Over the weekend I had a chance to check out the Bay Area KidFest in Concord with my kid which was fun, and afterwards we headed over to Baskin-Robbins at Todos Santos Plaza for some much needed ice cream. Before entering I noticed a big poster promoting a Men in Black III ice cream tie-in. Although I haven’t seen the third movie yet, I have seen the first Men in Black, and remember the striking image of the Tony Shaloub character Jack Jeebs regrowing his head.
So with that frame of reference, we entered the store and sitting right at front is a woman with a very small head. I hesitated for a moment, wondering if I was hallucinating slightly, or maybe it was an extended promotion for the movie due to the nearby KidFest. Not wanting to be rude by staring, I quickly noted that she was dressed normally, having a conversation with someone else, and so I decided which ice cream flavor to get.
It was only later, when I got home, that I found out that there is a neurodevelopmental disorder called Microcephaly, “in which the circumference of the head is more than two standard deviations smaller than average for the person’s age and sex.”