Planet of the Blind

Blog BOOST! # 3 Better Late Than Never

Who couldn't use a little BOOST! every now and then?

We've Been BOOSTED! This is to say thank you to the host/hostess of a blog that paid us some attention and in so doing gave us a statistical boost, large or small.  We're hoping that the readers of our Been BOOSTED! post will stop by your blog to review you as "the source", thereby giving you a boost. (Not that you need it!)

"Sadie" is a Boxer who has her own blog (with a little help from Toby).  She lives in Delaware, OH and has started a Carnival of Ohio Bloggers.  She found one of our posts, decided she liked it, and included it in the January edition.  Why thank you Sadie.

Sadie, have you met Blue Girl?  She's one of our favorite bloggers and it just so happens she too lives in Ohio.  You might want to pay her a little visit.

Wheelie Catholic gave us a boost when she linked to Steve's poem "Guiding Eyes".  Ruth is a disability advocate and  has created "a blog about inclusion issues concerning Catholics with disabilities providing information, raising concerns, sharing experiences and encouraging prayerful efforts toward social justice."

ohdave also did us the honor of linking to "Guiding Eyes" in his post Best of Ohio Bloggers: IT'S COLD Edition!  But it gets better!  Dave also read Steve's book Eavesdropping and posted a wonderful review here, which lead to this equally wonderful post on over here.

BOOST IT! Forward... This is our attempt to  give a blog a boost by "paying it forward"...
You can support this effort by visiting the referenced blog and if you like what you see (we're assuming you will) perhaps you too can give it a BOOST!  This might be a new blog that could use a BOOST! Or it might be a blog with many readers that just happens to be new to us, therefore we're not sure you've seen it.  Or, we might just BOOST! a blog because we like a post.

We discovered from the port, by Kathy Podgers, when we noticed that she pops in to visit and comment every now and then.  Funny how that works!  Kathy blogs about disability issues.  We welcome her to our blogroll and we thank her for including us on hers.

This is fun: Carnival of Good Stuff is full of links to posts and bloggers we've not yet run across.  It's a big world out there!

Thank you, Tulip, for including Steve in your thoughtful post Similarities Between Being a Person of Color & a Person with Disabilities.  Tulip comes to us from My Private Casbah.  I stumbled on her blog while reading The Sparrow written by Kay over at The Gimp Parade, which is, of course, one of our favorite blogs.  Thanks to you too, Kay, for referencing one of Steve's posts.

~ Connie

Have Autism, Will Travel

Back in September, Monika Moshenko interviewed Steve on her Disability News & Views Radio Show.  (Here's the link if you haven't heard it yet.)  For those of you who may not know, Monica is an advocate for people with disabilities.  She's an advocate for all "pwd's", but she is particularly interested and active in issues dealing with autism.  Her 13 year old son, Alex, has Asperger syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism.  Well, it turns out young Alex has a radio show of his own!  "Al's Wrestling Talk," airs live on the Internet every Saturday night.

I've been so busy lately I haven't paid this enough attention: 

"Monica Moshenko of Clarence and her son, Alex, 13, will be taking their radio shows on nationwide tour next year to raise public awareness about the disabled." 

You can read more about this in The Buffalo News in an article written by Gene Warner - NEWS STAFF REPORTER, last December.  Monica and Alex are making plans to take their show on the road by traveling across the U.S. in a recreational vehicle.  They are hoping to make a documentary of their experiences. 

"The goal is to meet and greet people with disabilities, raise the public's awareness about the disabled -- and perhaps catch a few wrestling matches along the way. "

I encourage you to read this article to learn more about Monica and Alex and their plans.  Willing to go so far as to put their home on the market to help finance this venture, they are also looking for sponsors and donors to assist them in their efforts.  Visit  Disability News Radio.com for more information.

Three questions for you Monica and Alex:

1. When are you starting out?
2. Are you coming to Columbus, OH?  If so when?
3. Have you started a blog?  I'm sure there are many folks who would love to follow you...

Keep us posted, OK?!

~ Connie

Disability Awareness Week and Poetry @ Grinnell College

Professor Ralph Savarese, author of the soon to be released book Reasonable People (you may recall my mentioning this book here) invited Steve to Grinnell College in Iowa last week.  I just stumbled on this "Q&A with writer Stephen Kuusisto" by Lawrence Sumulong on the The S&Blog by accident. 

"The S&B did an e-mail interview with writer and disability activist Stephen Kuusisto, who will be on campus Tuesday as part of the Writers @ Grinnell series and Disability Awareness Week."

You can read this short interview discussing poetry, creative non-fiction and disability awareness, including the answer to this question

"Between the walking tour of Grinnell College's campus, your reading and class visitations, your upcoming Writers @ Grinnell appearance seems to be one of the most involved and invested presentations to date. Dovetailing with Disability Awareness Week, what is the message that you are bringing to the college? How do you plan to convey it through each individual event?"

by following this link.

And before I forget, thank you Ralph!  Wish I could have been there...

~ Connie

Afficinados of Ink, vol 2

For those of you who may be more interested in literature than disability studies, I've entered a couple of Steve's posts in Afficinados of Ink, vol 2, a relatively new blog carnival.

So many blogs, so little time...

~ Connie

People with Disabilities 2005 Census data

Census info re: People with disabilities

General census info:  http://factfinder.census.gov

Sidney Sheldon's last interview

Last October Steve had the privilege to be interviewed by Kacey Kowars of the Kacey Kowars Show.
I had the privilege of listening in, sitting front and center.  I mention this because if you're like Kacey, and Steve, and have a real passion for books and reading, you'll want to explore Kacey's web site. 

Just the other day I was reading our local Worthington News newspaper and in the Entertainment & Arts section I found a great photograph of Kacey holding up a photo of Sidney Sheldon.  About a year ago he interviewed Sidney, who was promoting his last book, his memoir called The Other Side of Me.  It just so happens this interview was the last one given by Sheldon before his death, at age 89, this past January. 

"I was honored," Kowars said of the interview with Sheldon.  "When he died, I started getting notes from people all over the world thanking me for interviewing him."

In fact, according to Kacey, the day that Sheldon died, kaceykowars.com received more that 6,000 hits.  His show is listened to in at least 150 different countries and new interviews are posted every week.  Kacey would tell you this is "a labor of love".  "I don't make any money off of this." 

Kacey, you're a generous man.  Congratulations for capturing this little piece of literary history.

~ Connie

Disability Blog Carnival # 9

Mark Siegel of The 19th Floor has hosted this edition of the Disability Blog Carnival.  His theme: "Employment". 

Thanks for the great read Mark.

~ Connie

Graphic: cartoon of carnival ring master.  Big smile, holding hat and whip in left hand.

Catching Up

There's no denying it: people in the United States and in Britain are eagerly hoping to catch up with those nations that we used to call "the developing world".  The latest United Nations survey on conditions for children indicates that of the world's richest nations the U.S. and the U.K. are the worst places for kids to grow up in.

Both countries offer declining educational systems, eroding health care, and what can only be called a public indifference for the needs of children.

I think we can say that both the U.S. and the U.K. are trying to prepare their children for the realities of living in a declining nation and their respective politicians should be congratulated.

We of course still have so much work ahead of us.  We'll want to take away electricity and plumbing; jobs; public housing; and the possibility of gaining a higher education.  Hmmm.  Sounds like the current program that's in place for the people of New Orleans?

In the meantime we can rest assured that the kids are watching daytime tv and learning about the new trend toward the marketing of fashionable underpants for men and all the latest gadgets that come standard with the new Lexus.

And who needs the United Nations anyway?

S.K.

Listen! Steve's on NPR's All Things Considered

Here's the link to Steve's reading on All Things Considered today. 

It's an excerpt from Eavesdropping NPR has titled The Day the Wind Lured Me to Walk Into Traffic.

A big THANK YOU to the folks at NPR who worked so hard to track him down and make this happen.

~ Connie

Ohdave, oh Pierre, thank you again.

I mentioned ohdave from Into My Own and Pierre from Candide's Notebooks not too long ago in this post.  Remember?  You did stop by their sites didn't you?  Please don't let me link in vain.

Ohdave just informed me today that Pierre has written a post called Susan Patron and Stephen Kuusisto, The Higher Powers of Eavesdropping.

Susan Patron wrote The Higher Power of Lucky.   "That’s the one" says Pierre, "that has some librarians in a waddle of bands and boings..."   Oh Susan, what have you done?  In a children's book no less!

Pierre has noticed that Susan's book, and Steve's,  have a little something in common.  A coincidence perhaps, but you won't know what it is unless you read his post.  Nor will you know, unless you've read her book, why librarians might be upset with Susan Patron. 

I'd like to encourage you to read Pierre's post.  It explains everything.

~ Connie