Well, blame me for pissing off my sister so much that she didn’t post. I was so mad at my brother-in-law for blowing off my parents for dinner that I called my sister and told her he’s a loser. She kept saying, “Just let it go,” which is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Well, she ended up hanging up on me.

According to Dr. Harris (Dr. Papa Harris, M.D., the patriarch of the Harris clan whose daughters include Almost-Dr. Russian Literature Alice Harris, Not-Doctor-but-NPR-famous Emily Harris, and Dr. Paleogeologist Sara Harris) there are those who are connected by blood and a sort of centripedal force, and then there are the in-laws. AND THEN THERE ARE THE IN-LAWS. (He also said that we, he and I, are not very empathetic because we are handsome devils and cannot understand the shortcomings of others. HAHAHAHA)

Well, anyway, I don’t think big-mouthedness and short-temperedness are limited to me and my sister. According to my cousin, her kid (who is about to graduate from the Tokyo Institute of Technology) didn’t get into the graduate school he was applying for and his friends all asked him, “OK, so what did you say to annoy the interviewers?” He denied saying anything untoward in his interviews, but his friends said, “No, we know you. You said SOMETHING.” And I thought the family resemblance was the only thing we had in common.