Cool new background. Believe it or not (I'm not sure whether I do or don't), family legend has it that my father was the model for the Uneeda Biscuit boy, now gracing Kymm's journal. Since I didn't know him when he was about four, I can't tell whether it's really my father or not although I can't rule it out. My grandmother swore up and down that it was true. Another family legend (on my mother's side) has it that my grandmother's cousin donated the organ in St. Patrick's Cathedral. True? Who knows. Do you have any legends (urban or otherwise) in your family?

-- Jon Arthur (zanne1504@aol.com), August 01, 2000

Answers

That St. Patrick's thing isn't such a big deal. I've got a sticker to that effect on my driver's license. Anyone can be an organ donor.

-- Kim Rollins (kimrollins@yahoo.com), August 02, 2000.

Oh, yeah? Well, I had one great-uncle who played the hurdy-gurdy, and another who used a pestle to pulverize spleens for the local mad scientist. They were both organ grinders.

-- Shmuel (shmuel@nycmail.com), August 03, 2000.

That's nothing. I had a grandfather who used to make liverwurst submarine sandwiches for the homeless. He was an organ grinder donor. (For the regionally challenged, "grinders" are subs in New England)

-- Jon Arthur (zanne1504@aol.com), August 03, 2000.

the first man killed at concord and lexington was named harrington. john, i think. thats a matter of historical record, and his house is a historical site. his brother was also killed, again a matter of historical record. was his brother my direct ancestor or not? my mother says absolutly yes, my aunt says its just a story, and who knows. i choose to believe my mother.

also, at the time of the revolutionary war, another ancestor was an inkeeper. and supposedly george washington used his in as a headquarters at one point. we still have the table that was in his room that he supposedly wrote his dispatches on, and my mother owns a shawl pin that was worn by my ancestress when washington asked her to dance at a ball.

-- nicole (nicolemrw@go.com), August 03, 2000.

how amazingly embarrassing. that should have been "inn", not "in" and "innkeeper" not "inkeeper"

-- nicole (nicolemrw@go.com), August 03, 2000.