My mother only in the last few years admitted that her maternal grandfather was Mi'kmaq. But Nfld. Mi'kmaq never had status, except for one small band, and there was a lot of internarrying between the French and Irish and natives in Nfld. so I would be surprised if that's the only native relation I have.

(Disclaimer: I'm a white girl, but it seems that not all my ancestors were. Those that weren't were, in fact, female. No princesses, however. Everyone was dirt poor and rural.)

Ditto for me, except white boy. But I have actually seen the photograph of my grandfather's native american grandmother. Really! And yeah, dirt poor and rural.

Oh Sue, I'm sorry. ease-ma for Pico.

Mixed-race Indian men had very strong incentives to marry "down" the racial hierarchy

Very strong incentive is a very strong euphemism. How about "on pointed pain of death" for a less strong one?

The same forces at work that make us think there's only two English accents - BBC and Cockney?

Yeah, but Native Americans are here. Are you saying the accents are driven by the direction and aren't the accents of the people playing the roles?

My mother only in the last few years admitted that her maternal grandfather was Mi'kmaq. But Nfld. Mi'kmaq never had status, except for one small band, and there was a lot of internarrying between the French and Irish and natives in Nfld. so I would be surprised if that's the only native relation I have.

We could be related! There was apparently a reasonable amount between the Scottish in the PEI/NS area, as well, so my grandfather had a fair percentage of Mi'kmaq.

Really, when this was mentioned by a reliable source, it explained A LOT about some weird family dynamics with my Dad's sister (darkest hair, eyes, and skin of the three kids, often assumed to be of mixed blood) and (blonde hair, blue-eyed, raised by her married very much down the class ladder English mother) Gram. And possibly why Gram made no effort to remain in contact with my grandfather's family.

Are you saying the accents are driven by the direction and aren't the accents of the people playing the roles?

I'm saying that First Nation/Native Americans have a) not been well-represented in media, and that b) the mythos of FN/NA peoples has overridden the reality since long before the inception of the Republic. (For example - in Northern Exposure, all the Alaska Native characters were played by actors from Washington and Idaho tribes. This bugged the hell out of me, since there is a clear physical and vocal difference, but I know it wasn't noticed by most people.)

I don't know that I'm saying this right. It's just - I think the overarching issue is that it's easy for society to be reductive. It's like how's there's actors using an Oklahoma accent when they're supposed to be in Texas. The subtleties get lost.

We could be related! There was apparently a reasonable amount between the Scottish in the PEI/NS area, as well, so my grandfather had a fair percentage of Mi'kmaq.

It's entirely possible. I guess the Mi'kmaq who were in Nfld migrated between NS and NFLD as they fished. It's really hard to get a clear family history because my grandmother had a fairly painful past and didn't really want to talk about it. (Her first husband and one or two kids died by the time she was 22, and her father died in an asylum.)

Thanks for all the helpers about the eyelash thing - I don't have eyedrops with me, and I kindda have to get out and HAVE FUN.

My super mom will wash it for me tomorrow, if it won't come out on its own.

In other exciting Little League news, our team came from behind for the second game in a row to win the Tournament of Champions semifinal. We'll play the championship game on Saturday.

In the previous three games Emmett: (a) was unable to play because of diarrhea cramps; (b)got hit by a pitch and flipped out; (c) hurt his ankle and could barely hobble around the field for two innings. So I am pleased to say that in this game he walked twice, hit the game-tying RBI double, and as catcher threw a runner out at second.

It was a very thrilling game, where one of our players who has had an off-year batting, found his stroke in the last two games. Dan hit his first home run ever to give us the lead. Very tough, back and forth game. And the opposing coaches were dicks so I was happy to ruin their evening.

Thank goodness!

Scientists are working to safeguard the world's chocolate supply.

Glad that Emmett (and his team) had a good game.