Taylor Swift’s ancestors: an opera singer and a seafaring engineer

🎧 Good morning to the Taylor Swift earworm that might be stuck in your head this week
Today: Swiftian ancestry, life on O.J. Simpson’s block, and everyday magic
By Harris Sockel

Many of Taylor Swift’s fans know that “Marjorie” — a haunting ballad on her ninth album, Evermore — is dedicated to the opera singer Marjorie Finlay, Swift’s maternal grandmother. Finlay’s career as a soprano in the 1950s and ’60s led her to Cuba, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico, where she emceed a TV show (El Show Pan-Americano) and sang in hotels and social clubs.

On Medium, genealogist Megan Smolenyak digs even deeper into The Tortured Poets Department creator’s ancestry, uncovering birth certificates and immigration records that tell the story of Swift’s great-grandfather George Finlay (Marjorie’s father-in-law).

An engineer who patented the concrete pile (a long pole driven into the ground to support a structure), Finlay was a colorful character. He was born at sea en route from Cape Town to London — his mother was once married to a customs official for the British Empire, so this family traveled the globe. He lived in at least five U.S. states and Trinidad, nicknamed himself “Lancelot,” and was married four times.

Smolenyak concludes: “this portion of Taylor’s family tree… seems to have injected wanderlust into her gene pool, a trait she apparently inherited.” TTPD alone includes songs about “Florida!!!” and London, and Swift is known for painting vivid lyrical portraits of places she’s been.

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• Retired medical doctor David Mokotoff, MD argues that mistaking correlation for causation led most of the medical establishment to perpetuate the false belief that cholesterol is categorically bad for your heart. Mokotoff explains: “Although eating cholesterol and other fats plays some role in heart disease, in moderation, some play a helpful role in maintaining a balanced diet and weight control.” As with anything, balance is key.
• O.J. Simpson passed away last month at age 76. Here’s Terry Keefe reflecting on what it was like to live down the block from O.J.’s condo during the double-murder trial in the ’90s. It’s an eerie look back in time, and a meditation on how notoriety brought all of O.J.’s neighbors together — including Gloria Stuart (best known for playing Old Rose in Titanic), who lived across the street from where Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were killed.

Your daily dose of practical wisdom (about everyday magic)

If you’re feeling uninspired, tune into everyday magic. Step one: notice the tiniest details. “The place I live is as wondrous as anywhere on the planet,” writes Patrick Metzger, “so long as I remember to look at it...”

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Edited and produced by Scott Lamb, Jon Gluck, & Carly Rose Gillis

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