Twin Shout-out

First, to clarify, this is not a post about the Minnesota Twins. Indeed, they won tonight, but so did the Sox (go Chicago!!!). :o)

Instead, my friend Erinn's latest blog entry referenced the suprising number of questions she receives about if she's related to someone/an old friend/looks just like so-and-so - her unrelated, unknown, Twin(s). I too, oft receive the questions of "don't i know you?" or "are you related to so-and-so?" or "did you know you look exactly like ?" This line of conversation, however, brought to mind a related situation I encountered on my first trip to Lincoln, Nebraska.

I was visiting my friend Mariah one summer during college - in fact, it was the summer after graduation...my last months of freedom - in her hometown of Lincoln. We'd spent hours catching up and touring her old haunts - high school, camp, paint your plate, etc - when we decided we should also spend some time shopping. We headed down to the mall area - a newer conglomeration of stores - and first stopped at Journey's, the shoe store. We were perusing the merchandise when I spied a cute pair of shoes that were, unfortunately, unpriced. The store clerk, having just listened to my question about the price of said shoes, looked at me and said, "oh honey, we don't have those in your size." Now, one might jump to the conclusion that I must either have an extremely large or an extremely small pair of feet - however, they are a rather common size eight. I gave him a strange look and apologized questioningly, "I'm sorrry?" He replied, "Oh, you're in here all the time and I know we don't have those in your size." What?! Stunned, my only reply could be, "I'm sorry, this is my first time in Nebraska....I've never been here before!" Crazy! The shoe store guy, Mariah, and I all had a good laugh and we headed on our way.

Next stop, Banana Republic. After spending a solid amount of time rifling through sale item after sale item, I settled on a cute pair of pale pink capri's (yes, I am girly, it's a good thing). Proceeding with check out, I got out my card and prepared to pay - partially prepared for the obligatory "Would you like to use your Banana Republic card and save 15% today?" Instead, however, I was greeted with: "Hello! How are you? You know, for as often as you shop in here, you should really open a Banana Republic card!" Startled, I exclaimed that I'd never been to Nebraska before and certainly not to this store but that I'd just encountered a similar remark down the street at Journey's! The clerk laughed and said that I looked exactly like another woman who regularly shopped there!

So, not only do I apparently carry a striking resemblance to quite a number of women in our country, I also have a shop-a-holic twin running around Nebraska! The even funnier thing is that my mother had a similar experience in college and actually ended up meeting her twin - who really did look just like her!

I wonder if the science community conducts studies about things like this....are there facial characteristics that lend themselves to a sort of perceived duplication? Is it physical or is it more carriage and personality quirks? Do some people have several non-related twins while other have none at all?