My grandpa took me to dinner tonight because I wasn't working and his wife is staying with a friend in the city.
The waitress thought he was my sugardaddy.
In her defense we don't look a damn thing alike (he looks like an older Billy Joel, largely because he is Billy Joel's cousin) and at a glance I kinda look like the sort of bubbly young thing that might seek out a much older meal ticket.
But I was highly disturbed by this.
....YOU'RE RELATED TO BILLY JOEL!?
Yep. He's a second cousin of my grandfather on his mother's side. I should honestly show pictures so you can see the family resemblance because it is absolutely, positively uncanny. Especially when my grandpa had a goatee briefly like Billy Joel's--coincidentally the day I moved in and my parents were still here, a local news magazine put a big picture of him on their front cover because he was doing a show nearby. (He comes from a nearby town and frequently does shows at small local venues adn beaches around Long Island.) They could be twins.
Admittedly this is all based on nothing more than said resemblance and the fact that my grandfather has clear memories of attending a rare family gathering for his mother's family and meeting an obnoxious younger cousin named Billy--and his mother's family name is Joel. Which is not a common name. Odds are he is indeed related. The only reason we don't know 100% for certain whether or not is because my great-grandmother was from an extortionately Jewish wealthy family (think, servants and regularly socializing with early movie stars) and married a man who was a) poor, b) an immigrant, and c) Catholic. In the 30s this was a huge cultural taboo and her family disowned her for it and she almost never saw them again. A look through public records might well uncover the truth but to be honest I sort of like not knowing for sure. Because I'd be really disappointed if it wasn't true.
I also happen to be related, by marriage, to English nobility. Aristocracy.
And my grandfather has the same name as a very famous baseball player. If you can guess which one, I'll give you a cookie.