07 May 2009

How a man can be his own grandfather

"There was a widow [Anne] and her daughter [Jane], and a man [George] and his son [Henry]. The widow married the son, and the daughter married the father..."

I believe I remember Mark Twain once writing (or asserting in a speech) that a man could be his own grandfather. The case illustrated is said to have occurred in 1846, and may have been the one Twain was alluding to.

It is, of course, a matter of semantics rather than genetics. The explanation is short and is available at the Futility Closet.

Update: Hat tip to Ryan for noting that this topic is discussed in Wikipedia.

2 comments:

  1. Lonzo & Oscar had a novelty hit with "I'm My Own Grandpa". It showed up on The Muppet Show, and has been covered by a number of others as well.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_My_Own_Grandpa

    Here's a YouTube video of the original version, with exceedingly annoying scrolling text.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdFPDjtX2Q4

    ReplyDelete
  2. there's a great version sung by tom arnold in the underrated 1996 movie "the stupids."

    ReplyDelete

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