This sad little lizard told me that he was a brontosaurus on his mother’s side.
I did not laugh; people who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them.
Humoring them costs nothing and adds to happiness in a world in which happiness is always in short supply.
LAZARUS LONG
LOL! Good one, and so true.
A true story. Genealogy is my hobby, my passion. My boss used to think I was nuts. Even worst, just stupid for wasting my time. He was a self-made man and his grandfather had dumped his father into an orphanage; ancestry meant nothing. He has an unusual name and a then-unknown cousin reached him via internet. We got a history in the mail of his great-great grandfather who was the original settler to this country. I just about died laughing when I read it. Take out the dates and countries, and this colorful character sounded exactly like my boss. Actually, it was uncanny. He saw the humor, enjoyed the story, learned why his grandather had to give up custody of his father (he had TB) and never ribbed me again. Ancestry DOES count—even for the self-made.
GENEALOGY n. The tracing of descent from ancestors; alternatively, a particular account of such tracing for a specific individual or family. In the English-speaking world, all those who take up this pursuit announce sooner or later that they can trace their descent back to Edward III. This should surprise no one with a rudimentary knowledge of mathematics; there are probably one or two well-bred basset hounds who could also trace their descent back to Edward III. What is really surprising is that Edward III seems to be regarded as some kind of ultimate antecedent beyond whom the genealogist does not venture, even though anyone descended from Edward III is also descended from his father Edward II, and so on. The author can guess only that the prudery of the late Victorian age (when genealogy became a family pastime) chose to draw a veil before the memory of Edward II in view of the sybaritic Plantagenet’s bisexual reputation and appalling death (see impalement).— Peter Bowler, The Superior Person’s Book of Words.