humor! glory bee The next time you are feeling rather unimportant, try a little mathematical trick based on the fact that it took two people, your parents, to get you here. Each of your parents had two parents, so in the generation just prior to that of your mother and father, there were four people whose pairing off and sharing a love contributed to your existence. You are the product of eight great-grandparents, 16 great-great-grandparents, 32 great-great-great grandparents, etc. Keep on multiplying the number by two, you will discover that a scant 500 years ago, there were 1,048,576 people on this planet beginning the production of you. Tom Lynn