Comparison Photos of Piper Palin, Curtis Menard Jr.'s Children, Curtis Menard Jr and Track Palin

I added a picture of Curtis Menard's parents, Linda and Curtis Sr., at the top.

I put this photo comparison post up during the discussion that happened around the Abortiongate revelations at Palingates based on some links from one of the commenters. Over the last year and a half, frequently commenters on blogs have mentioned that Piper Palin looks more like her brother Track then her sisters.

The abortingate post was originally focused on the passage in Going Rogue where Palin talks about her second pregnancy which ended in a D&C (see the post for details - it, of course, is complicated). One of many things people thought was odd was the mention of Curtis Menard Jr. at the beginning of the passage. This resulted in few people, including myself, doing searches and the surfacing of photographs that were compared to Track Palin, such as the my earlier post. People then began to wonder about the earlier noted resemblance of Piper and Track Palin.

Looking at the pictures, Piper is at the age where it is hard for me to clearly see who she resembles. I do, however, think that the Menard children, who unlike the Palin siblings look very much alike, bare a strong resemblance to their mother. If someone can find a photo which is more definitive, I will post it. When I looked, I didn't see one.

A few points that people kept asking about at Palingates. Curtis Menard Jr. died in a plane crash, while flying alone, six months after Piper was born. According to his wife Carole, he met with Sarah Palin just before his death to talk to her about her children. Curtis Menard Jr. was Track's godfather.

According to what I have read, Curtis Menard Jr. was a devoted father and husband. They seem to me to be a loving family.

Remember as well that Curtis Menard Jr. met his wife Carole in 1990 and married her in 1992. According to a court document that someone found, Track was born April 20, 1989 - prior to that only the year could be determined. According to the letter written by Cathy Baldwin-Johnson - Palin's doctor, which was quietly released on the eve of the presidential election in 2008, Track was a term delivery. If it had been pre-term, that fact would probably be made public because Sarah and Todd eloped less then eight months before. (End of August - exact date alludes me right now.) So none of the people we are talking about were married at the time of Track's conception.

What we know is that Piper looks like Track and we are quite certain that Sarah Palin gave birth to both of them. (If it was anyone else, that would be stated definitively. She did look typically and convincingly pregnant with both of them.)

Another point: in a follow up post, Patrick put up some other odd passages from Going Rogue where Palin is talking about her second pregnancy which did not come to term. All anyone knows about this, so far, comes from Palin's book. She says the babies were going to be a year apart and were right on schedule, which would mean the conception of the second pregnancy fell again during the fishing season. During that period, Todd is working at BP - this is either the North Slope or a fishing boat. Sarah Palin, along with baby Track, her parents and one other person go to fish Todd's leased site on Bristol Bay. They leave ten weeks after Track's birth which would be the very end of June. So during the period that the second baby was conceived, according to Palin, Sarah Palin was in Bristol Bay and Todd was either at the North Slope or on a boat but, and this is important, getting some time to join Sarah in Bristol Bay and help with the season's catch. Unless you piece that together you can be left with the impression, by not reading her book closely, that at a crucial period she was in Wasilla with Todd away a lot. This does not appear to be the case.

Comparison Photos of Linda and Curtis Menard Sr. and Track Palin UPDATE: Sarah and Todd Palin Elopement Photo UPDATE 2: Lineup UPDATE 3: grandparents

Linda Menard, mother of Curtis Menard Jr.

Track Palin

Curtis Menard Sr., father of Curtis Menard Jr.

Elopement photograph of Sarah Heath and Todd Palin - Sarah is already pregnant with Track

After reading the post Abortiongate at the site Palingates, I did a search for pictures of Curtis Menard and found this picture of his father. The Linda Menard photo was found later and Barb Dwyer found and posted this picture that Sarah and Todd sent out to announce their elopement. I leave it to you to see who Track resembles. (More comparison photos here and here.)

If you are interested in Sarah Palin, read my August post on the Gusty photos and the posts in January.

UPDATE 2:

While researching a reader's comment in The Mysterious Case of the Bolster Bosum I came across this picture that made me sit back for a moment. Here is John McCain and the Palin family, when Levi Johnston was considered family, lined up on stage after Palin's speech at the RNC. Look at the difference between Track and Todd's bodies. Track is huge in both height and breadth compared to Todd. [I stand corrected: Track is the same height as Todd, his chest is still broader and the two of their bodies do not look alike. Thank you readers.] Remember Track is only nineteen here and most boys' chests do not broaden out to their full extent until they are some years into their twenties. (I am around a lot of teenage and early twenties boys and witness the chronology of their blooming.) Track may not be his full mature size here.

Does anyone know how big the Menard men are? (Height and breadth only please. We do not need the other details, Sarah.) Sarah's father, Chuck Heath, is not a very tall man and I do not know about Chuck Jr. If I remember correctly, the picture I saw of Todd's father didn't have him towering over his third wife Faye. (Like Curtis Sr. is doing here beside Linda and I will bet money that she is wearing heels with that string of pearls.)

There may be some tall genes somewhere in those two families, because Bristol is also looking fairly tall here compared to her mother, sister Willow, and even her father. So far I have been assuming that Bristol is Todd's biological child, she appears to resemble him more then any of the other children, but I must remember that we are talking about Sarah Palin. A woman who God, in either his wisdom or as part of an infinite jest, has chosen to bestow miraculous pregnancies upon. Whether it is being blessed with tight abs and divine intervention to get her back to Alaska from Texas to give birth, twenty hours and counting after she started to leak amniotic fluids, or the conceptions of her first two pregnancies, the second one terminated early in a clerical error, which occurred while Todd was working as a deck hand on a fishing boat at sea.

Oh, Sarah, what a tangled web you weave,

when first you practise to conceive!

UPDATE 3:

People have asked for photographs of the other grandparents.

The Palins and Todd's biological parents. Todd strongly resembles his father.

Chuck and Sally Heath with their son Chuck Heath Jr. in between. Chuck Heath Jr. is not standing on a platform, his father is a very short man judging from all the pictures. As he has grown older, Chuck Jr. resembles his mother more. When he was a child, he and his older sister, Heather, looked very much like their father.

At the request of a commenter below, I am including a picture of Chuck Heath Jr. which she feels, after looking at many photographs, bares a strong resemblance to Track. There should be since Chuck Jr. is the biological brother of Sarah Palin and no one is disputing that she gave birth to Track.

In the course of fairness, and also wondering what the Dorian Gray portrait looks like which Sarah Palin is desperately trying to hide in her attic by having numerous cosmetic surgery procedures, I have also looked through photographs of the Heaths including some earlier ones. I was struck by two things. One, the portrait in Sarah's attic, I believe, most resembles her mother, Sally. Two, as our fellow blogger, Oz Mudflats, sang in one of her earlier posts when looking at another set of pictures, "One of these things doesn't go with the others." (Hint: it isn't the bear.)