WDYTYA - Brooke Shields . . . and beyond?!

This may just be my personal opinion, but this week's episode of "Who do you think you are?" would have been worth watching even if the speakers are busted on your tv.

After all, the featured celebrity root-digger was Brooke Shields, who (as it turns out) is descended from a bunch of blue bloods who lived in some fancy palaces in Italy and France.

Anyway, yours truly was a little perplexed after watching the previews for the next episode, because the kind folks at NBC noted it wouldn't be aired for two more weeks . . .

Do any of ye socks know why they're taking a break like that?

There is some good news to report on this series. Just heard that it has been picked up for a second season.

Stay tuned, I guess. (Just not next week!)

WDYTYA - WWI

"So, what's with all the jumble of letters?!?" ye socks may be asking after seeing the title of this post.

No, it wasn't a transcript of the Scrabble tiles I drew recently . . . they were worse!

Rather, they are the abbreviated way yours truly refers to the new series "Who do you think you are?" and "World War I."

Tonight's episode featured research on actor Matthew Broderick's family history.

He was surprised to discover his grandfather, a quiet postal worker who died before Matthew arrived on the scene, was a decorated veteran of the First World War.

He even got to visit a battlefield in France where his grandfather treated his comrades who were wounded in action.

All this got me thinking of my own great-grandfather, pictured here.

He was also a WWI veteran.

Also treated wounded soldiers in France while serving with an Army Hospital unit.

Also worked for the post office after coming back home.

Also died before yours truly arrived on the scene.

The similarities were almost uncanny.

Anyway, it got me thinking about the all-too-often-overlooked legacy the "war to end all wars" has in the annals of American family history.

Ye socks whose ancestor(s) may have been inducted in Florida to serve in the "Great War" will be interested in checking out this site:

http://www.floridamemory.com/Collections/WWI/

Happy hunting!

Debt kills

As the disaster in Haiti continues to unfold, television viewers here in the United States are getting a crash course in the island nation's history.

The historical tidbit that gained my particular attention was the stinging indictment of the French that appeared on CBS news.

That may be in part to my natural predisposition against French politics.

Anyway, it turns out that Napoleon and his successors put a 150 million franc stranglehold on the emerging democracy back in 1825.

This was supposed to be for reparations the French slaveholders "suffered" during the Haitian revolution.

The slaves themselves received no reparations for their years of forced servitude.

Anyway, it took Haiti more than a century to pay off that staggering mountain of debt . . . 1947 to be exact.

I'm not saying that Haiti could have emerged as the proverbial shining beacon of light to the rest of the world if not for French extortionists, but we Americans could learn a vital lesson from this bit of history about the long-lasting impacts of carrying a massive national debt . . .

My deep matrilineage

Well, ye socks, modern genetics has finally accomplished what many years of genealogical sleuthing on my part have been unable to do: trace my mom's side of the family to the other side of the pond.

Until today, my earliest known maternal ancestress was an Irish immigrant named Elizabeth Gallagher who lived in Brooklyn, New York, in the 1840s and 50s.

Unfortunately, there is a tremendous dearth of available documents on 19th Century Irish ancestors . . . oh, who's kidding who . . . there's a dearth of documents on Irish ancestors of any century.

But, now my friends at www.smgf.org tell me that Elizabeth Gallagher and all her matrilineal descendants (yours truly included) belong to the haplogroup H, a great big clan that traces back some 20,000 years to the Dordogne River valley in southern France. (The people who painted all those bison on cave walls, etc.)

That's kinduva big leap from 19th century Brooklyn, no?

Liberte, egalite, et BROKE

I just got done watching a story about the healthcare system in France on my favorite CBS Sunday Morning show.

Piffle.

The "resident correspondent in Paris" who put the piece together extolled the virtues of socialized medicine, but buried the most important part of the story:

The French government extorts an awful lot of money out of its workers to pay for their socialist boondoggles.

AND, they still come up short!

Even with the high taxes, their national healthcare "system" still operates with a DEFICIT!

Don't gloss over the FACTS, ye media types!

Socialism is NOT the answer to healthcare . . . or anything else for that matter. It deserves its place in the proverbial dustbin of history, not to be glamorized in a segment on a tv news magazine.

Two movie reviews

"Fly Boys" is a big thumbs-up. Wasn't sure if I was going to like it or not, and have to confess it's been sitting by the DVD player for weeks. Literally.

The lack of interest was probably due to the setting: WWI in France.

But, don't let that hold you back. The Frenchiness is kept to a minimum, and the lead character is a Texan.

Some great aerial combat scenes with old-timey bi-wings and tri-wings. Just wish they'd invente the parachute sooner for some of those poor airmen . . .

"Pan's Labyrinth," another movie that I've been delaying, mostly because it's in Spanish with subtitles.

Let me warn you, definitely not a kid movie.

The digital animation is amazing, but a very, very dark story line with some gruesome scenes. But, what else can you expect from a film set in the middle of the Spanish Civil War, right?!