, my roots are pretty clearly Southern Colonial. The most recent potential shared ancestor I’ve found is a German immigrant through NOLA circa 1870.
If you’re interested in anything more specific, this is a good place to start for research techniques.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Nonono Kay, it’s “free speech”. That means you never have to pay for anything you say.
germy
@MazeDancer:
I think their logic is that St. Ronnie (“tear down that wall!” single-handedly destroyed communism, and now Russia is a fine capitalist country like the good old U.S. of A., with a good conservative in charge.
At least I think that’s their logic. Who can tell? They change from day to day.
The only constant is Cleek’s Law.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@germy: Yup. There are a few fairly homogeneous populations — the Finns being one example — but there’s a lot of overlap everywhere else. Like the British woman, daughter of two well-documented and long-time British lines, whose admixture was mostly Western European. (I suggested she had chanced to inherit all the Norman DNA from her parents and none of the Saxon.)
What is much more revealing is the list of people you share DNA with. Many of them will have decently- to well-researched trees that will tell you a lot more than the admixture results.
Peale
@MazeDancer: Putin in a strong manly leader who uses state funds to make priests rich. It’s what the funamentalists have always wanted.
Aunt Kathy
@Kay: Sing it, sister!
MomSense
I haven’t had DNA testing done but based on our genealogy and medical history the results would come back as all of them, Katie.
Elizabelle
@Kay: A third term is unusual, but the Republicans have gone so batshit insane. I think it’s even more unusual that they won the Electoral College victory. With a huge assist from Russia. And the first election without voting rights protections.
Just sick about all this.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Go Kay.
Tell it.
Owe him”the respect of the office.”
Umm….Not in this lifetime ???
zhena gogolia
@kd bart:
Everyone should subscribe to Vanity Fair. They’re doing real journalism.
zhena gogolia
@delk:
So happy to see Gav at home! What a pretty boy!
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
I am always welcome for a Walter sighting.??
zhena gogolia
@bystander:
Absolutely. I cannot read a word of that fishwrap any more. I just do the puzzle and throw the rest out.
rikyrah
@PaulWartenberg2016:
I have always despised New Year’s Eve, so I have no suggestions.
Elizabelle
@zhena gogolia: Is there a good Canadian paper that covers US news well?
I get kind of tired of The Guardian. What else is out there?
Chris
@Kay:
He’s pretty much ruined my ability to hear a New York accent as anything other than nails on a blackboard.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Agreed.
Mandated Walter updates or even rerunning the same old pictures, if no new news.
It’s in our contract.
PaulWartenberg2016
@efgoldman:
I was hoping I qualified for T-double-positive with a caffeine twist.
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: BBC, especially for international news, they actually have reporters on the ground in many countries. Not just one foreign correspondent like Pure BullShit News Hour. Their website is good.
While still being MSM, WashPost and The Atlantic are better than Vichy Times.
Chris
@Kay:
After the last eight years, I feel perfectly comfortable saying that we don’t owe Republicans anything.
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle:
I won’t subscribe to the Guardian because they’re Bernie fans. I’m finding the WaPo pretty good. I don’t know any Canadian papers. I just realized this morning that I can read about Trump in the New Yorker and it doesn’t upset me the way the NYT does, I guess because I don’t blame the New Yorker for his election. But it’s not exactly a news magazine. Newsweek has some good stuff, but it’s pretty thin. But in general, I’m getting my news from BJ!
jeffreyw
Mmm… cinnamon bread
Olivia
My daughter gave me a test kit for Christmas a couple of years ago. I was so hoping for something hiding in the results that would shock my grandparents, if they were still alive. Unfortunately, it was as boringly caucasian as I suspected it would be. Half of my genetic material is Eastern European and I thought I might see a tiny bit of Jewish… but nothing as interesting as that. The most surprising detail was that there was some Scandinavian in the results, so I went from white to even whiter.
Chris
@Pogonip:
Not if the nonhuman in his DNA is Romulan.
In fact, I think I can see an excellent birther conspiracy here to derail the Baud! 2020 candidacy.
MomSense
@PaulWartenberg2016:
I’m thinking red wine, dark chocolate, and movies but it’s also a frozen tundra where I live.
If I were in a warm city, I’d probably find out what the arts offerings are. Any museum or gallery parties? Any theater events?
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Thank you. I never tune in the BS News Hour. In solidarity with you.
Great recc re BBC. I loved being on a Norwegian cruise ship last year and getting the BBC news reports. More comprehensive, professional, more topics, less repetitive.
This will be the year of learning to get my news and entertainment from the laptop. Am a dinosaur, and it’s time to make the switch.
@zhena gogolia: Yeah, planning to subscribe to The New Yorker. Support the longform journalism and my heroine, Jane Mayer. Plus, I bet the cartoons will be great, if painful sometimes.
Vanity Fair too. That could be good. No love lost between Graydon Carter and the PEW-OTUS.
The Atlantic has James Fallows; love his stuff.
I also like Kevin Drum a lot, although he sometimes stretches for the centrism.
Any other reccs on newspaper websites, though? Could be US or abroad. Love to read.
munira
@PaulWartenberg2016: I’m staying alone by choice on new year’s eve. I’ll spend it in my cabin in the middle of the forest. For me, the new year is the perfect time for quiet introspection, not the time for loud parties and big crowds. So do whatever you feel like doing, not what we’ve been conditioned to think is the thing to do.
germy
@Elizabelle: nybooks.com
http://www.nybooks.com/daily/
Chris
@germy:
You can totally see how outrage over an international humanitarian crisis would naturally lead a man to racial slurs.
Is this the new “I used to be a liberal, but 9/11 happened, and now I’m outraged by Chappaquiddick”?
manyakitty
@Betty Cracker: I wish they had something like that for cats. Anti-felinism, that’s what it is!
Elizabelle
@zhena gogolia: The Guardian’s got some great reporting on climate change and interesting features on international news. (I love feature-writing.)
But some of teh Guardian’s slant is just too precious for me. Plus, they have an odd fascination with, um, body hair.
Aunt Kathy
@PaulWartenberg2016: I haven’t seen midnight on New Years in many years. I usually get a bunch of Chinese food, eat myself silly, and am asleep by 10:30, if I’m lucky. As far as I’m concerned, the best way to usher in the new year is to greet it super early the next morning, vs waking up late, hungover and sick. But that’s just me…
germy
@Chris: It’s cute that some of them still try to use an excuse. Most of them don’t even bother anymore.
Elizabelle
@germy: Thank you. Looks great. Moar Gary Wills.
And this, from Francine Prose:
Hmmm. The topic of sadness and loss is what stopped me from seeing “Manchester”, too. Also, “Jackie”, which I hear is very good. They’re both in town. Maybe schedule them for the cold days we’re expecting soon.
schrodingers_cat
I have in my extended family tree, people with green and hazel eyes and light skin and people much darker than our current President and every shade in between. India has always been a melting pot of many religions and people from all parts of the world. AFAIK, no African or European blood in the recent past at least in my family tree. My family has been based on the west coast of India and worked as accountants and bookkeepers for the Muslim, Hindu and then the British rulers of the coastal waters around Mumbai.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
I saw “Jackie” a couple of days ago, and may go see “Manchester” this afternoon. Am saving “Moana” for next week, after kids are back in school.
NotMax
@satby</a.
It may seem impossible, but could the items have been delivered to your old address? Have seen that happen.
@PaulWartenberg2016
Alone doesn’t have to mean lonely. Curl up with a good comedy, or perhaps TCM if you have it. (That’s Entertainment marathon on New Year’s Eve night).
@Central Planning
Polish versus Russian is kind’a fuzzy. Have (well, had) grandparents who were born into the Austro-Hungarian empire and later lived in Poland, all without leaving their hometown, which still later was Russian is currently in Ukraine.
hovercraft
@Kay:
This.
He will never measure up to me as a human being, period. I may not be perfect, but I am not personally responsible for immiserating dozens if not hundreds or thousands of people’s lives. He has spent his 70 years on this earth scamming people with no regard for the destruction he left behind. He is a horrible person, and has spread his evil to his older spawn, who all are following in his lying scamming footsteps, ( for now I will grant Tiffany and Barron passes, but I’m watching them).
He is insecure because he fears people look down on him and don’t respect him, he’s right, approximately 7.39 billion people have no respect for him, they think he’s a buffoon. I’m being generous here, and granting him 100 million admirers, if you go by twitter followers that’s less than Kim fuckin Kardashian.
schrodingers_cat
Delk doggie has a cute! Wishing him a full recovery.
manyakitty
@PaulWartenberg2016: How about a potluck and movie night with friends?
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Too may to list here, but both The Globe & Mail and Irish Times immediately spring to mind.
HRA
@Kay:
We all knew Carl was bizarre in his real estate developing early days as he did made his way to wealth. There was none of the recent outbursts until he ran for governor against Cuomo. He threatened someone with a baseball bat in public and sent a nasty email that was found and published. He succeeded in bringing out a few like minded people to protest in public for him much to my surprise.
Then it was “How the hell did he get elected to the school board?” He shows up next to Trump at some rally. Now he sends this most disgusting horrid statement about the president and first lady. His son sent a statement against it to the local news.
He has violated a part of his oath for the school board. The Buffalo News had a good article about it yesterday that was also available on Memeorandum. They have to get him off of the school board as soon as possible.
medrawt
@HeartlandLiberal: Depending on the specifics of your wife’s family’s story, it’s not necessarily disproven. A person has 50% of their DNA from their father, and their father has 50% of his DNA from HIS father … but you don’t necessarily have 25% of your DNA from your paternal grandfather. There’s some randomization in how much DNA from each grandparent is passed on to you by your parents, and the further up the tree you go the more percentages are going to get skewed. With these sites, even if their information is fully accurate, it’s still likely to miss a lot of information past the most recent few generations because your family tree is not a mirror of your genetic code. (I read somewhere that you could have a direct ancestor who came over on the Mayflower and it would be more likely than not that you shared zero DNA with them.)
NotMax
@PaulWartenberg2016
Personal fallback if nothing else on the plate is watching The Stunt Man. Have probably seen it a minimum of 40 times and still see new things in it. Peter O’Toole leaves no piece of scenery unchewed.
Tip: Stay with it through the closing credits.
Gravenstone
@debbie:
“I quit!” would lift my spirits immeasurably. Alas, I doubt we’ll be so lucky.
NotMax
@debbie
So is Linda Hunt’s brassiere but have no particular desire to be exposed to that either.
Elizabelle
@NotMax: Thank you. Will check them out.
Moar suggestions, please.
Pulling down links from the NY Review of Books that germy recommended. Lots of good stuff.
Humdog
@PaulWartenberg2016: when I am lonely being around others who are in happy groups makes it worse. Can you find a friend and binge watch something together? Or plan some complicated cooking task. Something to grab your attention and maybe even give a sense of accomplishment? Of course, you can always visit a retirement home, there is always someone there who is more lonely than you and who may like to play a game of cards or something. Best to you at year’s end and the new year.
NotMax
@Elizabelle<
Also too, McClatchy (formerly Knight-Ridder).
Elizabelle
@NotMax: Ta.
zhena gogolia
@Central Planning:
Poland was under Russian imperial domination in the 19th century. Borders are hard to define.
hovercraft
@Kay:
Good he is a useless POS, who insists on baring his ass every time he opens his mouth in public. He is the DT of upstate NY, the difference is that NewYorkers had the wisdom to reject him.
zhena gogolia
@PaulWartenberg2016:
I think your impressions of what everyone is doing are out of whack. Most everyone I know likes to stay home and do whatever they would have done any other night.
Elizabelle
@hovercraft: And New Yorkers rejected Trump too, did they not?
David Evans
@kindness: Most of them already think that science is a left-wing conspiracy and/or the Devil’s work. This would just confirm it.
satby
@PaulWartenberg2016: @zhena gogolia: Paul might be younger than us ☺
Even so, and particularly because I used to be a bartender, I stay home and watch old movies with a glass of wine and something special to eat. Since the critters get me up at about 5:30, I seldom make it to midnight anymore, and don’t miss it.
When I get lonely and depressed by my relative isolation I go volunteer somewhere. It helps me put lots into perspective, including the choices I made that put me a distance away from friends and family, which reminds me I’m not a victim of loneliness, it’s a result of an slightly adventurous life.
Elizabelle
@satby: Volunteer work is good. As is adventurousness.
glory b
@schrodingers_cat: I always thought that people from the west coast of India and the east coast of African had striking resemblances to each other.
I know there was a scientific theory that the 2 continents split apart from each other, but I figured that was before homo sapiens made an entrance.
Renie
I did a DNA test through ancestry.com and since I do genealogy wasn’t surprised at the results. However, they lump a lot of countries under one heading so it is hard to pinpoint which nationality you may be. For example I have 19% Scandinavian and 13% Great Britian. Scandinavian also include France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, the Baltic States, Finland. Great Britian includes Ireland, France, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, That’s a wide range of nationalities.
Had my husband do one because there was a suggestion that his maternal grandfather was part American Indian but his results came back all European with a trace of Polynesian.
Can be interesting if you have no idea about your ancestry.
zhena gogolia
@satby:
Right, as soon as I wrote that, I realized I’m an old person. But to be fair, I’ve been like this since I was young. As a teenager, my favorite New Year’s Eve was Ritz crackers and cheddar cheese and Cold Duck while watching Johnny Carson with my mother. I wish I could do that again, in fact.
schrodingers_cat
@glory b: India’s riches have attracted traders from all over the world since millenia. Some of them undoubtedly stayed back. My great grandfather worked for the Siddhis of Janjira. Siddhis were black and Muslim. Further down the west coast there are settlements of Arab traders. Also up and down the west coast of India there have been Jewish settlements. Many of the Jewish people have now migrated to Israel but both Mumbai and Cochin were home to a significant Jewish diaspora.
schrodingers_cat
@glory b: Also too, didn’t we all come from Africa at some point of time!
Felanius Kootea
My husband and I watch Finding Your Roots and he thought it would be fun to do a DNA analysis (he’s American). I thought mine would be utterly boring because I was born in Nigeria and so were all four of my grandparents. We used 23andMe. Well my husband found that he is a bit of everything, as we already knew, though I was surprised by the Ashkenazi ancestry. I expected to find that I am 100% West African. Turns out I am 99.3% West African and 0.7% Iberian. I was shocked. Probably something to do with the earliest Portuguese traders in West Africa. My mom was shocked too – we have no family lore involving Europeans.
I remember in an early incarnation of Henry Louis Gates program a white professor who found out he had some recent West African ancestry. He tried to find out more but his mom refused to talk about it. Many Trumpsters in the South might be shocked at their DNA results.
Miss Bianca
Gav looks like he’s just about to lick the camera! Good doggie! Happy he’s still alive and on the mend!
As for the ancestry thing…I wonder what I might find. Far as I know, we’re pretty much all British and French. There is an intruiging rumor about some Native American way, way back on my mother’s side of the family, but I am skeptical that it is a), true, b), likely to show up at a distance of 100+ years later.
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: Love “The Stunt Man”. Actually got to see it in the theater, many, many years ago, in Coronado, CA just down the street from where it was filmed – because my grandma lived there! (Not at the Hotel del Coronado, just on the island – tho’ we went to the Hotel del Coronado morethan once for dinner).
PaulW
@NotMax:
Why, does Nick Fury show up to ask Steve Railsback about joining the Avengers Initiative?
Origuy
My sister and I did the 23 and Me test. I am 99.4% European, 0.5% Sub-Saharan African, and 0.2% East Asian/American Indian. We’ve done quite a bit of the genealogy, and pretty much all of the lines were here before 1776. Since most of the family back then was in Virginia or Maryland, I suspect someone was passing as white. I think it’s interesting to know where your family was from. On one side, I have Hatfields and McCoys. On the other, we’ve traced back to Joan Tudor, illegitimate daughter of Jasper Tudor, uncle to Henry VII. His mother was Catherine of Valois, wife of Henry V and daughter of Charles Vi of France.
bluefoot
@Kay: Nice. My brother-in-law in Buffalo had sent me a link a couple of days ago to a petition calling on the board for Paladino’s censure and removal.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Did I read that right – a sibling set of six with no kids among them? That must make your family one heck of a statistical outlier for your (my) generation. No criticism or prying intended, I’m just surprised. I’m one of five Irish-American siblings, and we have the expected 8 kids among us – but one brother has 5, one has 2, I have only one, and the other two had zero. My husband’s side has barely managed to keep the family name straggling along with exactly one male offspring per generation for the last 100+ years in defiance of Italian Catholic stereotypes. So much fascinating variation hides behind broad ethnic patterns.
ETA: and 3 of the 8 are adopted. We’re covering our tracks!
MaryLou
@MazeDancer: Even more offensive is that the Trumpkins seem to feel more warm fuzzies for Mother Russia than for the evil colonial power of California!
J R in WV
Going to have a couple of timber experts coming early tomorrow to cut some now-dying Ash trees just up the hollow from the house. If they fell uncontrolled, they could damage the back deck and master bedroom.
Only problem is we’re night owls, and they want to start at 8 am, before the breeze picks up. On well. And tomorrow night we’re sort of expected to attend a New Year’s Eve party at friend’s house on the other side of the county. I also need to run into town, running low on the standard dog food, tablet has lost cell connectivity… being a Verizon tablet, that’s bad.
Maybe a nap in the late afternoon before sliding across the county? There’s a short-cut up a long hollow and over a steep high ridge, the hosts are at the bottom of the other side of the ridge. No snow, so that won’t be a problem. Or just stay home…
Best to all – happy New Year, keep on being optimistic!!