My great-grandpa drank a scotch every morning, no ice. I'll never be like him.

Why would you put ice in whisky?

That's what he said.

Are you asking whether we have incestuous freeloaders in our lineage? Let me think...

Well, of course. I am the lost princess. No one is looking for me and I am looking for no one. So I remain lost. But a princess, nonetheless. Humph!

oh, yes, and Obey!

Kind of - my dad and uncle are both insanely workaholic, and successful high-achieving 'self-made men' types. Me, my sister and my cousins are all either artistic/musical sorts or work in the media, so I guess we unconsciously chose to sidestep any possibility of living in shadows. Either that or we're workshy spoilt brats!

Weird example you chose, though - can't be that hard to live up to a bunch of useless, vile leeching fucks. At least Princess Margaret had the wit to spend her time shagging around and tooting coke.

No, never had this problem -- my people are basically crackers.

c'mon George VI would never had been King of England had it not been for a certain divorcé. ;)

Well, I'd say possibly. My grandfather was a professor of "mathematics (and) education" at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Chicago, and I always figured I would end up an academic like him, but flunking out of college sort of scotched that. Even worse, I've never gone back for that degree, and it has made some things more difficult for me.

My other grandfather was a hard-working, but not workaholic, auto mechanic and part-owner of a Studebaker shop for many years (it's still there on Broadway in Chicago, last time I checked -- I hope it hasn't been redeveloped since I moved). Seems like a normal immigrant success story, except I found out he left Sweden because of his alcoholic brother, and then his own son (my uncle) became one too. He and my mother haven't spoken since shortly after their father's death.

I don't think that notoriety is the only type of legacy people live in the shadow of, in other words.