journal features

the showman

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Tokyo, 2009.12.01

The Boy's taken to lying to us. And through the use of theatrics!

If I take something from him—let's say an oily container from some food—he'll run to his mum, holding his hand and saying, "Daddyyyyy itaiiiii", meaning that I'd hurt him. The little ham!

And if that's not bad enough, he'll sneak a peak at me to see if I feel moved enough to hand back the (usually dirty or dangerous) item. What's more, he'll rub at his eyes as if genuinely crying, even when there are no tears coming. Rascal!

rand()m quote

Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them. In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.

—Michael Crichton