Wandering in the Punnett Square
As if there weren't enough pieces of evidence to prove I'm a freak, here's more:
I can't whistle
I can't roll my tongue
I am left handed
Here I am, wanting to whistle along with a song and I can't. Chef Jr. whistles with ease, all. day. long. When pressed to do so, Gameboy does, too. Of course, Ed has no trouble with this.
I suspect it's because they can do something I can't: they all can roll their tongues. In fact, the torture me in the same way that Giggles and Dad once did, by sticking out those rolled tongues at me.
Everyone I know who can whistle who asks me why I can't gets asked a question "Can you roll your tongue?" I've yet to find a single person who can whistle who cannot do this. Check it out for yourself and see if you find fat tongued people like me who can emit more than one tone.
Probably the only thing in high school Biology that stuck with me was the unit on Genetics. I remember Mendel's laws and the Punnett square. Enough so that when I was pregnant with Gameboy, anyone who asked what I was having was told "A blue eyed tenor."
Genetics bore me out, as both Ed and I were blue eyed and we both sang tenor. I am the only one who can claim higher registers and he's the only one who can claim lower registers-but the common ground probably would be similar for our child.
As the daughter of a colorblind male, the odds were 50/50 that one of my sons would also be colorblind. Punnett was right-Chef has the same form of colorblindness that his Gramps did. Like his Gramps, he hides it very well. Then again, I lived nine years with my ex, who had the other common colorblindness, where it wasn't uncommon for him to ask for the pink towel that was really gray or the blue polo shirt that was really purple.
The one where Punnett is probably scratching his head is the area of hand dominance. I am left handed(ambidextrous, due to society, though), but Ed is right handed. Of the eight siblings, I am the only one who remained left handed beyond kindergarten.
That follows the law of averages, in that only ten percent of the population is lefties. However, we have two left handed sons. Ponder that one for a moment. Now, take my sister Giggles and her husband Joe. Both are right handed-but their two sons are also left handed. So we have four first cousins, all lefties. What are the odds?
It gets better. Our friends Joyce and Tim are both left handed. Three of the four adults are part of that 10 percent. It makes me wonder which hand is dominant in J&T's children? Are we all bucking Punnett again? Or did their children take that double recessive and become righties?
All I know is that once I wander through Punnett's Square, I want to tell Stephen Sondheim he's wrong, because I. can't. Whistle.
I can't whistle
I can't roll my tongue
I am left handed
Here I am, wanting to whistle along with a song and I can't. Chef Jr. whistles with ease, all. day. long. When pressed to do so, Gameboy does, too. Of course, Ed has no trouble with this.
I suspect it's because they can do something I can't: they all can roll their tongues. In fact, the torture me in the same way that Giggles and Dad once did, by sticking out those rolled tongues at me.
Everyone I know who can whistle who asks me why I can't gets asked a question "Can you roll your tongue?" I've yet to find a single person who can whistle who cannot do this. Check it out for yourself and see if you find fat tongued people like me who can emit more than one tone.
Probably the only thing in high school Biology that stuck with me was the unit on Genetics. I remember Mendel's laws and the Punnett square. Enough so that when I was pregnant with Gameboy, anyone who asked what I was having was told "A blue eyed tenor."
Genetics bore me out, as both Ed and I were blue eyed and we both sang tenor. I am the only one who can claim higher registers and he's the only one who can claim lower registers-but the common ground probably would be similar for our child.
As the daughter of a colorblind male, the odds were 50/50 that one of my sons would also be colorblind. Punnett was right-Chef has the same form of colorblindness that his Gramps did. Like his Gramps, he hides it very well. Then again, I lived nine years with my ex, who had the other common colorblindness, where it wasn't uncommon for him to ask for the pink towel that was really gray or the blue polo shirt that was really purple.
The one where Punnett is probably scratching his head is the area of hand dominance. I am left handed(ambidextrous, due to society, though), but Ed is right handed. Of the eight siblings, I am the only one who remained left handed beyond kindergarten.
That follows the law of averages, in that only ten percent of the population is lefties. However, we have two left handed sons. Ponder that one for a moment. Now, take my sister Giggles and her husband Joe. Both are right handed-but their two sons are also left handed. So we have four first cousins, all lefties. What are the odds?
It gets better. Our friends Joyce and Tim are both left handed. Three of the four adults are part of that 10 percent. It makes me wonder which hand is dominant in J&T's children? Are we all bucking Punnett again? Or did their children take that double recessive and become righties?
All I know is that once I wander through Punnett's Square, I want to tell Stephen Sondheim he's wrong, because I. can't. Whistle.
Comments
(And yes, I can roll my tongue.)
Funny thing, the lefty situation. My Mom's Mom is, and my Dad's sister. My mother swears the reason I became left-handed is because she used to sit on my left side and hand me things. I was kind of looking forward to one of my kids being a south-paw, but so far, two stubborn righties...
Two of three children are right handed. The boy child seems to have dual dominance. Yet, he writes with his right hand. The baby seems to prefer her left hand most of the time, byt since she's only 2, the jury is still out on that one.
Jess, I had the seat to the right of my mom-so I wouldn't bump elbowexplain how I always bump elbows with a fellow lefty!
SB, no finger snaps? That's a weird one.
Joyce, I'm suprised we never talked about the handedness thing. It was cool enough to me that 3/4 of the adults are left handed. When we met up with Giggles at WDW, it was even cooler that 5/8 of the table was southpaws.
as for genetics....it can be very interesting.
my dad is right handed, my mom is ambidextrous (she started out lefthanded, but was taught to use her right hand), and my sisters and I are all right handed. my ex is right handed. Jen is right handed, but Becca is a leftie.
my mom has hazel eyes, my dad has blue eyes. I have hazel eyes, one of my sisters has hazel eyes, and the other two sisters (the twins) have blue eyes. my ex has brown eyes, and both of my girls have brown eyes.
what's really weird...jen looks like her dad, becca looks like my side of the family...but when the two girls stand next to each other they looks so much alike that you know without a doubt that they are sisters.
Giggles must have married a hybrid, because one child has brown and one has eyes like his mom.
I never thought I really resembled any other family member. Then I got the pictures back from my first wedding-I look a LOT like my dad. We were the shutterbugs, so there weren't too many pictures of us together. Last month, I posted a picture of my new haircut on Facebook, and Giggles said I look like my mom's cousin. She's right, as I get older, I look like my aunt. Interesting.
Can't whistle nor roll my tongue and I am a lefty too! But you make better gnocci!!
Only ten procent of the population is left handed huh? I thought it would be more!!
Jientje, I saw the items you made for Christmas-you've got me beat on the gourmet front!
Grandy, you KNOW you have more skills than that. You just don't want to reveal them to all of us!