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Open thread 3/4/22 — 18 Comments

  1. I gotta stop cutting onions when I’m surfing the web……damn things got me all teary……..

  2. I know a family with a small child, born with hearing loss. He recently got cochlear implants. The smile on his face when he heard his mother’s voice was priceless.

  3. When I first got hearing aids (about 15 years ago), I remember having a huge grin as I realized how much hearing I had lost and now regained. And I have seen this same reaction in others getting hearing aids for the first time — a huge, giddy smile at the realization they had gotten back something they had lost so slowly they didn’t realize what they had been missing.

    Of course this cannot compare to someone who has almost no hearing all of a sudden getting hearing with a cochlear implant. Smiles and tears all around!

  4. From what I’ve read previously, adjusting to a cochlear implant is a long process and often emotionally jarring and even physically painful. Was that a previous generation of technology or am I horridly misinformed?

    I remember the first time I met a doctor younger than I was. IIRC, his name was Jeffrey Davis and he was an internal medicine resident. That handsome audiologist (or otolaryngologist?) is young enough to be his daughter. Don’t know where those years went.

  5. “With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.”
    Amen.

  6. When it was first developed my mother worked for one of the doctors and they put me on the list… it was a sad day when they turned me down because i was deaf only in one ear… to this day… stereo is a mystery… where sound comes from is unknown…

  7. Awesome video. Did her boyfriend’s/fiance’s language seem slurred or a little lacking in clarity, or is that my imagination? I got to thinking maybe he also was hearing impaired and received a cochlear implant.

  8. O_and_W: yes, that was my take too.
    Gosh, I sometimes feel old and hardened but that melted me right down …

  9. @O_&_W-
    The fella definitely had the speech irregularity typical of deaf people, and likely got implants after he learned to speak. My amateur conclusion was that the woman spoke normally, and likely lost her hearing later in life.
    Totally my speculation, worth every penny you paid.

  10. Just got word masks are coming off in the federal facilities I work in at midnight Sunday. We are currently in a low-risk zone.

  11. Don’t know if you’re following or care about major league baseball, but thought I would share:

    MLB: Billionaires and millionaires fighting. Idiots trying to kill the game. The ghost of Satchel Paige looks down on all this foolishness and can’t help but cry. They’ve taken a great game and trashed it, while the least of them make more in a month than he made in a lifetime.

    Meeting Number 29

    When I first saw him
    arms especially the right one nearly reaching his knees
    long lashes on large sleepy eyes
    gazing low in humility
    he seemed to be from a different time

    Flannel uniform draped over his gangly frame
    cap with the bill pushed back, a pleasant smile
    comfortable as a well-worn shoe
    for an 11-year-old boy
    it all fit like a welcome friend

    Aromas of spit tobacco juice, green grass, dirt and sweat
    hung in the dugout air
    as he ambled over slowly
    cleats crunching split sunflower shells
    “How ya doin’ mister” poured off his tongue like syrup

    “Good” was all I could muster

    His smile grew brighter
    as he reached around to the back pocket of his baggy pants
    and then extended a booklet
    gray, red and yellow
    “Here, you might enjoy this”

    Entranced I barely gave it a glance
    blurting “Thank you mister”
    as he moved away effortlessly
    and paused briefly to turn and smile again
    before disappearing into the Multnomah Stadium clubhouse

    Home I poured over those 96 pages again and again
    “Pitchin’ Man, ‘Satchel’ Paige’s own story”
    as told to Hal Lebovitz
    25 cents, copyright 1949
    he was indeed from a different time

    “My God!” came to mind

    One of the greatest stars in baseball once
    yet here he was a dozen years later
    age 55 or so
    with the nondescript Beavers in my hometown
    still playing the game

    Went back to see him pitch before the season ended
    then never in the flesh again
    but thrilled when I read he made the majors one more time
    three shutout innings for Kansas City
    at the age of 59

    “Three innin’s is just like an appetizer”
    he said in Chapter 21
    no doubt he could have gone more if they’d let him
    those innocent days call out often now
    burnished by passing time

    What I would give to see him again

  12. While I am familiar with the stories and concerns surrounding the UPenn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas and had seen her portrait and so on, I was unaware of what her physique actually looked like.

    Check out the first two photos in this article. Oh my.

    My first impulse was to laugh at the absurdity of it, but it really is tragic for serious women athletes.

  13. @ Richard Milne – did you write the poem about Satchel Page? Very nice!
    And very sad about Baseball Inc. (however, all I know about baseball I learned from Peanuts cartoons).
    Do kids even play sandlot games any more?

  14. I feel uneasy with this public displays of marriage proposal.

    It was pleasant to watch. You’re right, though, there’s something exhibitionistic about it. Also, he proposed in front of the doctor, her mother, and the unseen person recording it all. That’s out on a limb. (I’m hoping the recorder got everyone’s permission before loading it to Youtube).

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