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My good friend Gary Bellow recounts an interesting story about a family with a lovely son who, for reasons that they could not fathom, never said a word to his parents. The son went through his early years, and then into his fifth and sixth years his seventh year, his eighth year and still never spoke, at least not to them. In all other respects, the boy was just fine. He spoke with friends, he spoke at school, but he never spoke at home. And then one morning having sat down, as usual, for breakfast, he looked at his mother and father and quietly said, "The toast is burnt". His mother and father looked at him with tears in their eyes. They couldn't believe what they had heard. After a few moments they turned to him and with great emotion, said, "Johnny, you finally said something! What made you finally speak?" He answered, "Well, up 'til now, everything was going all right."
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/frederick_zemans/55/
This paper was presented at an Articling Symposium convened by the Law Society of Upper Canada in April 1988.