I had heard a report on NPR witht the author and among the interesting this he discussed was that lactose tolerance is a relatively new adaption for humans.

Yup. Couldn't occur until after domestication, around 8000BC in the Old World, or thereabouts. And there are estimates that only about 15% of the human population now maintain lactose tolerance after infancy.

if I take up residence in Paris, they will *not* sing La Marseillaise in English for me, much less play it publicly sung with English lyrics. Why is this an issue?

What if you've been living in Paris as long as or longer than many of the French people?

I know I'm slow when it comes to American history, but it wasn't until driving across the country that I realised that New Mexico used to be Mexico. It wasn't until living in New Orleans that I realised it used to be Spanish.

I have no idea what the relative numbers are for English v. Spanish and their comparison to English v. French in Canada, nor if they're even vaguely relevant. But I do think that Spanish in America is way more like Moors in France than I'd previously known.

I'm swimming against the tide, here, I know, even though I have no problem with the immigration kerfuffle. But if I take up residence in Paris, they will *not* sing La Marseillaise in English for me, much less play it publicly sung with English lyrics. Why is this an issue?

I think that is why I am confused. We haven't made English the official language of the US - and you can get some documents in other language ( which is good) . There are no laws against it. Part of me is bugged by the idea, but there is no logic behind that. ( not enough to make a big deal over it , unlike others that I know)

I had a roommate in college from San Antonio who was chicana, but I'm pretty sure her family had never actually immigrated -- where they lived just became the US.

My dosage was just increased last Thursday, and I've noticed that I'm much more sleepy than usual. But that may be just temporary while I adjust

I'd be willing to bet that's what it is -- I was sleepy for a week or so when I first started it, but then the sleepiness disappeared.

What does DO stand for in doctors? I am seeing it after names instead of MD.

Osteopath, I'm pretty sure -- they do the regular MD stuff plus some more holistic treatment stuff. Actually, I think you might really like an osteopath.

Well, if the English version of SSB has never been adopted as the "official" version, then maybe they do have a case. But it seems to me--and I admit my "reason" is mostly "feeling"--that the "national" anthem should be sung in the language of the governing body--which historically, in the US, is English. There isn't a sovereign nation on Earth, is there, where the national anthem is "officially" sung in more than one language?

I know that anthropologically and geographically, much of the US territories were Spanish before they were states. But the governing body has always been English-speaking, whether for good or bad.

I just don't see why people who come *from* countries with their own anthems in their native language want to come to a different country and sing that country's anthem in their native language. This doesn't happen in any other country and I don't get why it's even an issue here.

The anthem thing doesn't seem like a real issue to me, more a political statement.

France, to pick on that one example, has an incredibly bad record of dealing well with immigration. Like, if your ancestors don't all come from France, you're just not cool enough to be considered French. Obviously, the country sat down and planned out a "we'll continue to be distinctive" plan, with the academy that keeps written French grammar complicated and a thriving film industry and trademarks for Champagne and all, but, the problem with enforced distinctiveness is that people sort of have to assimilate or die be outsiders for life.

The US doesn't have an official language, so there's no legal reason not to have the national anthem in as many languages as you can think of. Legal notices in my city are printed in English, Portuguese and Spanish, and they put little sentences at the bottom (This is important have this translated for you) in Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Haitian, and a couple of languages I don't recognize. Now, that's my city, and I live in Socialist Massachusetts, but.

We don't have a national policy of enforced distinctiveness (and anyway, in a country this geographically and demographically large, I bet it would be impossible), and I'm cool with that. Just as I am cool with the hilarious gymnastics required to make the Star Spangled Banner rhyme in Spanish.