Today’s otters come via Seaview Wildlife Encounter. Do you want to caption the shot?
Please feel free to use this thread to natter about anything your heart desires. Is there anything great happening in your life? Anything you want to get off your chest? Reading a great book? Anything in the news that you’d like to discuss? What have you created lately? Commiserations, felicitations, temptations, contemplations, speculations?
Categories: Life
Soggy here, innit? 
In memoriam: Diana Rigg 
Getting out the ‘yes’ 
100 books by women in 2016 
Hoyden About Town 
I got confirmation that I have finished all the requirements for my degree. Looks like I’m definitely graduating next month! Woohoo!
Spring is in the air and my spirits are great even though the pain persists. I have been running errands again using my scooter. What I love about the spring is the air and the sense of possibility. I keep making eye contact with all of the fellow scooter users as we pass each other and the facial expression is always the same. Due to the snow and the fact that people don’t think it is necessary to shovel and the city is slow to clear the snow, you often don’t see people out and about if they use a mobility aid and so the good weather gives us a chance to be outdoors again.
Of course this joy is mixed with irritation, as I get the look from able bodied people who jump out of the way when I am nowhere near them, or try to help when I don’t need it, or generally frown upon the fact that I wish to take up space. Too bad I say, because after a winter of practically being trapped in the house I am even less likely to yield that freedom to anyone.
.-= Renee´s last blog ..Jesse James and the Fallen Woman =-.
Congratulations Eddy!
Renee, I can’t really imagine how it must be to be cooped up for so long by the snow. Enjoy the spring freedom.
More Aussie politics: Grog’s Gamut (my bloggy discovery of this week) has a fascinating annotated transcription from Hansard on Thursday of La Gillard demolishing impertinent questions from the Opposition.
Captioned:
Those otters are smiling!
Congratulations, Eddy!
Weekend Barrowman!
https://www.youtube.com/embed/u7Q3zBLgqsI?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent
Otters do the Rockaway. They lean back, lean back, lean back.
Um.
I got fired? I’m kinda conflicted about it? Not having the income is going to suck and make some things harder, but working hasn’t exactly been good for my health.
.-= kaninchenzero´s last blog ..Closure =-.
k0, I haven’t been able to stop thinking of this since your Rockaway line, so This Is All Your Fault.
P.S. The getting fired thing sucks though.
There was much laughter in House k0.
.-= kaninchenzero´s last blog ..Closure =-.
I spent my otterday at the zoo! I was highly excited by the Capuchin monkeys, and the otters were indeed utterly adorable. Stephen was taking the DSLR I got him for Giftmas out for a spin, so there will likely be a bunch of cute otter photos soon.
Tigtog; that Gillard smackdown is awesome. Oh Jules, can you be Prime Minister now? ;__;
Hi TigTog and All,
I wanted to leave a comment on an older post but comments were closed and it directed me here. I wouldn’t have noticed the link but it was included under a recent post. The old link referenced was
https://hoydenabouttown.com/20060828.10/dwarf-planets-aint-got-no-reason-to-spin-with-apologies-to-randy-newman/
As I say, I wouldn’t have noticed it but the title caught my attention (actually triggered me is more accurate). I identify as a woman with dwarfism and the Randy Newman reference was irksome. A planet being reclassified as a dwarf is not a patently bad thing, but to reference a song that is famous for the lyrics “Short people got no reason to live” plays on the stereotype/prejudice that being small/short/dwarf is a bad thing.
I consider Hoyden About Town a safe place for people with disabilities so I really felt the need to bring this up. When I think of all the great posts that have been written by/for/about people with disabilities here I hope that as a woman with dwarfism and multiple attendant stigmas and barriers, I too can be seen as a beneficiary of this great work and not relegated to the margins as an “other” punchline or pun.
I’m out of spoons tonight and I’m stressed about surgery next week, so I hope my comment has been at least somewhat coherent. If not I will be happy to explain myself when I am feeling well and have more spoons.
In solidarity,
G
Hi Georgina,
thank you for your comment. As you say, that post was older and this blog has evolved into a disability-aware blog over time. Back when I wrote that heading I was much less aware, and also buying into the argument that because I had been told that Randy Newman’s intent was to mock the bigots rather than short people then everything was A-OK. I no longer buy that argument.
Now I realise that even if true that Newman had no malicious intent, it backfired because people gleefully took it as an excuse to marginalise with “jokes” even more than they had before, so the song does harm because hateful people like it even though they weren’t supposed to. Just like Chris Rock’s “nigger” routine that he no longer does because suddenly bigots were using it as an excuse to be openly hateful to POC instead of being provoked to thinking better of their bad habits.
So I can promise you that you will not be seeing any future posts that relegate people with disabilities to the margins by an Othering punchline or pun.