sigh

[hieronymousmosh]

Dear Applebee's,

Who okayed your "table 19" commercial? You know the one that goes "a secret crush turned out to be mutual attraction and the Westgate cousins went old school..."? Because I KNOW those are meant to be two different occasions, yet every time I hear it, my brain has a wait, what!? oh, right. Not 'old school' in a marrying family way.

Comments

[ifreet]

They are SECOND COUSINS and that is legal in every state. Plus, no question about whether you get to keep your name!

[hieronymousmosh]

OKAY, MRS. ROOSEVELT.

(...though they were 5th cousins. STILL: this is the example I will choose.)

[_unhurt_]

anthropological facting! cousin-marriage (including first cousins) is super-common worldwide and historically. it may be americans who are weird here!

[lazy_hoor]

My father-in-law used to be a genealogist. Started tracing his own ancestors - came across his parents' marriage cert which had something in Latin on it which he'd not seen on other marriage certs of the time. Asked his parents what it meant. They acted a bit shifty and eventually owned up - they had to get special dispensation from the Church. You can guess why!

[helleboredoll]

[hieronymousmosh]

It's a surface weird, cousin-loving certainly still goes on. ...Though does this mean all of the rest of the world is getting chain restaurant commercials where first cousins are making a romantic connection?

Fun cousin marrying fact! One of the theories on Tutankhamun's parentage is that he is indeed the child of cousins, not siblings, and the reason his DNA appears to be from the latter coupling is due to successive first-cousin couplings to get to him. (to beget to him? hey-OH!)