I think then that his brains decayed after he left the rarefied air of Oakland. Because, he is universally regarded as a joke in Boston.

I dunno about that. The one time I saw Canseco play live in Fenway, he hit three home runs and a double for Texas. The Sox fans weren't laughing at him then.

I think then that his brains decayed after he left the rarefied air of Oakland. Because, he is universally regarded as a joke in Boston.

I think Canseco's (baseball speed and defense) skills decayed sharply in his later career, leading to incidents like the home run bonk. He was a helluva player in his younger days before all the roids and coke and whatever else. I have no real comment on his brains. Maybe he bought into the Bash Brothers hype a bit too much.

My grandmother gave Canseco driving directions once when he was lost in her neighborhood. She said he was a nice young man.

My grandmother gave Canseco driving directions once when he was lost in her neighborhood. She said he was a nice young man.

He offered to hit me. He seemed nice.

I can actually look them up at ellisisland.org and view a scan of the manifests.

I found my great-grandmother that way! My mom has a printout of it, somewhere.

(All four of my maternal great-grandparents were Polish immigrants, but as far as I know their names weren't changed during immigration, either by a clerk or of their own volition.)

I have no idea about any of those things. J's must not pay too much mind to history.

My maiden name is an Americanized version of Gingrich, but I have no idea who changed it or when.

Isn't that cool? I found a remarkable number of relatives that way, including ancestors who were just visiting.

So awesome. It also gives us yet another DOB for my grandmother. This one is 1909. We also have 2 well-after-the-fact birth certificates (um, certificates acquired when her parents got married shortly before they immigrated) indicating 1908 and 1910. No idea what the story is.

I don't know of any relatives that went through Ellis Island although there must be some.

Both my father's and mother's last names were mangled but for different reasons. My paternal grandfather's parents divorced when he was very young and his mother remarried. She never, ever spoke of her first husband, and when my grandfather final went to school and was asked to spell his last name he guessed. The lived in rural Kentucky and there weren't that many written records.

My maternal grandfather's name was mangled at some point either when his father was sent to an Indian school or at some point shortly thereafter. We only found out it was changed after my aunt found some letters with the original spelling.

I just read this on another list, and I wanted to share this with people who would be properly appalled.

As a writing teacher as well as PR writer, I recommend using commas only where they help clarify something. If your meaning is clear without one, don't use it.

If it's grammatically incorrect, however, that will immediately lower my opinion of you and the thing you're promoting.