881 Limburger, Cousins, Paternity

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Grocery shopping this evening. Saw some Limburger cheese. Heard all the jokes. Never tried it. Hmmm. Curiosity. Bought it. Brought it home. Opened it. Tasted it. Wrapped it in three layers of foil and threw it out. Can't get the smell off my hands. Can't get the taste out of my mouth.

Ex#1 liked Limburger and onion sandwiches. Said he did, anyway. Shoulda been a sign. 'Nuff said.

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Paying bills this morning, one of those daytime shock shows on TV in the background. The old "That's not my baby" DNA-test topic. I get so frustrated every time I hear some guy say that "ain't my baby" because he/she "don' look nuthin' like me!" And then the mother gets up and points out all the ways they "do look just like!" They don't, but that has nothing to do with anything anyway. Come on, people! You can't tell parentage by a infant's looks. They're pudding! A baby is not a carbon copy of anybody. They combine bits and pieces from the parents, the grandparents, and maybe even the great grandparents in new and novel ways.

When I was in the hospital after giving birth to Daughter, my roommate was a very young and uneducated girl. She and her baby's father, equally young and uneducated, got into an actual name-calling fight over the 1-day-old baby's nose. She said the baby had his nose, he said the baby had her nose, then he threw in that his mother didn't think the baby had his nose. I tried very hard to ignore it, but finally the girl asked for my opinion (and support).

My own opinion was that the baby had a birth-canal-squashed button of no particular shape, just like all babies. But I pretended to study the baby carefully, and I said, "Well, I think the bridge is yours (pointing at the boy), and the tip is yours (pointing at the girl)." As I walked away, the two of them were peering intently into the bassinet, "Yeah. She's right!", and then they were all lovey-dovey again. I didn't have a lot of hope for that little family.

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Right after the "ain't my baby" show, the next show had cousins that were sleeping together. The ex-girlfriend was horrified. The family was horrified. The emcee was horrified. The audience was horrified. "Your COUSIN! That's INCEST!"

It isn't. Except as defined by some states for baseless reasons.

The social ban has to do with back when brides were bartered to cement family political alliances. Marrying within the family was a waste of a perfectly good bride. The scientific reasons, retardation etc., have no basis in fact, as has been shown by multiple studies. The incidence of genetic-caused problems is no higher, or only slightly higher for some things, than in the general population. If there is some genetic disease that runs in the family, genetic counseling may be in order, but if it's a serious disease, that's advisable in any case. So there's no reason not to allow even first cousins to marry.

On the other hand, if everyone knew that cousins could marry, there'd be a lot more cousin marriages. They grew up together. They commiserated. They likely have a lot of the same interests and habits. If we had known it was permitted, there's a very good chance that my cousin and I would have married. When we were young, we both often felt that only the other really understood....

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Family business this weekend. Probably no further update until Sunday at the earliest.