Product Reviews

Bar Keepers Friend

The two plates in the picture are from a cheap made-in-China set I bought at Crate and Barrel about twenty years ago. They are our everyday place settings. And the set we use when we have company. The plate on the left shows marks from countless stainless steel utensils scratching the surface. The plate on the right has almost none.

The difference comes from Bar Keepers Friend. It also polishes stainless steel and copper. It works a treat. You can buy it online for $4.99 from Hudson's Bay or in store at Williams and Sonoma for about twice that.

23andMe

My 23andMe reports came yesterday. For the now high-seeming price of $228.95, I have a "likely" (the single most used word on the 23andMe reports) sense of most of the things I knew about myself already.

For example, I "likely" have brown eyes, wavy brown hair, pale skin and have a big toe longer than my other toes. My genetic markers also say I "likely" have average body weight, am lactose tolerant, sleep lightly, move more in my sleep than average, and am less inclined, or not inclined at all, to consume caffeine.

On the health side I am not a carrier of any of the forty or so gene-based medical conditions that I might have passed on to the children I never had. 

And, although the presence or absence of the genetic variant  guarantees neither that I will or will not develop late-onset Alzheimer's disease, I don't have the variant. I also don't have the variant for Parkinson's, but that also doesn't mean a thing.

The ads for 23andMe make a big deal about how your genetic makeup can correct fanciful family narratives. You know, the guy who thought he was Italian finds out he's German instead.

Well, my family narrative is more or less born out by my genes. I am mostly Scots (my father) and German (my mother). The proportions are a bit of a surprise, though. I'm almost 40% Scots, and less than 20% German. I'm also 6% Scandinavian (Vikings, I'm guessing) and 13% Eastern European. 

The larger proportions are from the nearer ancestors. According to the genes they pulled out of my spit, 400 or so years ago I had an ancestor who was 100% Finnish and another who was 100% Native American. These ancestors account for less than .2% of my DNA.

So that's pretty cool.

The two biggest surprises and least expected pieces of information lurking in my genes were, first, that I have 302 Neanderthal variants, including the variant associated with having less back hair, and, second, my genetic muscle composition is common in elite power athletes.

As for what this last factoid means, the report says 

For most people, lifestyle and training factors drive athletic performance. At the national and international levels of competition, the genetic variant in this report seems to make a difference in athletic success, but its role for non-elite athletes isn't completely understood.

Here's my contribution to science: in non-elite athletes the elite athlete muscle composition genetic variant has no role whatsoever.

Thanks for reading!

Karen