Righty Tighty

Don't ask what forces led me to the pages of nursinghomeapparel.com (occasionally I run aground in my search for sculpture materials). But, I do have a thing for hospital swag. Hell, considering the price of in- patient care, an ambulance should come to your house and heap first aid supplies at your door all tied up with a pretty red bow!
Fleetingly obsessed with the absurd possibilities posed by buying 100 sets of disposable slippers, I noticed this photo of a pair of paper slippers reminiscent of pointed toed wooden clogs. But, do you have to have two right feet to be able to wear them?

Visual description: Two brown paper slippers against a white backdrop, both made to be worn on the right foot.

Call Him Conservative, Just Don't Call Him the E Word

Okay, so I'm watching the CBS evening news, and I want to make it clear that I'm NOT saying this because I like John Roberts- I'm annoyed by the tone of the news coverage that assumes that if a person becomes ill his/ her ability to work must be thrown into question, analyzed and then ever so graciously (read: with great condescension) approved by- whom? journalists? the public at large? George Bush? Really the Cheif Justice only retains the public's support by virtue of the fact that he's received a managable prognosis. And that seizure he had was ever so polite, earning the qualifiers "benign" and "idiopathic." Robert's seizure was nothing like those icky, scary seizures disabled people have- heavens no!

An earlier news story at NBC noted that a person who has more than one seizure over a span of years is considered to have epilepsy, but no one at CBS has dared suggest that Roberts in fact has epilepsy. No, the CBS team prefers to soft pedal the facts: the Cheif Justice may have to take anti- seizure medication from here on out, but what does that prove? Nothing! Scads of people take anti- seizure meds for the street cred alone! Doesn't mean they have epilepsy! No, instead CBS deemed it necessary to reassure its audience by recapping the recent ailments of other Supreme Court Justices as further evidence of Roberts staying power. There were charts and shit. I couldn't take the visual aids.

Also, Kay Olsen comments on a disturbing case in California involving the alleged murder and unauthorized organ farming of a disabled man.

And earlier in the week, perhaps prophetically, she remarked on the perils of bad epilepsy jokes as told by weather men.

Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.

Yes Babies, it's been some time since I've posted. A few major changes to report: I have a new job as an art instructor and advocate working with developmentally disabled adults. With the new job came a new beau. And I successfully completed DSP (Direct Support Professional) training, which means that I am legally certified to push people around in wheelchairs and take a rectal temperature, should the need arise. Actually, that last skill is no longer in demand, as our instructor kindly assured us, thanks to the glorious invention of the ear thermometer. Still, the mention of it drove me to ridiculous (anxiety induced?) fantasies of temperature- taking ornithologists (you know, birds don't have ears on the outsides of their heads...).

In other news, my friend Suzanne tells me that Kurt Vonnegut's death interrupted what was to be a year- long celebration of the author's life, sponsored by his hometown of Indianapolis. That's SO Kurt!! I never knew he had a mustache. I still can't picture it. All I see is that Magritte painting of the man with an apple hovering in front of his face, except in my version he has really wavy hair and does a cameo in a Rodney Dangerfield flick.

You'll never guess how I spent the weekend...

I spent all of Sunday afternoon designing snazzy sqare shotglasses for the semi- inaugural fundraisr of the Illinois Association of Blind Students. As a steadfast poponent of the Bad Jokes as Art movement, I was happy to help out with the look of this little item. Regardless of one's visual accuity, drinking yourself blind- or blinder as the case may be- has never looked/ felt so stylish. IABS will be selling these highly collectable items in all their poor taste glory for four bucks a pop starting in November.