As memory serves me

Carpooling home from work today, Steve was telling me about a survivor from the German side of the 2nd WW that went on to become a writer, and from what I gather, a good one. Steve told me that the guy wrote a bunch of novels, a couple of which have been made into movies, _______ and Das Boot, to which I interjected, “I’ve got Das Boot on DVD.” He continued with his story almost as if he hadn’t heard me, which was quite appropriate since I’m guessing it was obvious that my purpose was not to talk about Das Boot, but to let him know that not only am I aware that a movie called Das Boot exists, but also that I own a copy of it. I did not admit to him that I’d never actually seen Das Boot.

Actually, I might have lied and told him that I’d seen it. It’s possible that I’m remembering it wrong and my interjection was actually, “I’ve seen Das Boot.” Then, maybe instead of paying attention to the rest of Steve’s story, I was busy thinking about how I’d just lied, and how it would have been better if I’d said, “I own Das Boot,” because then I could have still sounded informed, but done so accurately. Then after deciding that this would have been better, it's conceivable that I just remembered it the better way because I like to think of myself in a positive light.

Not including this sentence, the pronoun “I” was used in this story 19 times, for a total of 7.72 percent of the words.