journal features

seven kids, six parents

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2013.08.30

We were outnumbered at a get-together this evening with Elias's family and Manami's family ('round here we identify families by the first name of the first born, for whatever reason—I suppose it was probably a protocol invented by our own first born). Seven kids, all under ten and probably with an average age of four. Slightly noisy, but fun. We had roll-your-own spring rolls and lime margaritas.

Meanwhile, my "registered" University application parcel is in something called GBLALA.

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