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The Geek Squad's pre-printed excuse note to give to your boss so you can go see Star Wars.

I identify pretty strongly with the Russian, German and Italian aspects of my ancestry. My dad is an immigrant, spoke only Russian until he learned English by total immersion in public school. My grandfather was born into an Italian immigrant community. He actually was pretty Americanized, but my mom's generation tried to reclaim their Italian-ness. ANd I guess we were raised Catholic mainly because of the Italian relatives. My great-grandmother (who I knew, she died when I was in college) spoke only German until she was 6 or 7, though she was born in California. Which is why I took German in high school.

People who came here from Canada?

WTF? Canadians would identify themselves as American? I'm guessing no, on that one.

I was surprised at the heavy German influence in places like St. Louis when I first went there years ago, so that high german ancestry number makes sense. I would have thought the Brits would be higher, but those waves were probably long enough ago that they are in with the bricks. I would think the percentage of Canadian immigration/ancestry identifying as Brits would probably still be higher.

My mom's family are all Irish, so even though most of them came over in the post-Civil-War years I'm closer to that part of my ethnic heritage than my paternal grandpa's Swedish childhood (all I know about that side of the family is that his hometown was some 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle).

I can count the trappings of my swedishness on one hand: when you open presents on christmas, and um....well, I like peperkokr.

Swedish pancakes and meatballs here! I also like limpa bread, but have no idea how to make it (Grandma wasn't a baker), which is why I'm glad my boss (also has Swedish heritage) lives near Andersonville and likes to buy me a loaf at the Swedish Bakery for my birthday present every year.

There's a category for "American" ancestry (not American Indian) - what's that supposed to mean?

That's what I consider me to be. Because this

Anglo-Irish-Scottish-German-Swiss-French, but all of those are so long ago that that's only a small portion of my ancestors that I know the heritage on.

is almost me (substitute "Dutch" for "Swiss" and you've got it).

All of my grandparents were of French-Canadian extraction, though one of them introduced Irish, English and Native American into the mix. My father's parents only spoke English as a second language.

What's the internet rule again where the weaker party in an argument invariably likens the other party to hitler? [link]

Godwin's law, wolf.

Thanks amych. So, so true.

I really thought I couldn't hate Rick Santorum any more. Surprise!!