"Jason Pyeron" [off-list ref] writes:
When a repo has multiple initial commits, the oneline graph can get borked.
It will put a commit * with no parent directly above the next commit *
with no children. This gives the false impression that the two commits
are a sequence on a branch.
Sounds vaguely familiar.
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.git/236708/focus=239580
My preference is what I wrote after three-dash lines as "It may
actually make sense ... If we did so, the output ... may look like
this" there.