Dr. Isis is back to blogging after a few days hiatus. I would love to tell you that I was away doing something wonderfully glamorous, but the truth is that I had a case of the stomach flu and spent about 48 hours in bed.
Figure 1: The only thing I can say is that, even when I am vomiting, I am still totally hot.
But, I think I am back in the game.
Lovely reader Virginia recent sent me this email that I wanted to share with you....
Dear Dr. Isis,
Dad doesn't look too concerned that the milkman is obviously the father of two of his children.....
And with the email she included this online advertisement from The Children's Place:
I realize this may be a bit hard to see at this resolution, so I took the liberty of enlarging the relevant bits:
I can't say I blame this woman. I am not sure I could bone the guy in the polar bear pajamas either.
I can't say I blame this woman. I am not sure I could bone the guy in the polar bear pajamas either.
Life Science
Education
Comments
My college biology professor had stories about using eye color to demonstrate classic dominant and recessive traits, only to have several students show up sobbing at his office hours, explaining that they are the brown-eyed child of two blue-eyed parents.
Posted by: Laura | November 13, 2009 5:13 PM
Oh, Becca.....
I know you've got something to say here....
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | November 13, 2009 5:33 PM
Perhaps he is unconcerned because he loves his infertile wife and his adopted children very much. Heck, perhaps he is unconcerned because he loves his socially responsible wife who did not desire to add to the sheer number of people in the world when there are kids out there that need love and warm pajamas.
Perhaps he is unconcerned because he loves his wife and his stepchildren very much.
Or maybe, just maybe, he is unconcerned because the milkman is his gay lover and they are all one big happy family, but the children's place thought that wouldn't make as good an ad (facist heteronormative pajama pushers... *grumble*).
Does Dr. and Little Isis need to watch Lilo and Stitch?
"This, is my family. I found it, all on my own. It's little, and broken. But still good. Yeah, still good"
Posted by: becca | November 13, 2009 5:36 PM
Hey, little muffin. I just post what the good peoples send me while I am puking.
But, be serious, who is having sex with the dude in the polar bear pajamas?
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | November 13, 2009 5:39 PM
Oh Dr. Isis, you are so hard on the poor guy. I can see some appeal in the kind of guy who would wear polar bear jammies! (Not that my husband would be caught dead in such a thing, but apparently he's cooler than I am.) However, I can't imagine trying to actually sleep in head-to-toe fleece, though, or wear fleece while draped in warm bodies for a photo-op. I think I would die of heat stroke. And who wears a t-shirt under jammies, anyway?
Posted by: Diane | November 13, 2009 5:58 PM
I loled.
Also if any of my family members start wearing flannel jammies, I swear to bob I will disown them. Good thing it's too hot in SoCal for flannel.
Posted by: Nekohime | November 13, 2009 6:18 PM
People can be mosaic and be homozygous for blue eyes in the eye and heterozygous for blue/brown in the germ cells.
Posted by: daedalus2u | November 13, 2009 6:34 PM
But, be serious, who is having sex with the dude in the polar bear pajamas?
I remove the PJs before we get down to business.
Posted by: Uncle Glenny | November 13, 2009 6:49 PM
Hi there, 1st time commenting, maybe the guy is infertile or had a terrible terrible accident and had the milkman make a donation
Posted by: G | November 13, 2009 7:48 PM
OR MAYBE! it is just a really funny genetics joke!
Dr. Isis - love the color emphasis of the arrows. :)
Posted by: haha | November 13, 2009 11:16 PM
"But, be serious, who is having sex with the dude in the polar bear pajamas?"
Are you asking who is having sex with THAT dude, or who is having sex with a dude in polar bear pajamas?
Cause the former, I got nothing for, unless it's the milkman.
The later, I really don't see a problem. Protip- Pajamas come off.
People can be mosaic and be homozygous for blue eyes in the eye and heterozygous for blue/brown in the germ cells.
The eye for brown eye color isn't on the X chromosome by any chance? Cause X chromosome mosaicism could explain it too, I suppose.
Posted by: becca | November 13, 2009 11:34 PM
Oh, Isis. Surely you don't think that eye color really is such a simple Mendelian trait. The genetics are much more complicated. I know this because my two kids appear absolutely identical except that one has light blue eyes and the other dark brown. My husband and I both have blue eyes.
Plus I teach genetics.
Posted by: Anonymous | November 14, 2009 8:01 AM
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2004-10-14-wonderquest_x.htm
"Blue-eyed parents can have brown-eyed kids and other eye-oddities..."
Posted by: Anonymous B | November 14, 2009 9:16 AM
I heard of one pair of blue-eyed parents who got tired of the "milkman" jokes really fast... so they taught their 1-year-old, brown-eyed daughter to respond to adults asking "So where did you get those big brown eyes, huh?" by piping up with "Recessive genes!"
The kid didn't understand what it meant till much later, of course, but it shut the adults asking the question up ;)
Posted by: Chris | November 14, 2009 12:04 PM
Why do most of you have to ruin a perfectly good funny? Let's just pretend eye color determinism is simple like they told us in Bio101 and have a good laugh.
Posted by: anon | November 14, 2009 11:09 PM
Back when crossing the canadian border was no big deal, we often wondered whether the guards would pick up on the fact that my oldest boy was the only brown eyed kid in a sea of blue eyed blonds.
They didn't.
Posted by: brook | November 15, 2009 6:08 AM