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[joolsweb]

[QUESTION] Kiteway family - mother

[Enigmaster]

I'm not expert on genetics but assuming Sente used to have black/dark hair, surely it means mother Kiteway must have (or had - we haven't heard much of her, lets be honest) red hair because of Scarletts colour.

Unless she's been cheating, of course

Btw, I can't find any info on her in any of the blogs/wiki - the only ref to 'mother' is in the Sentinel article from the April 11th.

EDIT: I just talked to my dad, who knows a load more about genetics than me, and it's apparently far more complicated than stated above. Basically a childs hair couldn't tell us much about the mother specifically. Back to the drawing board then...

[Mikeyj]

It can sometimes tell you about the kids hair, but your dad's right, with red hair in particular, it often skips a generation or two

[<PSH>]

yeah i belive red hair is a resesive gene so both parents can carry that gene and pass it on to there children but unless you get the red hair gne from both parents you are won't have red hair... so for example Mr.S could have red and black hair genes and would have black hair && Mrs.S could have Brown and Red hair genes and have Brown hair... Scarlett could have gotten Red from both hence her red hair but violet could have gotten red from mom and black from dad and have black hair... etc.

[Leeravitz]

Yes, it is recessive, just like the gene coding for blue eyes. So, you're quire right - the two parents would both need to carry the gene. Which isn't to say that either of them would be red - haired themself. I have a fair amount of red hair, and my mother is brown haired, while my father is dark haired. But grandparents on both sides were red haired.

What bothers me is why, in the family picture on Violet's desk that can be seen in the 'Sweet Dreams' puzzle, there seem to be two little girls, and one has dark hair, while the other looks blonde! I naturally assume this is Scarlett and Violet (alongside Sente and their mother - my reasoning for this is discussed in the puzzles section, if you haven't already read that thread). But no - one here looks to be red haired. My best guess is that this picture was 'taken' (can you 'take' a portrait?) when Scarlett was still very little, and maybe her hair was then strawberry blond (or something) and darkened gradually to red (or maybe she dyes it!!).

Alternatively, I may just be being colour blind, and perhaps this is a reddish colouring that doesn't come across well on a scanned picture. Anyhow, it does seem that this little girl (Scarlett, we guess) has the same hair colour as the woman in the picture (her mother, we guess). The other little girl (Violet, presumably) seems to have the same colouration as her father (Sente).

[Seej]

IIRC, the way to tell if the milkman is your dad is this - if both your parents have red hair they carry just the recessive gene, therefore their kids can only possibly have red hair. If they don't then your mum's been playing the field*

Um, apologies to anyone who just found out their parents aren't who they think they are.

*OK, OK, before we get into a huge genetics debate, I know it's a little more complex than this. I'm trying to be concise.

[Violet]

yep, hair's a dodgy genetic issue, but I agree that Scarlett could have started out blonde. She does look v young in the photo; if she's just a littley she could have gone redder later (still, I think it's a big coincidence that her hair's that red and her name's Scarlett - maybe Sente had her genetically manipulated so she could have a cool matching name?! or, she could just dye it, as someone else said!)

[Leeravitz]

Actually, I think I said most of that. I agree, though, - calling a child with blond hair Scarlett is a bit bizarre (although maybe Sente was thinking of Miss Scarlett in Cluedo )

[PuzzledPineapple]

[spugmeistress]

[Leeravitz]

It's starting to feel like this thread is getting way too involved over a very trivial question Nothing wrong with that, in my opinion - except it probably indicates we need more actual puzzles to solve, Mind Candy!

For the record, I also felt (for some odd reason) that the Sente figure in the picture looked like he was bald, when we know full well that Sente has a nice head of hair...

Probably I've just gone slightly insane, and someone will confirm for me that this is *not* the case...

Hell, as I said before, the way the picture's done, it looks like none of the women have noses - I think we can safely assume artistic licence, rather than the fact that Sente's family have leprosy, or are really anime characters, or something Gahhhhh!