A while back........
Pattie, RN’s comment on this recent post led me to remember this story:
As my regular readers know, I have boy/girl twins (Craig and Marie).
Years ago, just after they were born, I was talking to a drug rep. My secretary had mentioned to him that I had twins, and so he was asking about them.
Mr. Drugrep: “So it’s a boy and a girl?”
Dr. Grumpy: "Yes."
Mr. Drugrep: “Are they fraternal or identical?”
To my staffs’ horror, and with a straight face, I immediately said “identical”, whereupon he humiliated himself even further.
Mr. Drugrep: “Wow! That is just so cool. So they look alike?”
Dr. Grumpy: “Yes.”
Mr. Drugrep: “And so, even though they're a boy and a girl, they will always look exactly alike?”
Dr. Grumpy: “Yes”.
Mr. Drugrep: “That is so neat. I’ll have to tell my wife about that tonight”.
When he left the office I told Mary that his wife will think that he either calls on the stupidest people in the world, or that she married one of them, or both.
Unfortunately, he got transferred to another territory 2 weeks later, and so I never saw him again.
Amazing. I once told someone that two sisters were in the same grade because their mother gave birth to them a mere three months apart and, yes, they believed it.
ReplyDeleteMy husband has a twin sister and people ask him that ALL the time.
ReplyDeleteSooo are they identical?
ReplyDelete;D
lol.
my dau has identical twin girls- we are always asked 'are they twins" she now tells them, no they are identical cousins!
ReplyDeleteStumbled upon your blog today...HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteIn BlogWorld, I'm jut a run of the mill mother raising a child with diabetes and celiac disease.
But in REAL life, I'm all that and a RN (who really misses the good old days working in the ER).
You Rock :)
Oh c'mon, not everyone can be a smart doctor and realize a boy and a girl can't be genetically the same.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot about the possibility that his wife will think it is as neat as he does. Don't discount the the possibility that she is as dumb as if not dumber than he is.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of when we dyed the older two girls' hair purple in Hawaii and were constantly asked if we'd dyed it. Nah, brah, they were born that way!
ReplyDeleteThere is a couple of guys in my friend circle that are always refered to as "the twins" the look almost identical but are actually cousins.
ReplyDeleteyou emit strange magnetic rays that attract stupid people and make them stupider as they get closer to you.
ReplyDeleteMy husband mentions a special gravitational force (mostly to explain why I drop things) or stumble now and then.
ReplyDeleteBut, couldn't there be identical girl and boy twins, like maybe XYY or some such? Exposed to different amounts of some sex hormone in utero? Wouldn't be run-of-the mill situation, but a possibility? (Maybe that's what the rep was thinking, and when he met a real live physician who had a set--'cept he didn't get too detailed in his conversation--he immediately submitted copy to the Enquirer and transferred to that line of work,)
Seriously, though some of the stuff that's published in popular self-help magazines one would think that the author has antennae for the current medical buzz-word and has to submit a story no matter if its references came from under a rock or an armpit.
I'm a fraternal twin (girl and boy, as it were), and we've been asked (separately, at least) if we're identical COUNTLESS times. If I'm in a forgiving mood, I just let the silence linger... and most of the time the penny drops.
ReplyDeleteMy brother smiles sweetly and says, "No, we're fratricidal," which receives a lot of blank looks.
BTW, your kids should read the *real* Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: it's about fraternal twins and it's NOTHING like that insipid movie.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI've recently found your blog and just had to comment on this. I also have Twins of the Boy/Girl Combo who will be 2 in December, not only am I still getting the "are they identical?" I have actually gotten a few "How do you tell them apart?" and this question came AFTER I told them that they were boy/girl!!
I'm a twin, and my sister and I get this ALL the time; even when we're standing next to each other. And we look completely different; I'm a straight-haired blonde, and she's a curly haired brunette.
ReplyDeleteIt IS possible to have identical twins of opposite sex, though very rare. There was a case in Italy of identical triplets, two boys and one girl. The girl had Turner's syndrome, having lost the Y chromosome very early in development. Reference: Journal of Medical Genetics 1985, volume 22, pages 6-11
ReplyDeletehttp://jmg.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/22/1/6