Angel: Just admit it: you think you're gonna ride in, save the day, and sweep Buffy off her--Spike: Like you're not thinking the same thing. Angel: I'm already seeing somebody. Spike: What, dog girl?

'The Girl in Question'


Natter 78: I might need to watch some Buffy for inspiration

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, butt kicking, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


JenP - Aug 27, 2024 5:02:04 pm PDT #2300 of 2651

If she's your first cousin, then her granddaughter is your first cousin twice removed. (Her daughter is your first cousin once removed). If you had a child, your child and her child would be second cousins. Their children would be third cousins. I won't do the removed on those... unless you want me to, heh.

My Uncle Freeman taught me all o' that at my grandmother, his mother's funeral. He was so awesome. I miss him.


-t - Aug 27, 2024 5:02:33 pm PDT #2301 of 2651
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

In my dad's family, you'd just be an aunt. Any relation (or family friend) a generation up (or more, we didn't use greats either) is pretty much aunt or uncle. Uncle Walter, for example, might have actually been my dad's uncle, or my grandmother's, or a cousin of some sort, I have no idea.


JenP - Aug 27, 2024 5:02:58 pm PDT #2302 of 2651

Oh, ha, ha, ha! I rushed to post the answer, so I didn't see that Sparky had answered. Like a child I can be when I get excited.


Hil R. - Aug 27, 2024 5:42:21 pm PDT #2303 of 2651
Sometimes I think I might just move up to Vermont, open a bookstore or a vegan restaurant. Adam Schlesinger, z''l

First cousin twice removed is correct.


DavidS - Aug 27, 2024 6:49:42 pm PDT #2304 of 2651
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

I was very excited when I finally learned that "once removed" meant a generation instead of some further extension laterally on the family tree.

Speaking of trees, the Arborist is coming tomorrow. Because while I feel like I've been flailing a bit and unproductive I have actually done shit. Like meet with and schedule the arborist to trim my trees.

Other things I have managed to do:

Contact liaison for Matilda's Japanese abroad program and go over application requirements.

Pursuant to that, ask Matilda's school for her transcripts.

Follow up email with the gardener (as separate from the arborist) to tame my Wisteria.

Arrange for all the women of the Sacred Circle to join me and Matilda on Friday for G&Ts and pizza. They are the people I want to be with on that day.

So even though Matilda and i have been in a funk for the month of August, stuff is moving forward even if it feels like a whole day's effort to get off one email.


DavidS - Aug 27, 2024 8:20:19 pm PDT #2305 of 2651
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

Addendum: I was discussing my to-do list with my friend Kat Kelley at the comic book store.

Me: So the arborist will come and he'll raise the crown on the front yard tree, and he will "proportionally" shape the two tall back yard trees. Because my backyard neighbor, Faustine, was complaining how they were shading out the light in her kitchen.

Kat: Oooh, Faustine is such a good name for a low-stakes antagonist.

Me: It really is! And then I contacted Fiona, the Gardener...

Kate: Fiona the Gardener! This story is writing itself. What great character names!

Me: Like Cottagecore but crossed with Mapp and Lucia comedy of manners. Oh, and the arborist's name is Remy.

Kat: [sigh of satisfaction] Perfect.


-t - Aug 27, 2024 10:26:47 pm PDT #2306 of 2651
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

Make it a low-stakes nothing-much-happens bedtime story.


Calli - Aug 28, 2024 3:51:56 am PDT #2307 of 2651
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul—Calvin and Hobbs

Those would be great character names!


Jessica - Aug 28, 2024 6:56:43 am PDT #2308 of 2651
If I want to become a cloud of bats, does each bat need a separate vaccination?

Cousin Explainer tea towel

My grandparents were cousins by marriage (there was another Ransohoff-Westheimer marriage in the generation above theirs) and so there is a whole branch of that side of the family where we are both third and fourth cousins.


dcp - Aug 28, 2024 7:20:17 am PDT #2309 of 2651
"I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam," -- Popeye

Going in the other direction, I have seen it asserted that one's grandparents' siblings should be called your grand-aunt or grand-uncle, not great-aunt or great-uncle, but they do not seem to be getting much traction.