The Neanderthal is Back

Hello friends. No, I wasn’t in my cave painting, I was traveling. The blog entries grew fewer. People stood on their digital stoops waiting yet nothing arrived. Forgive me.

But I am back! And more Neanderthal than ever!

I love that we Human Beings interloped with the Neanderthals and that anywhere between 1 and 4 percent of my Euro (or Asian) DNA is Neanderthal. I am sure I am more like 4 percent. You can sort of smell it on me.

In case you have not been reading about it, they have discovered, by comparing DNA, that earlier humans had sexual relations with Neanderthals. So here we are.

I wonder what those sexual relations were like. Were Neanderthals invited over to Cro-Magnon houses for truffles and sherry and the next thing you know, someone’s in the upper cave making the two different beasts with two different backs?

Or was it something much less dignified? Like inter sub-species rape? And these rapes went in either specie direction depending upon size and fleetness? It remains a mystery. Though, one hopes in the future that DNA shows markings of all history to its minutest detail. That would be great. “According to this DNA, his great-great grandfather ate three potatoes three days before his death, listened too much to Puccini (when he should have been listening to his own heart) and rarely bathed.”

I love my inner Neanderthal. I feel him. He is the loser who somehow won.