Wish Someone On The West Wing Had Known...

 despite Donna's injuries and recovery being a Season 6 B-story, that nobody comes home from the hospital with a perfectly-fitting electric chair(they might have gone with a scooter for Donna, as she appears to have abled-person balance and posture. But if they did that, my thoughts about the doorways would be even more salient as those are taller and wider. There is no way she could just bop through doorways that were built for radio's heyday. Just no.)

Also, I could accept, maybe, that whatever she doesn't get in take-home is made up for in a banging benefits package or that Dr. Abbey knocked some heads together or something, but you'd have to mention it.  Home-health companies aren't like "No problem...whatever you need," It's almost science-fiction unreal that Donna can just work and not come to the end of the rental period and have to call her  doctor or something.

 I hate that the one thing that creators seem to get from the passage of the ADA is some instinct to hand-wave and say "She'll fit...things are different now." Because they're not, at least, not that much. And we're talking about a really old building there. She'd get stuck somewhere, at least once, and I kind of wish I could see it.  And I definitely wish "This is not who we are!1" reusable tote-bag America could have seen it because all that mommy energy might have gotten people like me more access now.(Maybe, maybe not. But I can't blame people for thinking things are fixed when what they see is that things are fixed.)

 

Let's Still Help Beverly...

 as much as I think I've become used to the Heller-style machinations of our health system, I still can't quantify my frustration upon reading they won't fix my comrade's old medical equipment but they also can't cover a new one...What the hell is that? If the doctor says she needs it, she should get it. #HealthcareIsAHumanRight

Yes, I will contribute with my own money, but I don't have enough to do it myself, and, though it seems that the "$50 from every share" is inflated by crowdfund platforms, I also really am hoping many hands make light work here. Donate, share. replace the band-aid  I don't get any of the donations.

If you can't put in cash, please spread the word. 

Donate For Beverly Here 

More Pleasantville Thoughts...

 somewhat delayed by digestive pyrotechnics yesterday.Even though I don't tell anyone to stifle more than I usually do, I do have a rare agreement with Archie Bunker's "Change!Change right now!" Though I'm not sure how much Margaret Mead's "post-menopausal zest" was really written about with a wheelchair user in the middle of the desert in mind. Not exactly complaining, but mine has not been a life with a lot of "Whew!Glad that's over." in it.

Anyway....

-Are television characters somewhat understood to be in a separate dimension there, or was there an elder actress both learning to speak jive and sometimes wishing she got to have more of a say in what she was a symbol of?

-There is kind of a whiff of infidelity in rooting for Joan Allen and the soda jerk, even if we don't have a full picture of Mom and Dad's marriage and there's a lot of just doing the expected thing that's in the literal script.  Kind of makes me sad that the Dad character doesn't keep up.

-after, you know, a decade and a half of watching retailers fail and customer service get hollowed out and replaced by chatbots and hold queues, the thought of going into a store where you might actually see the owner seems nice and all too rare. I guess I could understand the black-and-white urge to hold onto downtown more than when I first watched it. 

Don't Stop Believin? And Why We Still Need Pleasantville...

 This week featured another long-shot contest submission, with a prize amount that could give your Bohemian Crip's life a real jolt. But I have tried for this market a few times by now, to not much avail, although when they gave me feedback, it was good enough to put aside the Joyce Davenport law school fantasy, that poor threadbare thing, for another year or so.  Even if I'm not sure how I'd have made that happen, either, and I've never sold those pieces that I wanted their opinion on so eagerly.

Basically, they think I'm a writer, but I'm not their girl or anything.  Given the numbers of writers there are, I suppose that's likely, and doubly so for the Disability issues that continually chap my hide for not making room for me, even if when short-sighted abled editors look at ideas like that and see a lock.(Which still seems reductive.   Not that I'm on his level but I hope nobody followed Ralph Ellison around like "Wow, there are sure a lot of black people in this."but I almost bet they did. Maybe I'll end up being a class project someday, too; I'm not sure if I really want that anymore, though. Being me at this age makes it hard to dream at the same time I'm not sure I'm actively doing anything else, either, which my youth repeating the catechism of Ed Roberts and Judy Huemann did not prepare me for, and which actively sucks.)

I'm not completely torn up about that, but it does kind of cut into either "You never know!" or "You already know what will happen when it's just on your hard drive," because, a lot of times I do and the computer passes.

But, hell, maybe I'm due.  And at least, I've started sending out things in which I really believe, so I guess I wouldn't mind seeing them get around a bit before finding what might be some kind of permanent home. Before this, I submitted  to get used to the process, which didn't really happen anyway, or because it was The Chicken Challenge and I thought my chicken bit was hilarious and nobody agreed.(it's fine that not many of those pieces are out and about now, though.)

Watching "Pleasantville" feels different under encroaching fascism--it's one of my favorite movies of the nineties and one of the most beautiful films I know, but like many reviewers when it came out, I also kind of thought it was refighting the sixties, which, given that I am hippie spawn, I'm kind of down for, but  I couldn't have that little Dumb History People satisfied pause at the end, right? Because plenty of people now would be happy if our books were blank and if we never escaped Main Street.
JD Vance hates that movie so much.

"In The Dark" Almost Recovered Its Three...

 but it didn't, at least not enough to make Season Three feel like a good use of my time.  I did get to see Chloe gain some independence and save the day amid all the wild double-and triple dealing and all that, so that got the story back to its emotional core, but it's a little sad when shows have one great season of stories and are on for three.

Kind of Getting How Southerners Feel...

 watching The Sex Lives of College Girls", which I am finally getting the chance to love, get Arizona wrong time after time. Mostly, even though I know it's wrong(Gilbert is more of...a bedroom community or a suburb than a small town in the hinterlands as depicted there, although yes, Kimberly has probably been to an ostrich festival, which would make her seem provincial to most Essex folk.) it doesn't interfere with the story all that much to know, as those writers don't, that the secretary of state used to succeed the governor and we didn't have a lieutenant gov role till last election.(I voted against it, not sure why, just that I'm past the point of thinking more formal roles are the answer to anything. Also, I stopped donating to Katie Hobbs over her tacking to the imaginary middle in her ticket selection, but that's beyond this post.. Get it from your new friends, Katie.

Vote by mail, however, is one of the few  jewels in Arizona's tarnished crown. One of the few times we were ahead of the curve and did the right thing. especially in an episode about people knowing things from personal experience(and it's a thirty-year history that I "unearthed" on DuckDuckGo...care less. Kaling, et al, it makes you look cute. ) Also, disabled people probably wanted a Jocelyn episode-- at least I do. I'd like to know the secret for having a mobility aid and being where the action is.

Things I've Heard That I Might Say To Christopher Titus....

 Actually, in one instance, I might be cheating a little, because nobody has actually full-on said "It disturbs me when I think you're hot," but I do think that a lot of the weird reactions to my dating profile might have come out of a similar place. But it's harder to understand because I was not paid by a streaming platform to riff on all my deepest, darkest secrets, but just trying to share life in a disabled body.(I used to not even admit that because it was like some "Mean Girl" "So, you think you're pretty," thing, and like Cady, I did not begin my life with some irrational  loathing of some part of my body that I had to be taught to think about,ie, giant thighs or thick ankles.  (Over time, I've just learned to save time and not like any of it.  #winning. But I do match American beauty ideals in some ways.)

But I do understand that feeling of feeling okay after hearing someone else's story after I watched the stand-up special "Carrying Monsters"definitely feel like mine might fit in one of those baby harnesses now!