From way back..."handicapped" is kind of insulting. Or at least an unpleasant callback to, like, feudal gimp history, when "we" were legally allowed to beg, cap in hand. For myself, I generally say "wheelchair user," or "mobility-impaired" cognitively disabled (except with my brother...if he does something stupid, I take retarded out of mothballs, cause we got it like that.) And he's not. I wanted to like differently abled, but in the end, it's like...silly. or humorously challenged.

an unpleasant callback to, like, feudal gimp history, when "we" were legally allowed to beg, cap in hand

o.O

I had no idea of that etymology. It stings, huh? I mean, it's real to you?

I don't even like "wheelchair user". Whenever I describe someone dependent on a chair to get around, I say "s/he uses a wheelchair." Small difference, but for some reason, it's really important to me to identify the person first and the tool second.

I don't know how much it stings, viscerally, for me. Because mostly I hear it now from older people who probably aren't ever going to buy into the whole independent-living thing in the first place. As a kid, I was probably tortured with it, but that is not a terminology thing. I just wanted to point out why disabled people in my generation don't really use it.

Fox News refers to Michelle Obama as "Obama's Baby Mama." [link]

Even though the hand-in-cap etymology is from betting on fixed horseraces, not begging?

Anyway, I totally grok that associations go "ouch" regardless of etymology (and for that matter, etymology as an explanation for anything is usually crap, but that's a whole other rant). I'm javachik in choice of "uses a wheelchair" but do smack me down whenever I'm being a clueless tool.

I'm so glad you said this, Jesse. Otherwise I would've utterly forgot that this pay period's bills-that-still-must-be-mailed are sitting in my purse.

Happy to help!

I do love seeing my works-in-publishing friend. Free books!

I'm etymology's bitch. So while I understand it might sting it goes in the same box as "niggardly." It's just easier for me to tell mine own to get over it.

Bottom Line Personal has found me, and they tell me that if a teenager is gainfully employed and contributes the $4K max into a Roth IRA between 16 and 21, that's over $2m of tax free money at age 65.

Now *that* makes me feel old.

ER turned out to be better than nothing. It's only now I'm needing to turn to meds in hand to treat another one. Just have to make sure I say sensical.

New discovery from watching VH-1's I Love the 80s 3-D: Avery Brooks is perhaps the only man alive who can dress like the Joker and still look intimidating without benefit of clown makeup.

Wasn't that the one dubbed Cock Ring Ken?

I remember that! In college we ran across in in a late-bored troll of Walmart. I didn't even know what a cock ring was until then. My friend shrieked the title out. Ah, the toy aisle and college students.

I had other stuff, but it was buried under MY FUCKING ONE FUCKING YEAR FUCKING OLD FUCKING A/C decided to quit cooling sometime today. FUCK.

I put a call in and a very nice gentleman named Francisco just stopped by to change the filter and recharge the freon. ONE FUCKING YEAR.

It better FUCKING WORK.

I did lose the old futon mattress tonight. I swear, a day can't just be good lately. There's got to be some sort of payback.