23 & Me

For Christmas my wife got me 23 & me - you know, you swab your cheek and send your DNA to this company, and they make some SWAGs about your chromosomes.

There weren't any big surprises. The vast majority of my selfish genes appear to be Northwestern European, mostly British and Irish.

But there were a few tiny surprises:

They gave me Ashkenazi Jewish and Asian/American Indian ancestry. But both were less than half of one percent. If I did my math right, that means that somewhere back in the 1700s, at the great-great-great-etc. level, my family tree had some exotic branches.

I was also kind of surprised when they told me that, as a runner, I was a sprinter - that I have a big supply of fast-twitch muscles. I've never had my muscles tested for their twitchiness, but in my youth it was sprinting that I was good at. Even today, the longer the race, the less "competitive" I am. So I wasn't surprised at the result - I was just surprised that they could TELL from my genes.

I've got a report on all sorts of genes,
but mostly nobody knows what it means,
except for these less than helpful hints:
I'm Jewish and Asian and better at sprints.