Intelligence Quotient Quotient

by Blog Antagonist at Blogs are Stupid
Posted on August 30, 2007

Yesterday was Diminutive One's weekly therapist appointment. We took a bit of a break over the summer, which was nice, but it was good to be back in her cheerfully serene waiting room once again. Though getting there and back during rush hour is an exercise in insanity, I have come to look upon that hour as a welcome respite from life's chaos and calamity.

They have good magazines there. Current ones. InStyle, Redbook, Entertainment Weekly, Time, Newsweek. Each month I work my way through the new editions, reveling in the indulgence of being completely inert for a full hour. There are no distractions to prick my conscience and prod me into productivity. There are no children demanding my time or attention. I can't multitask or network or interface.

So I sip my coffee or soft drink, settle into the commodious sofa and read to my heart's content.

To be quite honest, I usually start with the girly mags. They are a pleasure I don't often afford myself. But this week, an article in Newsweek caught my attention. I have a close friend whose six year old son is Autistic, so when I saw the article titled "The Puzzle of Hidden Ability" by Sharon Begley, I was intrigued. The article discusses the enigmatic issue of IQ and intelligence in autistic children, and challenges conventional testing protocols. Read more...

Invisibility

by Andrea at a garden of nna mmoy
Posted on August 13, 2007

There is a really cute guy who works in my building. Tall, sandy ginger hair, nice features, broad shoulders, slim. And he doesn't have arms. He has hands, but his arms are about eight inches long, maybe a bit shorter. I see him around, normally buying muffins from the muffin shop in the underground mall.

I imagine if one day we struck up a conversation, he would want neither for his obvious difference to be ignored ("Can you pass me a napkin, please?") nor would he want it to be front and centre ("and look at you! How do you cope? You poor thing, I could never do it"). It would just be there, a part of him, but not all of him. He's probably proud of some of the adjustments he's made and how he's sorted his life: born without arms, at a not insignificant natural disadvantage, but there he is, eating a muffin at his desk just like everybody else. Read More...