journal features

dogfight at a family barbecue

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2012.06.17

We had a Father's Day barbecue today, and sadly a dog fight broke out.

I hope no lasting damage was done. If my aunt Lynn hadn't stopped The Boy from racing in to see what was going on, it might have gone badly indeed.

The barbecue was great fun, otherwise. The Boy was very brave in the pool, wading in until he was up to his chin and staying in for about an hour or so. The food was great as always. And The Girl was popular, being handed 'round to all of the aunts and grannies.

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