Pop quiz

Test your knowledge of Africa as represented in film and literature. You know me and trivia. Can't resist! Enjoy.

My Thirteenth Winter: A Memoir: Book review

In his Anthropologist on Mars, the noted writer Oliver Sachs tells the stories of individuals who have a different way of sensing the world around them. One person is an acromat, meaning he sees and even paints in black and white; another, is autistic and has discomfort with any emotionality at all but does design cattle shoots that calm these animals before slaughter. (Vegetarianism, anyone?) Sachs made me see the rare and unique value in these individuals that can bring a multifaceted richness to the person who perceives the world by utilization of the traditional sensorium. Each has a unique gift, and society is lessened by wanting everything to be "normal."

In her memoir, My Thirteenth Winter, Sam Abeel opens the door on another fascinating idiosyncrasy--her battle with numbers and their underlying meanings. The zebra or exotic disabilities fascinate me endlessly. Not your typical blindness or deafness, these unique conditions can be rare but never boring.

Hurricane: An audio montage

Early last week, I was vaguely aware of Rita as something that was out in the Gulf of Mexico, the nursery for so many storms and hurricanes. I thought little more about it. I was to go have dinner with friends Friday and attend a Tupperware Party Saturday and hopefully gather enough information from my reconnaissance to do a blog on this exotic feminine ritual to enlighten my male readers/listeners. But Rita veered slightly, long-term hurricane prediction is not exact, and everything changed.

I went to my brother's on Friday afternoon. His electricity went out around midnight and stayed out until Saturday morning. Electricity, that modern genie that fulfills all our desires: cool air, hot water and food, TV, radio, tape players, and more. We have become so dependent on a gossamer web that slingshots electrons who eagerly do our bidding, providing the conveniences of modernity!

My brother paced Friday night looking out the windows checking for downed limbs as did his adopted sons, Monte and Sneaux, despite his repeated threats to put them in their carriers. (Yes, they are cats; Sneaux, an older white Persian, and Monte--named for a blues guitarist--a scrappy, black and silver, random-bred nipster, just out of the kitten stage.)

I reposed steamily on the couch listening to Dreams of Iron and Steel, a book about engineering marvels of the 19th-century and early 20th. I was appalled at the callousness of the builders of the Hoover Dam as regards worker safety. Capitalism, ever-triumphant!

I was hoping the electric would come back on before my tape player died. I can't endure being without books. I truly have an addiction. My monkey mind goes crazy, and books are its morphine!

Addendum: I just heard that my older brother who lives in Beaumont, Texas, may be without electricity for a month because that area was badly hit by the hurricane. The little town of Delcambre, Louisiana, known for its shrimp festival, is mostly underwater. Such a vast swath of destruction.

Disabling America: Part II of review

Disabling America: A book review

Few books have made me think so hard, consider so long, or want to rail at someone somewhere. I still don't know what I think precisely. The book is interesting, provocative even, but I'm not sure that the author has all the answers or understands where the blind fit into the picture. Or are we as different as some advocates, blind and not, have told me. Should blind people be subsumed into the disability soup along with others? Should emotional, trans-gender, or addictive behaviors be styled "dis-abilities"? What can be done to stop frivolous legal actions from giving the legislation a bad name. (Ex. A dentist sued under ADA because his fondling of patients, was he said, a disability. A doctor said his alcoholism was a disability needing special treatment and requirements.) And so it goes. Read the book, it's only a little over 200 pages. Make up your own mind!

Addendum: I've learned that in Spain, unemployment of the blind runs about 30%. Their leading consumer organization, ONCE, an acronym that translates as the National Organization of the Spanish Blind, was given charge by Franco of the lottery. From this base, the "Blind Mafia" as they have been called branched out. Perhaps, we should study the Spanish model???

Radio reading service: A public radio interview with David Faucheux

On Monday, Sept 12, 2005, Richard Phelps and I participated in an interview on NPR affiliate KRVS. To hear a 4 minute selection, click on the audio link. Perhaps, with this media experience I am receiving, I'll be a pro before long?

Background on radio reading services: Links from Wikipedia.

Wine Guy

Visit this site to learn about a wine bar run by a blind enophile.

Radio ghosts

Don't you hate when you scan thru your radio dial, and you catch a snippet of a tantalizing song? You sit waiting for the DJ to announce the artist but this radio deity has other things on his mind. I actually miss simply turning the old knobs. Now we have buttons. Joy. Joy. Anyway, click the audio to hear one example of a song in Portuguese whose name I'll probably never learn. Were the lyric fragment in English, I might have luck Googling it. I've done so in the past with decent success. I understand that the satellite radio services have a digital display that announces artist and song. I further understand that the digital (HD) radio sets should have this as well. I won't be surprised that no one will think to include a button to announce this information in synthetic speech for the blind musicoholics out there!!

Katrina and the disabled

Links: BBC story on Roxanne Homstad and related audio.

The Fall of Rome

The Fall of Rome: RC 57790

How diverse should any institution be in order to achieve equity? In The Fall of Rome, author Martha Southgate presents a look at this question. Her main characters speak to us and struggle with issues that relate to bumping up against privilege, breaking out of comfort zones and challenging preconceived notions. This book slightly reminded me of a nonfiction book, Black Ice, I once read about what it meant to be African-American and female at St. Paul's School, a traditional bastion of white masculinity.

Now, for the book about the blind prep student. But would I enjoy it?

Highly recommended to senior high readers.

Global positioning in my brain

What happens when your approach to giving directions is, "Walk down the street until you can smell the Pizza Hut"?

Kim Komando

I enjoy receiving the Tip of the Day email and Website of the Day email from Kim Komando's Web site. They are interesting and help you learn about the cyberworld one step at a time. I just wish that Kim (is Komando a real name?) would produce her computer books in audio formats.

The World of Coke Museum: Memories. It's worth the taste

Link: Is there a place for us: Is There a Place for Us? Toward the Full Inclusion of Blind and Other Librarians with Disabilities, by David Faucheux, in Interface.

Erare Est Humanum

Though incredibly rare, mistakes sometimes appear in NLS-produced talking books and magazines. I can count them on the fingers of one hand and include two here. The talking book program is second-to-none, and I look forward to its digital apotheosis!

Addendum: I should have explained that the blooper demo tape is not for public hearing. I wish NLS did produce a blooper tape. That'd be so cool.