Today’s Not Terribly Relevatory Observation Regarding My Physical Condition
Posted on October 20, 2009 Posted by John Scalzi 35 Comments
As I get older, it becomes surprising to me, not how much I am beginning to resemble my father (because I’m not, really), but how much I am beginning to resemble my grandfather. In particular I’m pretty sure I’ve gone and inherited his forehead. Which is not necessarily the feature I would have chosen. But that’s genetics for you, isn’t it.
That said, I sincerely hope my daughter has not, in fact, inherited my grandfather’s forehead as well. Because that would be grim right around the time she hit 50. Fortunately she has a way to go before this is at all a concern. I cannot say the same for my own supra-ocular facial region, alas.
Oh yeah, I remember a few years ago when I started noticing my Grandma in my mirror. A bit of a jolt, that is…
My mother apparently had an affair with David Letterman, because I am beginning to see HIS forehead in the mirror…
I, too, inherited my grandfather’s forehead.
And my father’s waistline.
Oh, well, it would give her something to hurl back in your face when she’s a teenager. “And it’s all your fault that I have this horrible forehead! I hate you, Daddy!”
Personally I think we should all get a full respec to select the features of our ancestors we’d like to inherit. A cut-off at grandparents seems fair. It would also be cool if this was a skill respec and not merely a cosmetic one; it would save a lot of time to inherit the ability to speak Russian and Yiddish fluently.
I don’t know whose forehead I got, but I am infinitely glad I didn’t get either of my maternal grandparents’ noses. They had 4 kids and 8 grandkids, and none of us got either of their beaks. Whew!
This thread is useless without pictures.
Over the last twenty years, I’ve watched my mother slowly develop my grandfather’s jowls, and over the course of the last two or three I’ve watched them appear in the mirror.
@ Lubert Das #6:
http://tinyurl.com/inherited-forehead
Better? :o)
My brother and I used to look very, very much alike. And I suppose we still do, despite the 7 years age difference (and the fact I shave my head and he has a more or less full head of gray hair, the bastard). But we did notice that although I probably look a lot like our father, he actually looks a lot more like our grandfather. Although he seems to have inherited some of the genes for hair from our mother’s father (bastard).
@ Shawn Powers #8
it’s a good start…
alright, let’s here you say “Zug Zug.”
With feeling please.
I’ve been a dead ringer for my mom since I was nine. Strangers have remarked on this while driving on the highway. Seriously, dudes have leaned out of their cars and gone, “Is that your daughter!?” (Luckily, Mom’s pretty cute.)
You seem to be supporting a very non-Lamarckian form of genetic inheritance. The answer is simply to have the child fasten a device to her head every evening that encourages her skull to grow into the shape of the perfect forehead…
Even if she has her father’s forehead she has a distinct advantage over him, bangs.
Rabid
(That was meant to be tongue-in-cheekier than it sounded. :-D)
Luckily I inherited my mothers hairline (dad’s bald as a proverbial cue ball) but otherwise, I’m pretty much a dead ringer for the old man. Standing around with my dad and uncles, it’s pretty obvious we’re all related.
I look just like my mother, except with light-ish hair and eyes (which I got from my father). It’s downright disconcerting to look in the mirror and see my mother’s face.
Look further back everyone.
My wife was looking at a photo album with my mom a number of years ago. She looked over at me and asked, “When did you do that old timer wheat threshing thing?” I said “Huh?”
Mom explained that the picture was from 1931 and it was my Great grandfather in the picture.
We look like time displaced twins, barrel chest, round belly, closely cropped or nonexistant hair…
Hmmmmmm. That’s the first time I ever heard anyone complain about their forehead. I am sure that when I first saw your photograph, I didn’t think –“Boy, that Scalzi sure has an unfortunate forehead.” How are your elbows? :-)
My elbows are GODLIKE.
Hey just out of curiousity and off topic, has anyone been keeping track of NASA’s Ares X-1? It rolled out to the launch pad this morning.
Watching a tv show last night about babies who were switched at birth…I looked over at my wife and said, “Ok, I guess I am glad the kids got my ears.”
I recently noticed that I’ve inherited my grandfather’s turkey wattle. Sigh. My neck swishes if I turn my head too quickly. I’m too young to be old. Sigh… (again).
Dave
I look a lot like my grandmother. Except for my rather bumpy nose. _That_ I got from my dad.
I have no idea what either of my grandfathers looked like, as they both died before I was born, and given the circumstances no one kept much in the way of pictures. My dad once told me I looked like his mother; I think I’m starting to look like him. Like he used to look, I mean; now he looks like an urnful of ashes.
I wish I’d inherited my father’s forehead. Alas, I have the fivehead (bigger than a forehead) from my mother’s side of the family and I have the lovely thinning hair from the same place. My father still has all his hair and it annoys the crap out of me. Still, I’m taller that he is, so I’ve got that going.
Me, I can’t complain. Except for coloring, I have always had exactly my mother’s face. Pictures of us at the same age (school pictures were great for this) show us looking exactly the same, except she had brown hair and hazel eyes, and I was a blue-eyed blonde. (and yes, a girl… I had a brother who shared the same face, too, which was more than a little weird!)
I can’t complain, because Mom continued to turn heads into her 60s.
On the other hand, I sort of inherited Dad’s body – I gain weight from looking at food!
I’m adopted and I don’t know whose genetics I’ve inherited. It’s no fun going to the doctor knowing that they will instantly assume I’m genetically predisposed to every condition.
My daughter did not inherit her father’s nose which we have dubbed “the Geiselman nose” even though we’ve since discovered it’s came from his great-grandmother and is therefore, really, “the Bollinger nose”. It’s not an ugly nose, just distinctive and you can spot the relatives with it in pictures. His sisters’ have inherited it and they are attractive women. My daughter inherited my nose and eyes.
The Evans side of my family tree has very distinct genetics. At the first family reunion my wife attended with me she was able to pick out all the blood kin because the folks who had married into the family did not look like us. Actually, all the folk from that area of WV look somewhat alike. Generations of limited marriage choices have resulted in a restricted gene pool unless you leave the area for mate-hunting. And a good dose of Amerind genes helps. The stories about the bears are, I suspect, not entirely accurate.
Yep. Got my Dad’s hairline*, and HIS Dad’s bad attitude. I Look like a shorter version of Dad (to be fair, he’s 6’8″), but I weigh the same that he does (which seems unfair).
*http://www.flickr.com/photos/rxgreene/243072457/
My sister and I look a bit as if someone had cut up my parents’ faces and reassembled them with some bits swapped. I have Mom’s eyes and Dad’s nose and lips, she has Dad’s eyes and Mom’s nose, etc. And yes, I definitely inherited my high forehead from my dad, and I’ve been complaining about it for years. It doesn’t help that he apologizes to me whenever someone notes our resemblance. :P
Still, even with that patchwork and our different hair color, my sister and I look enough alike that people have thought she’s my daughter (we’re ten years apart). We don’t know where she got her general body type, though; she’s definitely not from the same mold as my grandmother, mother, and self.
Scalzi @19: Do t-shirts make your elbows look fat?
I have my father’s teeth (ie two front upper teeth shoved back). This was a blow to him as he’d always told people his teeth got like that from a blow in the face playing rugby. Then I came along and gave the lie to him.
I posted about low VOC paint in the wrong thread. sorry.
hugh57@31: It depends on how tight the sleeves are.
It’s bad enough getting to be an old man without looking like my mother. A LOT like my mother. The only good thing about it is the hair color. When we buried her at age 80, her hair was still mostly brown. Mine seems to be doing the same thing, except for the hole in the back.
I’ve often heard that I look like my dad. Which is odd since I’m adopted.