C: Everything you need to know about genetics you can learn in Starbucks

I have just 3 sources for all vital information:

(1) eavesdropping at Starbucks and/or Caribou Coffee

(2) the all-knowing tv monitor in the elevator at work

(3) VH1's Best Week Ever

I have gone through rebellious stages when I did kooky things like listen to NPR or subscribe to a newspaper but those dark days are behind me. I do run into issues when I have a slow meeting week and thus, do not spend a lot of time on the elevator. I didn't know about the Hudson plane crash for 3 days for that reason. On the upside, the elevator also expands my vocabulary on a daily basis. It also offers the occasional irony, like when the word of the day was "smarmy" and I happened to be riding the 'vator with an uber-smarm (noun form of the word...I do love the elevator).

Today, while waiting for my coffee in the Starbucks drive-thru (despite my weekly promise to stop drinking so much coffee), I overheard a patron telling the Starbucks dude (I do not use the word "barista" - it is not real) that having 5 fingers is a recessive trait. Wha, What?!?! So I jumped on Wikipedia to verify. Yes, I fully realize that Wikipedia should not be a source for any fact verification endeavor, and yet I will continue to use it for everything given its extraordinary convenience.

Unfortunately, I then spent the next hour desperately trying to figure out genetics (via Wikipedia, of course). I am fairly certain I nailed this in 7th grade science but for some reason just can't seem to grasp this whole dominant/recessive thing. I do not understand how supposed recessive traits can appear out of nowhere. Like how I have blond hair and the rest of my family is all brunette. Or how my husband has green eyes, when everyone else in his family has blue eyes (by now you are realizing that all of these links are wikipedia links...I wasn't lying). Actually, all my research just uncovered the fact that my husband is 100% recessive and I'm a good mix of both recessiveness (could be a word) and dominance.

Which means that when it comes to our son...I am totally winning.

Comments

[Brooke]

http://faculty.southwest.tn.edu/jiwilliams/Human_Traits.htm

Check out more information on the battle between dominant traits and recessive traits.

[Caitlyn]

Thanks for the link. Learning about genetic traits online is entirely too addictive. I'm very impressed that you were able to reach beyond Wikipedia and find a legitimate academic site to reference. That is beyond my capabilities.