Thursday, March 27, 2008

Who's your cousin?

I don't know why, but lately I haven't been able to summon any creative musings to blog about. You could say that my creative process has been all "blogged" up. And everyone knows that the 53rd rule of blogging is: "when confronted by "blogger's block" look for inspiration on another blog." Done.

In this case I take my cue from the The Swamp. This is the Chicago Tribune's "Washington Bureau" weblog which mostly has posts relating to the much talked about Presidential race between Hillary Clinton, Barrack Obama and John McCain. In this post, Frank James talks about a recent AP article in which Chris Child, a genealogist for the New England Historic Genealogical Society has spent three years tracking down the distant relatives of our Presidential Candidates. Yes, I am writing a post about a post about an article. The Internet RULES!!

So apparently Obama is 10th cousins with George Bush. McCain is 6th cousin with Laura Bush. Hillary is distant cousin of Camilla Parker-Bowles. I have one pressing thought about this: Who cares? I do find entertainment value that Obama and Brad Pitt are distant relatives, but that's about as far as it goes.

My first thought was, "Man. I wonder who I'm related to?" My second thought was, "Would it matter?" The answer to that is no. Say I pay someone to do this and I find out that I'm 7th cousins with Donald Trump, do you think I'll be invited to do whatever it is his daughter does on the Apprentice? Probably not.

I understand the novelty interest in Genealogy, but I'm not sure of it's practicality. I have been told that I am 50% Irish. And though it hasn't stopped me from celebrating St. Patrick's Day, I don't feel Irish. I feel American and showing me that the majority of my family tree ends up back in the Emerald Isle doesn't really help. I've been to Ireland twice and neither time I showed my passport were they like, "Aww, welcome home there lad." In fact they said, "How long are you going to stay . . .why are you here . . . what's in your bags?" The only thing that would peak my interest would be a strong genealogical connection to anything Guinness. Even Alec.

So maybe some of you can inform me why I should care about where I came from besides a possible distant relationship with the likes of someone famous? Say Brent Musburger?

4 comments:

Roller said...

Dude if you were related to Alec Guinness... no wonder you've always been a good athlete. The force runs strong in your family.

Why is that one guy fighting one handed all the time? And what the heck are the people driving by thinking?

With regards to Genealogy, anything that can be applied to famous people will always have a People Magazine purpose in addition to its real usefulness.

With regards to Vibeology, it's V-i-b-e-ology (I mean in a funky way).

Ryan said...

Wow, hilarious. Coov, for being constibloggered, that was a hilarious post. Even the pics were funny. Rollo that video was awesome. With the exception of a few sloppy cuts, I was actually really impressed with the way those guys pulled off the fight and effects.

The other day, I walked into the room and my roommate was watching TV, one of those celebrity shows. I listened to the menacing voice (Pat O'Brien?) talk about 4 scandals in a row that were coming after commercial break. I had never heard of the people, so I asked her. She said they were people who report on celebrities.

I was like, Snap, so TV is so bad now, they're doing gossip on people who do celebrity gossip? That's like meta-gossip. Our TV should explode on impact.

Our politicians are idiots because too many of our people are idiots now. We have huge real problems in Medicare and SS, and no one is addressing them. Instead, the 3 candidates are working up solutions to the housing crunch, which by the time any of them is in office will be fixed naturally.

And now we hear about relatives and preachers and hilary's tears and all bullshit.

I want HOT WEATHER CHICKS!

Roller said...

metagossip. touche.

Coovo said...

You guys are both missing the point, but . . .

First, Vibeology had totally left my brain and I cannot believe its back. How--Why--nevermind. Both videos are arguments for federal regulation of people's spare time.

Second, ryan, what are the election issues with the secret service? I mean no one's gotten shot yet?

I've totally forgotten what my point was.