Drabble by Kevin Fagan for May 03, 2013

Kissin’ Cousins?

it will be ok

No problem. Distant cousins.

More likely related by marriage.

It depends on how close the relation is and what state they are in (besides confusion). A quick search came up with a site wholly devoted to the subject. http://www.cousincouples.com/?page=facts

They could also be related on opposite sides of the brides family. He could be related to her dad and her to the brides mom.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!.

The bride is his cousin’s niece – they’ll be fine.

@ScottPMDouble check your spelling, that could be taken totally the wrong way :P

They probably are more distantly related since they had never met as cousins before. I don’t think they need to worry.

No wonder they are so much alike.

UH-OH!

See 4/22 panel – Ralph’s cousin’s niece.

So for Norman, the bride is his second cousin. For Echo it could be her father’s mother’s sister’s niece’s cousin twice removed?

Seams like they came from the same jean pool . . . . ☻

Um, I know all my first cousins. Beyond that, so what?

Dundt-Dundt-Dundt-Daaaaah

They can always move to Arkansas or West Virginia.

and so ends the great romance…on the other hand we can go back to dating people who hate you. This could go could have gone so many ways but it seems to be in keeping with the idea that nothing ever goes right for comic strip characters.

Queue ’Dueling Banjos"

Oh. My. God.

JER-RY! JER-RY! JER-RY!

Considering that we are all related to each other within 7500 generations according to our DNA mapped out in the Human Genome Project and that there are well over 7 Billion of us alive here and now, sooner or later it would not seem so strange to find spouses that were related to each other if they go back far in their family trees.

Please don’t ruin this by having them related, can’t he have one girlfriend that’s perfect for him??

One from the bride’s mom side and one from her dad’s side … problem solved.

Norm is the bride’s third cousin. Surely no problems there. But will they also be kin through June?

Hope she’s okay.

That genetic bottleneck brought on by the eruption of Toba in Indonesia 75,000 years ago probably also saved the Human Race in the process, because the survivors were closely related, it allowed humanity to survive similar catastrophes later on no matter where they happened as well as allowed humans from one part of the planet to breed with other humans from other parts, giving us interesting diversity on superficial levels while all the internal workings and parts are all the same inside every human being.

Did anyone else notice Norm’s got a Linus blanket?

Another genetic scenario could also be at play here, where perhaps the common ancestor may have had children to more than one spouse.…The siblings that would become a set of the cousins’ parents could possibly share only half the DNA they got from their common parent and that could also halve what is shared DNA to successive generations.…It’s not uncommon to find families where if the first spouse died or the divorced the common ancestor, that half-siblings could then be transferring their relationship and their genetic heritage down to successive generations.…My Great-Grandfather on my Mother’s Father’s side married his first Wife in 1905 and in 1907 and 1912 gave birth to my Great-Aunt and my Grandfather, who share the DNA of both their parents and passed that down to their children.…However, my Great-Grandmother died from the influenza epidemic of 1919, currently named the “Swine Flu” these days.…My Great-Grandfather later married his second Wife and they had a son in 1922.…So at that point, my Grandfather shares the same DNA he got from his parents with my Great-Aunt, but neither one of them shares all of that with their half-brother, who has a different Mother.…So my Great-Aunt marries somebody and has children, sharing half the DNA she got from her Parents, just like my Grandfather married somebody and had her bear his kids, transferring the same DNA that her sister inherited from their parents to his children while the half-brother only transfers the DNA that is only common to my Great-Grandfather, but not my Great-Grandmother.…When the next generation of that famly is born, each of my Great-Granfather’s Grandchildren, including my Mother, only have half the DNA inherited from their Grandparents, while the children born to the half-brother of my Great-Aunt and Grandfather only have half of that common DNA because their Grandmother is my Great-Grandfather’s second Wife.…Now when my Mother and her siblings marry their spouses and start having children with them, me and my cousins only share 1/4th of our DNA, because our common ancestors are one set of our Grandparents (every child has two—one Maternal and Paternal set) while the generation born from my Great-Uncle that is my Grandfather’s half-brother have half of that common DNA, which means that in relations to the cousins born on that line, instead of 1/4th of the DNA being common to all of us, it is now 1/8th.…And as me and my siblings and cousins take up spouses or mates and have children with them, 1/8th of my Great-Grandparents’ DNA is passed down to my children, the same 1/8th that will be passed down to my neices and nephews since me and my sibling have the same parents, while the corresponding generation born to my Great-Uncle that is my maternal Grandfather’s half-brother will only have 1/16th of that DNA that is common to all of us.

Noooooo! This can’t be happening! I’ve tried to read this comic strip for 34 years and finally Norm has met his future mate (I hope!). Recently, Mr. Fagan has thrown a “Monkey Wrench” in this relationship, but I hope everything will work out. Either that, or make Wendy do dumb and stupid things like our hero Norman does in the future. Maybe Wendy can be a goofy version of Veronica from the “Archie” comic strip. Who knows? I guess I will hang on to see how Mr Fagan will make these two get out of this mess. I want to see Wendy jealous!

edvacation: Cousin-in-law? Niece of one parent, nephew of the other..joegeethree: In Texas, first cousins may marry, but not uncle/niece or aunt/nephew, even if the relationship is by a no longer existent marriage. No one’s life or property is safe while the Lege is in session!

Well, crap…

I was expecting this. From the first time we met Echo, I thought they were related in some way. But I suspect they will find out that the relationship is not blood, just marriage, which means they can marry. My cousins on my dad’s side and the one’s on my mom’s side only meet at functions held by my immediate family or my father’s sister. But, think about it. Ther’s another family out there similar to the Drabbles?

A friend of mine was dating a girl in high school and he started thinking she was the one. One day they were talking and he mentioned that he had an “aunt Ruth” who he’d never met, his girlfriend replied that that was her mother’s name and that she had an “Aunt Beth” that she’d never met. My friend said that was strange since Beth was his mother’s name. The two of them exchanged looks and said “Oh no.” You guessed it, they were first cousins.

Oh snappity snap snap.

Norman is a second cousin of the bride. His dad is a cousin of the bride’s dad. No problems for Norm and Norma.

OH MY GOD !!

I don’t get what’s to stop them from dating :P