The horse eats no cucumber salad.

In watching The History Detectives on PBS this evening, I learned that peculiar phrase was the first one communicated by telephone.

Actually, it was probably more like, "Das Pferd isst keinen Gurkensalat." That is, if my college German still serves.

At any rate, it was spoken by the fellow pictured here, one Johann Philipp Reis, NOT Alexander Graham Bell.

Until tonight, I thought it was Bell who deserved the credit for the more mundane command, "Watson, come here, I need you!"

Learn something new every day . . . or, at least relearn something you thought you knew!

Updated ahnentafel

For ye socks who have been keeping tabs on my never-ending genealogcial pursuits, I announce a significant revision to my ahnentafel:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~oldpinecastle/ahnentafel.html

The bulk of the revisions stem from new information that indicated yours truly had misidentified #141 on that table of illustrious ancestors. Hannah, the wife of Warren Blakesley of Marengo, Illinois, who died in January 1850, was NOT the daughter of Philo and Sarah Ann (Priest) Peck.

Rather, she was a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Lighthall) Sponable (now properly identified as # 282 & 283).

While this revision eliminates some pretty interesting Connecticut lineages and a coveted link to Queen Anne Boleyn, it does add at least one more Revolutionary War veteran and an infusion of German and Dutch bloodlines.

Sorry if I've bored ye socks who do not share my genealogical addictions, but that's the big news out of this dryer this morning . . .

William Addams Reitwiesner

That's the name of an oft-quoted genealogical expert of sorts, whose research on prominent figures I have enjoyed perusing over the years.

Now, he's created his own website: http://www.wargs.com

It includes a great archive of his previous works and genealogical essays.

I particularly liked the (rather lengthy) one he did to show his calculations of the ethnic background of the two princes William and Harry.

Following a similar approach, some time ago I came up with my own set of numbers. If you care, they break down as follow:

37% = Irish
33% = English
20% = Scottish
5% = Welsh
3% = French
1% = Dutch
1% = German

That should total to 100% if my math is right . . . had to do a lot of rounding, I'm afraid. (Rounded-down as much as possible on those French numbers!)

If you're interested in checking-out your own genetic/ethnic background, I would point you to an awesome program being conducted by the Sorensen Molecular Genealogy Foundation: http://www.smgf.org

Happy hunting!