I thought I coined a phrase–criperati. I may have made it up, but there’s been others that also did. Google coughed up a couple two days after I started looking for antecedents. I see the use of criperti as recognition that the disability community is stratified even though we like to think we’re completely egalitarian. […]
Category: history
Crutches and Backpacks
That’s me with my sister Paula on the grounds of Polytechnic School in Pasadena. Notice the backpack. It seems like I spent an inordinate amount of time from middle school through college figuring out how to carry things, particularly school books, while using crutches. It’s not the sharpest snapshot but the backpack looks big. I […]
A New Disability Hero!
We have another hero. Hugh Gallagher gave us FDR. The world knew FDR was disabled, but until Gallagher none of us knew that FDR’s disability experience had a profound effect on his life and world view. After polio, FDR began to root for the poor. I know, hero is so overused when it is applied […]
Cripple’s Reward
eBay has gone crazy for disability vinyl LP records. This album, although priceless, was posted with a starting bid of $95.00! Most disability-related posts on eBay don’t go for very much, but for some reason records do. “Little Roy, the Crippled Boy” used to go for $7 or $8, but then one auction hit $45 […]
Oh Those Shriners!
The Shriners Hospitals have done much good work, but Swingin’ for Crippled Children? […]
Don’t Let the Cripples Drive, 1913
Every Sunday the San Francisco Chronicle runs a column called the Wayback Machine in the Pink Section. The editor, Johnny Miller, goes through the Chronicle’s archives from 25, 50, 75, and 100 years ago. He finds interesting stories, most of which we haven’t heard or have forgotten. I enjoy his 21st Century perspective on 20th […]
Disability Rocks!
Next Wednesday, November 14, at the newly christened and leadered Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability. I’ll be presenting Disability Rocks!, A musical journey through disability and popular music. Disabled songs, singers, and songwriters including everyone from Gene Vincent, and Marilyn Manson, to Nick Jonas, will have their moment in the disability culture spotlight. Join […]
Handicappers? Handicapable? No! Capihands!
I was reminded again the other day about the etymology of handicapped. Last night I threw together a quick pasta sauce to put over Costco raviolis. Our neighbor has been kind enough to loan use freezer space for small, plastic bags of mooshed-up tomatoes from last summer. The defrosted tomatoes with a little added fresh […]
Toulouse-Lautrec Lecture Now Online
Last October I gave a talk on how disability culture and identity impacted Henri Toulouse-Lautrec at the de Young Museum. It was for the Disability Open House. We chose Toulouse-Lautrec because the museum was exhibiting “Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay.” There were three pieces by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec in […]
Misc Disability Image
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