Doppelgangers
Webster's New Mellenium Dictionary of English defines the term doppelganger as "[A] ghostly counterpart of a person[,] a ghostly double of a living person[, or a person's] alter ego," but in common vernacular it has come to mean any person bearing a striking resemblance to another individual being of no blood relation. In speaking with a friend at school today, I mentioned that she reminded me a great deal of mine cousin Jami. I showed her photos of Jami found on Enscussions and Snow Story Here, and she was quite shocked at how much they resembled photos of herself at various ages. She is only twenty-three at present, and therefore could not be an actual twin of Jami even were it likely, but it is interesting that there are people in this world who look like other people in this world whom they've never met. My friend mentioned that she was adopted, and asked if there was any possibility that we were related, but I told her that to the best of my knowledge she could not have come from the few branches of the family tree with which I am most commonly acquainted. I told her I had no knowledge of Jami's paternal ancestry, and therefore could not give her any leads, which I presumed would be false even could I provide them. However, all this discussion about look-alikes and the possible genetic implications got me wondering, and I went online to research doppelgangers. Most of the information online was about exact clones that were in some way evil, having neither a reflection nor a soul. This I do not agree with, but just for laughs, I thought I would ask if anyone has met their own doppelganger at one point in his or her life, or perhaps met the doppelganger of a friend or relative? I have yet to meet mine, though I have been told that others have.
posted by Unknown at
3:02:00 PM
8 Comments:
As an interesting and unrelated side note, spellcheck on blogger kept trying to change Jami's name to Jamaica...
I've never met my doppelganger, but I must surely have one. Nearly everywhere I've gone in my life, people have told me they know somebody who looks just like me.
When I returned to Houston in 2001 and was searching for an apartement, I found one I really liked, and returned several times trying to make up my mind. I did not rent it as the price was higher than I wanted to pay, but in the course of several visits I was assisted by the same young lady who was an almost a perfect clone of Ashley. I don't remember her name and I made no inquiries about her past, but it was so strong a resemblance that I thought it was actually Ashley a few times--although she would have been about 4-6 years older than Ashley.
How odd Uncle David...I wonder who she was...?
Folks told me for years that I strongly favored the late actor, Charles Bronson. To me, looking in the mirror, there was a hint of resemblance. My theory is that there are only so many faces in the dna chain and so they repeat, with variatons and so at some point, the result is a look-a-like.
That is an interesting theory...I always saw you as more of a John Wayne...
Interesting, Ashley. I have never heard anyone say that he looked like John Wayne, but I can't count the number of times that someone has asked if anyone else had ever noticed the resemblance to Charles Bronson.
Betty: I have met several people over the years who made me think of you, and that was always a good thing for my attitude toward the new person.
When I had hair, some said I looked like John Denver.
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