Some of you may have noticed that I haven't been around the board all that much the last few months, but that I haven't been around at all since the end of December. That's because I was on the road most of the time, in various places in the US, mostly in Michigan. (I probably would have at least posted something or other with all the news about France, except that I was in the States and had access only to the abominable left-and-right propaganda, cut up into sound-bites, that Americans call "news.") While there, I discovered something I didn't know at all. I have known since I was a kid that I am one-quarter Canadian; that was never a secret. (And yes, I'm proud of it! ) My mother always said the Canadian side was French-Canadian, but she never actually knew her mother and it was discovered ten years or so ago that she was in error -- the French-Canadian was her mother's step-father (who thus is not an ancestor to any of my family). Anyway, one of the multitudinous visits we made during our marathon four-week visit of family and friends (sorry, tafkats, despite spending most of the time in Michigan there just wasn't time to look you up, much as I would have liked to) was to a sister who does a lot of work on our family tree. And she has discovered that the original roots of our Canadian side is Irish (from Tipperary). Guess I'll have to celebrate next St. Patrick's Day!
Finding out your Irish instead of French is kind of like losing a winning $10 lottery ticket, buying another one and winning $3.
Cool! I found out that they have DNA kits for about 150 dollars (includes scientific processing) that you just send in a cheek-scrub sample and find out exactly what your deep down way back ancestors were. I'd do it but I might get discouraged when I have a lot of Neanderthal DNA.
My view on such things is that culture means more than DNA. My family lived in Mexico during a significant portion of my childhood. I am aware of no Mexican ancestry, but I feel very comfortable with things Mexican, so in that respect, it's not too inaccurate to say that I'm part Mexican. Likewise, my wife is genetically half Italian, as each parent is half Italian. But both my mother and father-in-law were predominately raised by the native Italian, due to divorce in one case and death in the other. So the family is very Italian, much more so than some others. Culture trumps genetics.
I heard Taco Bell crashed and burned like Canadian Target when their idiots in charge brought it to Mexico. Imean,why would Mexicans paid more for a bastardized version of their food when they can make and buy far superior stuff? I'm still puzzled as to how any Taco Bell in San Diego County makes a profit, actually.
First of all, @Asyncritus, sláinte, and welcome to the tribe! The thing about ancestral DNA is that it goes much farther back than ethnic origins, and it's often full of surprises. @oldfella1962, I'd recommend you try it. Neanderthals have gotten a bad rap.
IIRC, the Irish have a certain percentage of Norse & Viking roots. This is also true of the Russians up to some point(?), as the name Russia comes from an old Norse/Viking word, Rus.
Everyone from Northern Europe probably has some Norse genes in them. The Vikings were rather, ah, prolific. The Russians do have Viking heritage, though probably not too much Norse genetic influence. The Vikings were called Rus' by the slavs; the modern Finnish word for Sweden is the very similar Ruotsi. A Viking called Rurik settled in Novgorod in the 9th Century, and his descendants dominated the principalities of Kiev and became the first czars of the Russian state. The Rurikovich dynasty lasted for centuries and finally came to an end with Ivan the Terrible's imbecile son, Feodor (Ivan, in supreme lapse of foresight, killed his one son who would've been a competent czar). I always found it fascinating that Russia and England have histories that were shaped profoundly by Norsemen (in England's case, first by Danes and then by Normans).
Ah, but I do, and as I said, I'm proud of it. It's just that Canadian blood, like American blood, came originally from somewhere else, unless it is pure "First Peoples." My Canadian blood is Irish, eh?
Brand recognition? Consistency? It is weird but a lot of people won't try any place unfamiliar - yes it's pretty sad. The Office has a bit where Steve Carrel takes a quick trip to NYC raving about all the great authentic pizza you can get. Then he goes right into a Sbarros! That's America right there, no doubt!
Funny, but a lot of native NYers including my sister in law have told me pizza chains are pretty hard to come by there....mostly near tourist areas. Native NYers don't fuck with 'em when the many, many local places sell gigantic two foot pizzas for less than it would cost me for a medium Domino's pie.
And root beer, too! And donuts, and huge steaks and real hamburgers and pecan pie and all kinds of other wonderful stuff. I think I put on about 37 pounds in four weeks...
Welcome to the club! We're something of a mongrel people, having been colonised by Celts, Vikings, Normans, English and others.
