{"id":1551,"date":"2006-11-07T08:19:04","date_gmt":"2006-11-07T12:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/?p=1551"},"modified":"2006-11-07T08:19:04","modified_gmt":"2006-11-07T12:19:04","slug":"miller-genes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/2006\/11\/07\/miller-genes\/","title":{"rendered":"Miller Genes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My uncle Norm called me Thursday to recount his visit with his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153favorite brother.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d  He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d flown into Evansville on Monday and out on Wednesday ,  and slept, not in my father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s house, but at the B&#038;B <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbonline.com\/in\/coolbreeze\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\"> Cool Breeze<\/a> . <\/p>\n<p>Talking to Norm reminded me that neither brother is all that good at answering direct questions. You would think a simple, declarative \u00e2\u20ac\u0153yes\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153 I bought Skippy peanut butter\u00e2\u20ac\u009d meant a midnight visit from Sister Helen Prejean.  Inevitably, most answers are delivered cryptically,  like a message inside a fortune cookie written by Will Rogers. However, if you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t threaten them with a question, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get a lot of information, and in  the case of my uncle, delivered in a slow, almost southern drawl. When Norm talks I want to hop up on his lap. <\/p>\n<p>Besides evading questions, there&#8217;s also this assumptive quality  embedded in the Miller family. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s either we assume you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care or assume you already know or assume it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make much difference. All this assuming leaves someone in the dark. <\/p>\n<p>Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an example.<\/p>\n<p>Norm: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You know, I met this Jeff guy while I was at your father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s house.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Me: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good man.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Norm: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well he is. And you know what else?  I like his politics.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Me: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Of course.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Norm: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153 But you know what?  (pregnant pause)  In other families if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re introduced to someone you get  background information.  Where they work, how they fit into the family, maybe even why they&#8217;re in your living room.  But not in the Miller family.    Millers leave all that for you to figure out.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My uncle Norm called me Thursday to recount his visit with his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153favorite brother.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d flown into Evansville on Monday and out on Wednesday , and slept, not in my father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s house, but at the B&#038;B Cool Breeze . Talking &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/2006\/11\/07\/miller-genes\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainecourse.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}