Drabble by Kevin Fagan for May 04, 2013

I hope that Echo is adopted. I want Norman to be happy together with her!

Please don’t let this be ruined. Echo and Normanshould be together, they are sooo good for each other.Echo is adorable.

They could be distant cousins….many peoplehave married (disant?) cousins. Please let itbe so.

Checked online. No states prohibit the marriage of second cousins.

The cousin of my cousin is no kin of mine, if my uncle married her aunt.

OK, checking back to the start of this, the bride isa neice of a cousin of Norman’s Dad. Mmmm, whatdoes that make the bride to Norman, would she bea like, third cousin?

All right, I got it, checked online. "If the neice is a daughter of one of his cousins (i.e., they are the child of one of the cousins brothers or sisters) they would be a second cousin.

If they are the child of one of the cousins brothers or sistersspouse, there is no relationship, though most families wouldrefer to them as a distant cousin."

Yeah~they may not be related!

No, Echo, hold on—don’t – throwit away yet.

They could at least find out how each is related to the bride before they give up the idea of a relationship. It may be there is no blood at all.

@macushlalondra. That was my first thought.

Your cousin Bob has a sister Edna. You wouldn’t call Edna’s daughter your cousin Bob’s niece, you’d call her your cousin Edna’s daughter.“Cousin’s niece” implies cousin’s spouse‘s sibling’s daughter. They’re no more related than you & I.(I had to invent names to make my sense make sense.)

It doesn’t look like anyone’s suggested this yet, one could be related to the bride through the father and the other one through the mother and they wouldn’t be related to each other.

Or, Echo could be related to the bride’s father and Norman related to the bride’s mother. Then both would be related to the bride, but neither would be related to each other.

A bit late recently. The main reason against first cousins marrying has to do with recessive genes. People didn’t know what that was centuries age, but they did notice the major decline of the nobility over time. When first cousins marry, there is a better chance of a hereditary illness being amplified. But in this case, I don’t think they are related. If they are, it would be more like distant cousins. But Norman and Echo tend to freak out over the littlest thing, so this is just frustrating. They also won’t speak to one of Echo’s parents to find out the relationship. Regardless of age, check with an old-timer to find out family history,

I got it. Betty is Ralph’s cousin. She marries Barney, who has a brother, Fred. Fred marries Wilma, who is not related to the Drabbles. Fred and Wilma have a daughter, Pebbles. Pebbles is Edie’s niece, but not related, except very vaguely through marriage. No blood. It doesn’t matter on the sexes. The only stipulation is that the non-Drabble has a sibling who marries a non-Drabble.

@ Macushlalondra:Right. This needs to be resolved. Norman and Echo, very good possibility they are not related. Norman needs toask his Mom.I bet Honeybunch would know. If not, she. would findout.

I just read somewhere that everybody is at least 32 cousins with everybody else.

This is what I (hope) is going to happen.So, obviously there is some confusion, but I hope it will work out the following way:After the initial shock, he will find out that echo is related to the couple BY LAW, not by blood. Then, once a little awkwardness of being lawfully related wears off, they will continue their relationship happily.

My heart sank when I read the comic the day before, because they were a perfect couple and added a new factor to the comic. I hope that they can get together! fingers crossed