Whitney Houston/Dionne Warwick

I believe she's her niece.

I thought so too Bi-Polar, but I looked it up and here is her bio on Askmen.com:

Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born on August 9th, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey. She is the daughter of Cissy Houston, a successful rhythm and blues backup singer, and cousin of singer Dionne Warwick.

Thanks Bi-polar and jasmine,

I bet (this lunchtime) that she was Dionne Warwicks niece. I thought so simply because DW had chart hits around 1962 Britside, and since Whitney was only born around then, I thought she must be DW niece

******* thats another £10 I'm out

sorry kev - maybe your mate will buy you a pint with the £10 he got from you

or...... win it back with this question - Who is "Great Balls of Fire" singer, Jerry Lee Lewis' cousin?

Answer: American TV evangelist, Jimmy Swaggart.

I'd never get him to bet on that Jasmine, over here we've never heard of Jimmy Swaggert.

darn! lol - okay, ....does he know who Norah Jones' famous father is?

(I'm trying to win you back your 10 quid, kev!)

and I'm grateful Jasmine that you are on my side but who the hell is Norah Jones?

If you had something juicy like who is the illegitimate son of Oliver Hardy and Mary pickford answer Bill Clinton, then I'll take this sucker for a grand.

But at least we gotta have heard of him.

She is the current sweetheart on the music charts these days, kev (her Dad, btw is Ravi Shankar......I know....you're going to say "Jasmine, who the hell is Ravi Shankar", aren't you?

I'm trying kev, I'm trying............

Kev, Norah Jones is a Grammy-award winning singer & pianist. Soft rock/blues genre. Hard to categorize, but very mellow. Has been at or near the top of the charts for the last two years.

Her father is Ravi Shankar, the sitar musician who inspired/played with the Beatles, among other things. Her mother was British, and I believe she was raised in England. Is that correct?

Oops! I posted a little too late...

hehe - never too late, Eva - thanks! She was born in New York and later moved to Grapevine, Texas with her Mum, Sue.

I know who Ravi Shankar is but how could I have guessed that he had a daughter called Norah Jones

Norah's a (shudder) TEXAN? Who woulda thunk it?

Precisely, Kev - your mate won't know either, will he? Bet him and win back your tenner with, "Ravi Shankar has a famous relative who's big on the music charts in America right now . Her name is Norah Jones - hmmm....I wonder if she is his niece, daughter or grandaughter?" Now YOU know the answer- lol

Sultry, contemporary jazz with spurs - gotta love it, Eva


(p.s. my 13 year old just came back from Italy after a 3 week tour with her class - her favourite city was.... Venice)

It's very hard for me to pick a favorite city in Italy. They're all so beautiful. But Venice is so thoroughly different from anywhere else in the world. I'd be interested to hear why she chose it.

She loved the city - the shops, the mood at night with the lights reflecting off the water, and believe it or not - the pigeons in the square. Her next favourite was Florence, because of the art (The Uffizi Gallery) and then came Ravenna, for its food. Being 13, she adored the gelato in all seven of the cities she visited (she paid 10 Euros [which equals almost $13 US] for one cone in Florence!!! LOL).

She just asked me if your avatar was "The Birth of Venus" by Botticelli and thought it was beautiful.

...she also told me that my stock avatar with "the hair on end image" was extremely weird! I agreed, and just now changed it!

Yes, the avatar is from "The Birth of Venus." I added the flower in the hair & the colored ribbon this spring when everyone was fancying up their avatars for spring. I'll probably go back to the original soon. (Also, I flipped the image so it would face the text...editor's habit.)

I loved Ravenna, too...saw St. Apollinare and San Vitale...unbelievably beautiful mosaics. Still as bright and colorful as when they were installed around 500 AD! I was fascinated by the architectural differences between the two churches...one in the old Roman design, and the other in the (then) brand new Byzantine design. Learning the history of Ravenna filled in many gaps in my understanding of European history.

I had to wait until my mid-40s to see Italy. How fortunate she is to have seen it at such an early age!

No jasmine he wont know the answer, but that means he wont take the bet. Contrary to popular belief the human species doesn't get any more canny than Yorkshire folk.

I went to school with a lad who was a self made millionaire by the time he was twenty one and he achieved this by working on a mark up of 100%, he used to buy his goods from Scotland and sell them in Israel, and trust me you have to be pretty canny to do that.