Note:

The septuplets factoid was brought to my attention by alert reader Rick Vestal. I could only find two articles that mentioned it: this one from ABCNEWS, and this one from MSNBC.

Just in case those articles disappear, here's the first few paragraphs of the ABC one:

Nov. 24 -- One of the McCaughey septuplets was put back on a respirator today and doctors downgraded his condition from fair to serious. Bobbi and Kenny McCaughey, shown here with their daughter, Mikayla (AP Photo)

Baby Joel was upgraded to fair condition late Sunday and removed from a respirator. Today, doctors said they were optimistic, but thought he still needed assistance breathing, reported ABCNEWS correspondent Jackie Judd. The largest baby, Kenneth, continues to breathe unassisted.

The other babies remain in serious condition, but doctors expect them all to be breathing on their own within a few days.

Meanwhile, mom Bobbi McCaughey returned home Sunday after having spent 37 days in the Iowa Methodist Medical Center.

ABC's story had a silly accompanying graphic of seven multicolored babies floating in space around a numeral 7. I couldn't resist lifting and modifying it a little:

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Even later note:

Several days later, I happened to visit the above story at ABC again, and was surprised to see that they had changed their graphic! Why on earth they would change a graphic like that on what was by now an old news story (but at the same URL) is totally beyond me, but who am I to argue with Corporate America?

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