Jipped

One of the beautiful things about Facebook is how it reconnects people who haven't been connected in a long, long time. Or for that matter, ever connected.

Recently, my first cousin Robert, who lives in Wales, reached out to me from across the pond. As strange as it may sound, I had never met or even known about Robert for my entire life. My mum (that's the ways Scots refer to their mothers) never spoke much about her family or life in the motherland. I suspect it made her very homesick.

After a few email exchanges with Robert it has become clear to me that the sense of humor I once thought I had inherited from the Jewish side of the family, can also be traced to my very British lineage. Robert, like most Scots, has an incredibly sharp, dry wit.

Anyway, while on the topic of genetics, take a look at this photo my cousin had in his possession. The stunning woman on the left was me mum. The handsome tuxedoed man on the right with the full head of hair, was my dad.

I may be a little biased, but they strike me as a classically beautiful couple. I don't know what happened during the fertilization process, but sadly I was not on the receiving end of any those finely-formed chromosomes.

The frumpy, bald Jew in the middle was Abe Rothman, my great grandfather.

Looks like I got all of his genes.