Rambling Rhodes

It is so funny that you posted that story! Brian sent me the link this morning from our local news station in an email titled "Natural Selection." I laughed so hard when I read the witness account of the train repeatedly blowing its horn until the accident happened. I know my room in hell is being prepared as I type this.

Hey, not to get all preachy or anything, but as readers of another, more popular blog (Hi Joshua!) will remember, I'm deaf too, and I've gotta say I'm disappointed that people would find this funny. Would you have laughed if she had been blind instead? Really Ryan, you should stick to posting pictures of your butt.

It would have been funny if she was blind and the engineer was flashing his high beams at her.

Seriously, Simon, no personal insult intended. The juxtaposition of the headline and sub-head just made me laugh. Irony has that affect on me sometimes.

Aw shucks Ryan, I was just shittin' yer. It's true that my ears don't work, but there's nothing wrong with the ol' sense of humour.

Nonetheless the issue flags an important point about this affliction - that it's pretty much invisible. The blind are usually instantly recognisable - the white stick, the dog, those funky round black glasses - but what does the stereotypical deaf person look like?

I'll get off the soap-box now and resume normal service. And Ryan? It has been too long since the last Mushroom. Maybe you should hold a mushroom contest a la Fark.

I'd think she could have "felt" the horn instead of hearing it. Those train horns are incredibly loud and push alot of air.

But yeah, its kind of sick and funny.

I'd think she could've felt the bloody train coming. I've spent a lot of time walking on the tracks in North Seattle and you can usually feel the fucking thing coming a good long way off-- not to mention the air they displace, the horn and everything else.

And honestly, what the fuck was she doing walking along the railroad tracks anyway? Blind people know better than to go wandering into traffic.

And Simon, Ryan's blog actually gets a lot more traffic than mine. Wasn't always so, but since he moved to mu.nu he's pretty much blown right past me-- sad to say.