Subject: Re: Re: 12/1 episode questions...(Europeans avoid due to spoilers)
From: maus@Morgan.COM (Malcolm Austin)
Date: 1990-12-13, 14:21
Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks

In article <5070@atexnet.UUCP> dawson@epps.kodak.com (Keith Dawson) writes:

> >The dwarf (=Leland) says "She's my cousin." If you take the "she" at 
> >this moment to stand for Maddie, then Leland speaks truth, because 
> >Laura's cousin is also his cousin -- once removed.
> >--
> >-->Keith
> >dawson@epps.kodak.com

No, actually Laura's cousin is Leland's NIECE (or nephew).

My understanding is that, for the function ShesMyCousin(X,Y,N,M):
"X is Y's Nth cousin, Mth removed" is that N=number of generations back you 
go to find a pair of siblings, and M is the number of generations that 
separate X and Y.  But I could be wrong.

In any event, if Maddy is the daughter of a sister of Leland or Sarah, she
is still Leland's niece, not cousin.  This is mildly confirmed by Maddy's
continually addressing Leland as "Uncle Leland".  Although this form of
address is often used by children for older family members (and friends)
who are not technical "uncles", it would be odd for Maddy to continue to use
the term as an adult.
--
"Hank, you leave the creative thinking to the brothers Horne.  You are a
  bicep.  Relax until we say 'flex'." -- Benjamin Horne
-- =============================================================================== Malcolm Austin -- maus@fid.morgan.com #include "disclaimer.h"