Happy 4th of July!

[Rip Van Dan]

Happy 4th of July to all our US members out there and Happy Birthday America!

All of our UK friends, please pretend you didn't see this post as I know it is not a day you particularly care for. 

Thanks,
   Dan

[Paulinderwick]

Hi Dan - we've got over it now, in fact, we now have a politician to rival Lord North who was really responsible for you going your own way (but you can come back if you want) in David Cameron the idiot that called a referendum on membership of the EU to solve his own internal political problems and landed us with what might be just as disastrous as 1776...

[Rip Van Dan]

Thanks Paul,

Yes Lord North was the driving force to keep King George from addressing our grievances and pushing us to revolt.   Nice of you to offer to take us back

Sorry to here you have another like him and hope he is unable to make things worse for our good friends in the UK.

Hey, as an aside, my brother took one of those Ancestry D.N.A. tests.  My last name, Gracia, is Portuguese; my Dad's family immigrated to the US from the Azores (Portuguese Islands in the middle of the Atlantic) in the late 1800's; and come to find out we have very little Portuguese D.N.A.  Was like 24% UK, 23% Ireland, and a bunch of other varieties as well, including a smidgeon of Norwegian (supposedly came from the Viking ships crashing on the reefs on the north Island of the Azores) as well as North African.

Anyhow, they said the greatest concentration of Gracia's are in the UK.  I don't know of any relatives from there but supposedly there are a bunch.  Have you ever run into anyone with the last name of Gracia there?  May have a bunch of relatives I didn't know about!

Dan

[Paulinderwick]

I suspect that a lot of these "Gene Pool" tests are worth, not a lot, and I think your family background seems to bear that out.  Of course Gene Pool has another meaning to us but that is rather more practical.  I just think back to the moon missions, and the first images of earth as a planet - no borders, and that is how it should be, the only borders are shorelines and even then we all date back to an ancestral eve, or so the scientists would have us believe.  We're all brothers and sisters and so we should be - if you want to swear allegiance to our Queen, feel free, but bear in mind when she dies you would be saddled with Charlie - 6 months younger than me and I still remember with loathing bus drivers rubbing my head when I was 3ish, welcome on board Charlie - Grrrrr....

[Rip Van Dan]

LOL...say Paul did you notice how D.N.A without the periods in between each letter is was automatically changed to Gene Pool?

Regardless of what you can see from space though, it's still fun to trace your ancestry back to see where your family came from and what they may have gone through to get down to where you are now. 

But I'm more than a bit of a history nut anyhow.  One other "hobby" I have is Revolutionary War Reenacting.  Don't do that much in Washington but was quite active when I lived in Vermont and Virginia.  I like to dig into the details.

And, I doubt anybody will be rubbing you on top of your head now!  That used to drive me nuts as a kid, but I have to admit to doing that same thing to my nieces and nephews.

Dan

[Bassmann1968]

You don't like Gene Pool?
I can change that

[Paulinderwick]

I must confess I didn't think that Dioxyribonucleic acid would become a bass manufacturer if you see what I mean - you'd think the Lysergic acid diethylamide would be more likely!  I have nothing against Gene Pool being D.N.A. if you see what I mean - and free samples would always be welcome...