Jenny

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I could be misremembering, but didn't the Collinses dislike Jenny because she [spoiler]was an entertainer - and it wasn't until much later that they learned she was a gypsy and Magda's sister?[/spoiler]

Also, perhaps DS was picking up on and utilizing in a limited way a plot twist that was running on OLTL at the time in which a [spoiler]black woman (Carla Gray) was passing herself off as white - and she could get away with it because her skin was so fair.[/spoiler]

[Midnite]

Just wanted to comment that it has all to do with genes and dominant and resesive genes. Think of Mendle's flowers Red flower and white flower makes a pink flower.

Actually, Mendel didn't encounter those results, though it doesn't mean his genetic principles were incorrect for the data he collected.  The result he obtained was that a purple flower + white flower = purple flower hybrid (the purple flower phenotype clearly was dominant).  And when he crossed the hybrids, purple flower + purple flower = 75% purple / 25% white.

The example you gave of red + white = pink is actually a result of incomplete dominance.

Recessive vs. dominant genes do, however, explain how blue-eyed Quentin and Angelique could have legitimately produced brown-eyed David.

[Midnite]

how blue-eyed Quentin and Angelique could have legitimately produced brown-eyed David.

Oops, Daniel. 

[dom]

Oh yeah! Thanks guys. I still had no recollection of it after reading NC's reply until I read your's Brandon. Then it all came back to me.

[spoiler]Jenny should have stabbed them both. Beth's betrayal is as unforgivable.[/spoiler]

I wonder what Magda thought happened to Jenny while Magda was on the estate? I can't imagine her being content with Jenny's situation as it was -

[spoiler]You know, being crazy and locked away in the tower room, her children being raised off the estate, etc. I can't imagine Magda not already cursing Quentin for that alone had she known.[/spoiler]

[Nelson Collins]

[spoiler]You know, being crazy and locked away in the tower room, her children being raised off the estate, etc. I can't imagine Magda not already cursing Quentin for that alone had she known.[/spoiler]

I haven't reached that point in the story (1897 is almost completely new to me),
[spoiler]did Magda even know Jenny was in the tower?  Or where the children were?[/spoiler]

[dom]

That's what I am wondering, too. You wouldn't think so, would you? Keep me posted, lol.

[IluvBarnabas]

Read only if you want to know beforehand: [spoiler]Magda had no idea Jenny had been locked away at Collinwood until she found her sister in Josette's room at the Old House. Nor did she know of the existance of Quentin and Jenny's twins at that time.

Also when Magda put the curse on Quentin, she also cursed any future male decendants of his, not knowing he already had a son. I doubt Magda would have gone as far as she had with the curse if she had known about Quentin's and Jenny's children.[/spoiler]

[dom]

I could be misremembering, but didn't the Collinses dislike Jenny because she [spoiler]was an entertainer - and it wasn't until much later that they learned she was a gypsy and Magda's sister?[/spoiler]

I also believe that Q delighted in the fact that the family was repulsed (or would be repulsed) by their union. I wonder if he even loved her or if it was all 'teenage rebellion syndrome' (for lack of a better term). He didn't seem to have a problem...

[spoiler]...cheating on his wife with his sister-in-law and leaving his wife to follow his lover half way around the world to Egypt.[/spoiler]

[dom]

Thanks IlB, that's what makes sense, but I couldn't be sure if that's what happened.

Anyone know of an on-line synopsis of 1897? I'd like to look up the timeline of events.

[Lydia]

Recessive vs. dominant genes do, however, explain how blue-eyed Quentin and Angelique could have legitimately produced brown-eyed David.

No.  Blue-eyed Quentin and blue-eyed Angelique could not have produced brown-eyed Daniel because the gene for blue eyes is recessive.

Jenny did the deed after he saw Quentin and Beth together. She [spoiler]waited at the cottage for Quentin to come--I can't remember if he was meeting Beth or Laura, I think it was Beth--and then stabbed him.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]When Jenny actually stabbed Quentin and he died in the cottage and became a zombie, it had nothing to do with Beth.  It was just Jenny being crazy.  It was much later, in Beth's bedroom, that Jenny attacked Quentin because she saw him with Beth, upon which Quentin killed Jenny.[/spoiler]
It's posts like these that make me love Dark Shadows.  Murder seems like a tennis game - "The score is 1 all.  Match point coming up."

[Midnite]

No.  Blue-eyed Quentin and blue-eyed Angelique could not have produced brown-eyed Daniel because the gene for blue eyes is recessive.

It's much much more common to see the reverse, but yes, it is possible.  You have to forget what you were taught in high school-- that brown eyes are dominant over blue eyes-- because in fact eye color is influenced by more than just one gene.  Through recombination and inheritance from both parents, the dominant phenotype (i.e. brown eyes) can emerge from parents with a largely recessive phenotype (blue eyes).  (Getting back to DS, PT Quentin's and Angelique's ancestry is not completely clear.)  My information comes from my Masters studies in Developmental Biology, but if you'd prefer to hear it from a geneticist, that's cool with me:

http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=29

[Lydia]

I should have known better than to argue with Midnite on a biology-type issue.  I still don't get it and I never will, because science makes my eyes (blue, by the way) cross...but I believe it.

[Elmont]

Also, perhaps DS was picking up on and utilizing in a limited way a plot twist that was running on OLTL at the time in which a [spoiler]black woman (Carla Gray) was passing herself off as white - and she could get away with it because her skin was so fair.[/spoiler]

You have some memory MB,that was Sadie's daughter on OLTL. She was calling herself Carla Minorrie and engaged to a white guy who didn't know she was black. While discussing the civil rights movement of the sixties with my youngest son the other day,I brought up that story line.

[arashi]

It's much much more common to see the reverse, but yes, it is possible.  You have to forget what you were taught in high school-- that brown eyes are dominant over blue eyes-- because in fact eye color is influenced by more than just one gene.  Through recombination and inheritance from both parents, the dominant phenotype (i.e. brown eyes) can emerge from parents with a largely recessive phenotype (blue eyes).

Case in point, my family. Entire family, Mom, Dad, 2 of my sisters and myself have brown eyes and brown hair. My youngest sister has blue eyes and blonde hair. Is there anything in the genes about hand domination? My two older sisters are left handed (twins) and all 4 of my nieces (2 to each sister) are left handed as well, though everyone else is right handed.

[Midnite]

Is there anything in the genes about hand domination? My two older sisters are left handed (twins) and all 4 of my nieces (2 to each sister) are left handed as well, though everyone else is right handed.

This is waaay off topic so I'll be brief.  First off, there are 2 gene variants-- 1 for Right handedness (which is more common) and 1 for Left handedness.  One inherited from each parent results in 3 possible combinations:  R/R, L/L or R/L.  So to answer your question, the gene variant for right-handedness is dominant in the sense that R/R results in right-handedness HOWEVER anytime that a gene variant for left-handedness is present (L/L or R/L), environmental factors will determine the outcome.