*winces*

[conuly]

Bad, bad, *bad* writing here.

Somebody asked about the odds of having a third boy (instead of a girl for a change) and I responded that they're the same as they ever were. But just in case, I googled - I mean, I don't know, I suppose it's likely that some men are prone to make more X sperm or more Y sperm, but even then the odds are the same, they've just always been skewed, right?

So I read this site that claims:

One sample, containing only the “small, round-headed sperm” presumed to be X sperm, belonged to a man whose family had produced only daughters for over 250 years.

The site goes on to explain how this idea was mistake, etc. etc. etc., but I'm still hung up on the fact that apparently this man's family had produced only girls. He must simply not exist! Nor his father, nor his father's father....

Sheesh.

Comments

[conuly]

If they'd said that his family had produced only *boys* for 250 years, now, *that* would be interesting.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

That would be *possible*. :D The girl thing just doesn't parse.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine has boys running in her family and her husband's family too. She is the only girl after something like 6 boys, and her husband has only brothers. She wasn't surprised to have 4 boys in a row (and is now having her 5th, a girl). It's weird. But yeah, the article clip doesn't make sense. I like to think they went 250 years into the future and discovered that he is the last male born in his family, and everyone after him was a girl due to his mutant sperm.

[takaal.livejournal.com]

Aha! Time travel explains it all!

He *is* his own grandpa - thus keeping himself out of the "just girls" loop!

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Time travel *always* explains it all. A temporal anomaly!

[conuly]

But that's not possible. After one generation, no more sperm producers!

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Which isn't possible? I agree the clip you posted is not possible. In my time travel scenario, I mean that he is giving the sample NOW in 2008, following which, every child ever born to his descendents for the next 250 years into the future are females. The article write time traveled and found out that his mutant 2008 sperm produced only girls. Not that my time travel scenario is possible anyway.

[conuly]

It still doesn't matter. After his daughters, it's a moot point - they're not the sex-deciders. Unless they have mutant bodies that kill off male fetuses, just like he has mutant X-only sperm, that is.

[sayga.livejournal.com]

Oh I see; they're saying his sperm decided that he will only produce girls, not that his GENES decided that he will only have girls. I assumed his mutant sperm created mutant girl babies or something and once introduced to his mutant sperm, no male child could ever be conceived in the mutant female body. Yeah, it makes no sense, without time travel and/or mutants.