#disfluency

[gardenelfi]

had a peculiar stammer last Monday, usually my stammers happen when I talk fast, but now I was talking slowly.

''How are...how are...how are you doing?''

this ''slow stammer'' also happened during a presentation over a month ago.

''Kang...kang...kangeroo court.''

it feels so weird to be so conciously aware of a stammer again, it feels like being trapped in the moment.

it's not even only that it was slow for a stammer, in general I was talking much slower than usually.

...and when I had a meeting with my tutor last week I even had a full-on block that I was not able to frown away, and I had to go around it.

''I just wanted to say thank you.''

I am not sure if he had noticed the block though.

[thecosmiccircus]

'Disfluency': A Heartfelt Coming-of-Age Drama That Falls Short

Disfluency tackles the coming-of-age genre with a fresh sense of honesty that helps to carry an otherwise weak and didactic script. There are lessons to take away from this story, and writer/director Anna Baumgarten wants to make certain that those messages are received. Still, it’s a film that feels relevant, relatable and important for the time. Not every generation is blessed with a film as…

[pleasedontanalyzeme]

After my professor graciously allowed me to use TTS to do this video presentation because I have a stutter and recording my voice tends to be hell, I just spent an hour and a half trying to find a single website or app that would allow me to download an mp3 of TTS. This could have had an essay option but noooo it's more accessible for me to write the essay, plug it into some website, and then have my professor listen to the slow drone of a barely fluent AI voice. No part of the rubric even relates to the verbal portion there's no point to this

I could have probably recorded 3 takes and edited out all my disfluencies in less time and with less effort

[laudaddysmitten]

"Stunning View" Chapter 2 mini-Teaser l

Speech Dysfluency

Chapter 2 out tomorrow (if I finish editing & formatting in time)!

Not much I can tease (spoilers), so this tiny excerpt could come from literally any Good Omens fic by anyon e:

Crowley spluttered a string of nonsensical vowel sounds that couldn't decide if they wanted to belong to any actual words.

Speech Dysfluency

This verbal habit that Crowley does so well is something we all pretty much love about him, like the drawn out hesitant sounds with whine mixed in that start this off: (not "hang on", but almost like "uuurrggh, well...")

It's a bit uniquely Crowley. But it's something that everyone does. (Even filler words like "umm", "uhh", qualify as this.) It's called Speech Disfluency. It's just all the little pauses, filler words, false starts, etc. "Giddy boyfriend noises".

Crowley's reaction when Beelzebub tells him about the Book of Life is an excellent example I can't find a gif of.

"Speech dysfluency" is not a medical diagnosis, but just a thing that happens sometimes, to everyone. And we all love Crowley's bouts of it.

Another language thing that happens to everyone is anomia -- it's when you can't remember or think of the right word right away). Just a thing that happens sometimes, to everyone, including Crowley. ("DUCKS!)

Things like this can be medical as well. Example, I have the chronic/ clinical version of anomia: anomic aphasia. (It makes writing fanfiction ...interesting.) But citing language things like this isn't meant to imply anything negative.

Similarly, "speech dysfluency" is not a medical diagnosis, but just a thing that happens sometimes, to everyone. And we all love Crowley's bouts of it. ("Ngk!")

[brainlightcenter]

Speech Therapy: When and Why Your Child Might Need It

Speech and communication skills are foundational to a child’s ability to express themselves, interact with others, and succeed in social and academic settings. While every child develops at their own pace, some children may experience delays or challenges with speech and language skills. In these cases, speech therapy can provide crucial support. In this blog, we’ll explore when speech therapy might be necessary and why it can make a meaningful difference in your child’s life.

Understanding Speech Therapy

Speech therapy is a specialized field aimed at helping individuals overcome communication challenges. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) work with children to improve their ability to speak clearly, understand language, and develop the social skills needed for effective communication. Through targeted exercises, activities, and therapeutic techniques, speech therapists guide children in building the skills they need to communicate confidently.

When Might a Child Need Speech Therapy?

Every child develops at their own pace, but there are certain milestones that can help you determine if your child may benefit from speech therapy. Here are some signs that may indicate a need for support:

Delayed Speech and Language Milestones If your child isn’t meeting typical milestones—like babbling by six months, saying their first words around twelve months, or forming short sentences by age two—these may be signs of a speech delay. Speech therapy can help children catch up and develop the language skills necessary for their age.

Difficulty Being Understood If your child struggles with clear articulation or often uses sounds incorrectly, they may have an articulation or phonological disorder. These issues make it hard for others to understand them, which can lead to frustration and impact social interactions.

Stuttering or Disfluency Issues Some children may experience speech disfluencies, such as stuttering, which can affect their ability to speak fluently. Stuttering is characterized by the repetition or prolongation of sounds, syllables, or words, and it may make a child self-conscious. Speech therapy provides techniques to help manage disfluency and increase fluency.

Problems with Voice or Resonance Children with voice disorder may speak with an abnormal pitch, volume, or resonance. This can stem from vocal cord misuse, overuse, or even physical abnormalities. A speech therapist can help children with vocal exercises to produce a clearer, more natural voice.

Challenges in Understanding or Expressing Language If your child has difficulty following directions, understanding questions, or expressing their needs and ideas, they may benefit from therapy to improve receptive and expressive language skills. This helps children communicate effectively in social and educational settings.

Difficulty with Social Communication Skills Pragmatic language, or social communication, involves understanding how to use language in social contexts, including conversational skills, body language, and eye contact. Speech therapy can help children who struggle in these areas, teaching them how to engage appropriately with others.

Hearing Impairments and Speech Development Hearing impairments can significantly impact speech and language development. If your child has a hearing impairment, they may require specialized support to develop clear speech and language skills, often in coordination with hearing aids or other auditory support.

Why Speech Therapy is Important

Improves Communication Skills Speech therapy enables children to communicate their thoughts and feelings effectively, reducing frustration and boosting confidence. By improving articulation, language understanding, and social skills, children can interact more easily with family, friends, and teachers.

Enhances Academic Success Strong language and communication skills are critical for academic success. Children who receive speech therapy often find it easier to follow directions, participate in classroom discussions, and express their thoughts in writing, all of which support learning and achievement in school.

Builds Social and Emotional Confidence Communication challenges can make children feel isolated or misunderstood. Speech therapy helps children build confidence by providing tools to interact successfully with peers. This, in turn, boosts their self-esteem and emotional well-being.

Promotes Early Intervention and Better Outcomes Early intervention is key to addressing speech and language issues before they become more challenging. The earlier a child begins speech therapy, the greater their chances of catching up to developmental milestones, making it easier for them to integrate and succeed in school and social settings.

What to Expect in Speech Therapy

In speech therapy, a qualified speech-language pathologist will assess your child’s specific needs and create a personalized plan. Therapy may include:

Articulation Therapy: Practicing specific sounds to improve clarity.

Language Building Activities: Exercises that build vocabulary, sentence structure, and understanding.

Fluency Techniques: Strategies to manage stuttering and increase smoothness in speech.

Social Communication Practice: Role-playing and interactive exercises to help children with social interactions.

Parent Involvement: Techniques and strategies for parents to reinforce skills at home.

Each session is designed to make learning engaging and supportive, helping children feel comfortable as they work toward their goals.

Final Thoughts

Speech therapy is an invaluable tool that can help children overcome communication barriers, improving their ability to connect with others, succeed in school, and build self-confidence. If you’re concerned about your child’s speech and language development, consulting with a speech-language pathologist can provide clarity and help you take the next steps. With the right support, your child can thrive, finding their voice and building the skills they need for a bright future.

If you’d like to know more about how speech therapy could help your child, feel free to reach out to us at Brain Light Child Development Center in Greater Noida. We’re here to support your child’s journey toward confident communication! Also Read about The Importance of Occupational Therapy: Enhancing Lives and Promoting Independence

[drsudhirarora1]

Stammering, also known as stuttering, can be a frustrating challenge for people of all ages and backgrounds, including those in India, the US, UAE, and Canada. It disrupts communication and can impact confidence. But here's the good news: there's hope!

MindGuru Dr. Sudhir Arora, with over 45 years of experience, unveils some lesser-known secrets to manage stammering and achieve smoother speech.

Beyond the Stutter: Understanding Stammering

Stammering is a complex communication disorder characterized by speech disfluencies like repetitions (sounds or words), prolongations (holding sounds), and blocks (silent pauses). While the exact cause remains unknown, it's likely a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

Traditional Techniques Still Hold Value

Speech therapy remains a cornerstone of managing stammering. Techniques like slow and controlled speech, deep breathing exercises, and relaxation strategies can significantly improve fluency.

Secret #1: Embrace Acceptance

Often overlooked, self-acceptance is crucial. Don't let stammering define you. Acknowledge it, but don't let it control you.

Secret #2: Focus on Communication, Not Perfection

The goal is to communicate effectively, not achieve perfect speech. Speak clearly, not quickly. Let the message, not the manner, take center stage.

Secret #3: Build Confidence Through Small Wins

Start with achievable goals. Celebrate small victories, like completing a sentence fluently, and gradually increase the challenge.

Secret #4: The Power of Positive Self-Talk

Challenge negative thoughts with positive affirmations. Believe in your ability to speak fluently, and your confidence will grow.

Secret #5: Find Your Support System

Connect with support groups or online communities. Sharing experiences with others who understand can be incredibly empowering. India, US, UAE, and Canada all have resources available.

Remember: Stammering management is a journey, not a destination. Be patient, consistent, and celebrate your progress.

Additional Tips:

Practice Mindfulness: Techniques like meditation can help manage anxiety, a common trigger for stammering. Join a Public Speaking Group: Gradually expose yourself to speaking situations in a supportive environment. Consider Speech Therapy: A speech therapist can create a personalized plan to address your specific needs. MindGuru Dr. Sudhir Arora's Message of Hope

Stammering doesn't have to limit your life. With the right approach and support, you can achieve fluency and speak confidently. If you're in India, you can explore MindGuru's services. For those in the US, UAE, or Canada, a quick online search can help you find qualified speech therapists in your area.

Take Charge of Your Speech, Take Charge of Your Life!

Let Dr. Sudhir Arora's secrets be your guide on the path to fluent communication. Start your journey today!

[miumonga]

ETC

note: these characters WILL NOT be considered as any of the love interests

yuji itadori (17) - your cute producer’s little brother who happens to be the lead singer in the band called “cursed spirts”! jennifer lawrence and megan thee stallion enthusiast. also a very big fan of yours (please give this boy an autograph) 

megumi fushiguro (17) - guitarist for cursed spirts and toji fushiguro’s son. gets called a “nepo baby” all the time ugh! he’s so done with everyone and everything… please help this poor boy. 

toge inumaki (19) - self-proclaimed “fortnite king” who also happens to be the drummer for cursed spirts. unfortunately has a hesitation speech disfluency, but he still can communicate just fine! 

yuta okkotsu (19) - bassist and the only “responsible” member. cares for every one of his bandmates ever so dearly. huge fan of geto’s music and was absolutely devastated when he announced his hiatus. 

nobara kugisaki (18) - instagram fashion blogger! friends with the band. adores your aesthetic and clothing. though you two haven’t formally met (yet), she believes you two would become best friends. 

maki zenin (19) - the hot girl that often appears in nobara’s daily blogs. affiliated with zenin crop (not by choice) due to family connections. proud man hater & girl kisser. 

MASTERLIST.

[dihalect]

pov: you are at a work shindig at a coworker’s place. you see my body language shift from “hey” to “heyyyyyyyyyyyyy” over the course of the night, and then from “heyyyyyyyyyyyyy” to “🏳️‍🌈😐” when he mentions his girlfriend

im fucked (<- has a workcrush that’s actually potentially viable)

[thornfield987-blog]

I know this has been done before but here’s my headcanons for LU Chronic illness/Disability boys:

Legend(he/they): Hypermobile type Ehlers Danlos syndrome. Frequently dislocates joints and doesn’t see why the others make such a big deal about it, it happens all the time! Primarily suffers from widespread join pain, instability and chronic fatigue. Has as many different mobility aids as they have magical artifacts.

Time(he/him?): Early onset osteoarthritis and partially blind. All of the time travel and shifting forms was not kind to his joints, so the connective tissue was damaged and BOOM. Arthritis. The old man jokes are becoming less and less of a joke every day. Also experiences debilitating migraines.

Hyrule(they/he): Sensory Processing Disorder (often associated with autism but can be caused by other conditions). Their magic sensitivity can often cause overstimulation in their other senses, and they are very sensitive to light, sound, smell and touch. They are semi-verbal because even his own voice can overstimulate him sometimes, but they don’t know sign very well. Also has anemia.

Wild(genderfluid he/she/they): hypertrophic contractural scarring, partially deaf, semi-verbal because of vocal cord scarring. Also prosthetic arm(set after TOTK). She switches between sign and speaking, whichever is easiest for him that day. They have to perform daily stretches and apply scar lotion to be functional, but they aren’t very good at remembering to do so. Often blows out his voice because he gets excited, but can’t tell how loud he is speaking.

Four(plural they/them): Dissociative Identity Disorder(but not really because of magical reasons), damaged growth plates because of Minish magic. They have very similar symptoms to DID, but there are slight differences because it was caused magically and traumatically, not like in the real world. They sometimes struggle to walk correctly because their growth plates are damaged, causing their legs to be slightly different lengths. They wear adaptive shoes to correct this.

Sky(he/him): POTS(Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome), chronic fatigue. He struggles to breathe the denser air on the Surface, but he struggled with it on Skyloft as well. He has a chronically higher heart rate that causes dizziness and (rarely) passing out when moving from sitting to standing, after eating, and after adrenaline rushes. This causes his stamina to be fairly low, and also causes chronic fatigue.

Twilight(he/him): RRMS(Relapse/Remission Multiple Sclerosis). This is caused magically by the Twilight curse eating away at his body’s nerves, but is kept mostly under control by his shadow crystal. Occasionally, he goes through relapses and experiences anything from tingling and numbness in a limb to temporary loss of vision in one or both eyes, balance issues, vertigo and slurred speech. These flares are almost always debilitating, but thankfully they only happen every couple of months and last from a few days to about a week.

Wind(he/him?): A little cliche, but he has a peg leg. He likes to tell outlandish stories about it getting bit off by a kraken or eaten by a cannibal, but the truth is that he got an infection, couldn’t treat it in time and had to amputate. This happened sometime after his quests had finished, and he’s still a little ashamed of the actual circumstances, so he doesn’t open up often.

(edit) I FORGOT WARRIORS

Warriors(he/him): Speaking Disfluency (Stutter). Often repeats sounds, such as “G-g-g-guys”, or extends sounds; “Llllllll-Iove you”. He grew up poor, so he was never able to get treatment for it, so he communicates using sign while Proxi translates verbally, though this isn’t as necessary with the Chain since most of them know sign.

[deerwaltzing]

an open letter to my speech therapist

(on lesbianism, speech therapy, and disfluency)

[therealbeachfox]

Myths of Gotham: Batman & The Two Cities

Ever wondered what the DCU looks like for all those people who aren't privy to the what's and why's of the multiverse shattering events they live through? I sure do. That's melded with my "The Completely Normal Adventures of a Crime Alley Kid" series into this: An exploration of the stories the kids of Gotham would create to explain the world around them. Featuring a foul-mouthed homeless Crime Alley kid vending an education to the younger set, and one Bernard Dowd adding his historical and cultural commentary on the side.

Also available on Ao3, but I'm posting it here because I think it works just fine as a standalone without the 160k+ words of Henchman-In-Denial shenanigans on the side.

Or ignore that link and read it below the cut!

Myths of Gotham

Supplemental Document 3

Harris (Age-12, Male, Irish/African) [[1]]. “The Origin of Batman and the Robins” Interview by Bernard Dowd. 14th August 202X. BDOH #009, Myths of Gotham Project, https://BerDProductions.net/MythsofGothamProject/bdoh-009.html. Accessed 21st November 202(X+2)

[[1. No further information given, even after being told it’d be for proper attribution. "Harris" is also most likely to be pseudonym. Sorry, researchers of the future.]]

Transcript has been mildly edited for clarity and to remove vocal disfluencies. It is otherwise presented in its entirety without any attempts to correct grammar and other verbal slips. Additional notes by the transcriber may be found in the footnotes.

========

     Alright, everybody needs to settle their shit down, it’s education time. If you don’t wanna sit here and listen to me explain shit, this place has got like twenty other rooms you can go hang out in, k? This aint school, no one’s keeping you here. ‘Xcept you, Carlos. Yeah, well you tried to go chasing after one of the Exquisite Birds the other day, so you obviously need to learn why you shouldn’t be doing that shit.

     Okay, so. We’ll be talking about the Bat Man, but there’s a lotta other stuff we gotta talk about too, first. He didn’t just show up outta fucking nowhere, you know. Now settle down, thank our slumming Posh Boy over there for tonight’s food, and watch what your tongues wag cuz he’s recording all this shit.

     Alright. The Bat Man. Where the fuck did he come from? Why the hell is he here? Why do other cities get flying muscle-men in bright colors and we got a living shadow that breaks bones? Why the hell is our shithole of a city like this? Well sit back and listen a learning, cuz unfortunately it all ties together.

     Alright, so. The first thing we gotta make clear is that we don’t live in the first Gotham. We’re the second Gotham, the johnny-come-lately Gotham, the weird mirror shadow of the first Gotham. Not saying the other Gotham’s the “real” one and we’re some sort of fake, just that there are two Gotham’s and the one we live in aint the original.

     And an important side-note cuz I can see some of you squirming to ask and someone always asks here, I’m not talking about the False Gothams you sometimes see from between buildings or in the reflections of broken windows or stuff. [[2]] Those things aren’t real; they’re just illusions and traps, spun up by something that wants to lure you in with the promise of there being a version of the world where everything didn’t go to shit. It’s all lies. Most kids who go hunting after False Gothams never come back, but there’ve been a few who have, and they’ve got wild as shit stories to tell. But we’re not getting into all that tonight. Basic point is, you don’t get to The Other Gotham by going down weird alleyways. Nah, you just gotta go down.

[[2. Harris appears to be referring to Gotham’s ‘Mirage City’ phenomenon where heated air trapped in narrow gaps between skyscrapers can sometimes warp the light enough to appear to show an altered city skyline between them. The implications of the fact that this phenomenon is most often reported near sites of Justice League confirmed inter-dimensional fracture points is beyond the scope of this project and will just be noted as a point of further study for the reader.]]

     So the way it was told to me by the kids who knew shit back when I was among you all listening was like this: Gotham, that is to say, our Gotham, is The Black City, The Gotham Above. The Other Gotham, the original Gotham, is The White City, the Gotham Below, and it was here first. [[3]] The way it’s told, it’s not just the first Gotham, it’s the first city ever, built (or carved) out of the rock way back before people had figured out things like writing shit down instead of remembering it all, math, or how to build something more than two stories high.

[[3. There have been urban legends of an underground city that exists as a mirror of Gotham since the late 1600s, barely a decade or two after the city’s founding. The two main versions either say that it was some ancient city that sank beneath the swamp and bogs before the arrival of the Europeans, or that it’s an inverse mirror of Gotham that’s formed from all our wickedness and corruption. No evidence of either version of such a city has ever been officially recorded. It’s usually assumed that people who wrote of such things, especially in the earlier centuries, had stumbled upon some of the vast cave networks that extend beneath the breadth of greater Gotham and their stories of giant chambers with rock formations that rivaled the tallest buildings in size were misinterpreted.]]

     So you know those whacked out monsters and aliens and weird-dicked demon things you have the Justice League out there beating the ass of every other week? They had all that shit way back in pre-history times too, but they didn’t have any cavemen in capes and spandex to punch them in the face. And they were everywhere. Big creepy monsters, fucked up demons that crawled out of the earth or shadows or fires and might not actually be from Hell, but acted like such murderous shits you could see how humanity got the idea of Hell in the first place. You had twisting shadows that would infect people’s own shadows and turn them into evil twisted things like them. You had monsters that only existed as silent whispers that’d get in a guy’s brain and tell them all sorts of shit till they honestly believed that wearing other people’s skin and dancing under the moon was a totally normal and not at all fucked up thing to do. You look back at the earliest stories humans ever wrote down and you can see they were remembering all sorts of fucked up shit we don’t got around anymore. Or at least, didn’t have around anymore until recently. [[4]] And it’s because of The Other Gotham.

[[4. Like with many aspects of Gotham’s unhoused youth culture’s mythic cycle, the timeline of this all doesn’t line up with actual history except in the vaguest of sense. It is interesting to note however that Princess Diana of Themyscira’s speech about ‘The Return of the Mythic’ (end note (i)) has somehow gotten incorporated here, and in a way that almost perfectly aligns with with current historical consensus.]]

     So, the way we figure it must’ve happened was like this: Just because they didn’t have superheroes back then, it doesn’t mean they didn’t have magic. Like, we don’t got a lot of it now, but you can’t argue it doesn’t exist, and pretty much everyone agrees that there used to be a lot more of it way back when, whenever that when was. And that when was here. This is the Way Back When. So a bunch of the smartest most powerful magicals [[sic]] got together to try and figure out a way to get humanity on more of an even standing against all these fucking monsters and evil spirit shits everywhere, and what they came up with was the idea for a great big fuck-off prison for the lot of them.

     So they went and found the one place on the planet that had the most Fucked Up energy possible - guess where - and set to work carving it out deep underground. At the bottom of the biggest cavern there was under the three islands and surrounding swamps, they dug out a pit. Not a giant wide pit, but a long deep one. As deep down as they could dig with whatever magic and tools they had back then. And down there at the bottom, they carved out a great chamber in the rock and covered it with all the runes and magic writing and iron and silver and whatever the fuck else you need to keep giant millipedes that eat souls in check. Then, somehow - and if anyone knows how, it sure as shit aint gonna be us - they managed to lure or suck in or capture just about every evil nasty messed up thing on the planet and locked them down in it.

     You can tell when this happened if you know enough history cuz it would’ve taken place right before humanity got its collective shit together and started doing things like building cities and writing stuff down and everything else that they count as ‘civilization’ these days. [[5]] But like I said, none of the cities everyone topside were building was the first. The first city was built right here, under our feet. They started out by carving out the insides of the biggest stalag-whatevers hanging down from the cavern roofs to live in while they did the original work. Then, once they figured out how that sort of thing worked, they started building their own towers, hanging down from above where they could keep an eye on their monster prison. All spires and guardian statues and skyways and at the center of it all, a giant hole drilled straight to the middle of the whole fucking planet.

[[5. ‘The Great Binding’ and it’s coinciding with the beginnings of known civilization (end note (ii)) is one of the newest theories out of the field of metahistory. Notably, UC Berkley’s article on the subject referenced in the end notes came out seven weeks after this interview took place. And as a side note to the footnote, even proponents of The Great Binding have no concrete theory on where such a prison might’ve been placed. A giant pit right on the Eastern Seaboard seems incredibly unlikely, however.]]

     So yeah, the Gotham Below. Sure, it wasn’t being called Gotham way back then. Not sure they even would’ve given the place a name to begin with. If you’ve never had a city before, would you even think it was something that needed a name? Anyways, Gotham Below. And they didn’t have shit to burn down there, but they did have magic. So, as the story goes, they kept the place lit with magic instead of fire. And all that rock remained as white and untouched by soot and ash as they day it’d gotten carved out. So Gotham Below, the White City. And even with all their magic, those people still eventually got old and died, so it was their kids left watching over the great pit prison. Then they grew old and died, and it was their grandkids left watching. And so it went for centuries and centuries and centuries, for however long it took for humanity to start building cities, then for Europeans to develop to the point where the felt like being assholes, and then for them to decide to go fuck up the rest of the world, and then landing on these same islands and decide that this abandoned remote hellhole was the perfect place to build a brand new city cuz there weren’t enough of those yet or whatever.

     Now, this should be obvious, but you can’t keep a thousand million monsters and demons and evil alien ghosts all trapped in one spot and not have shit kinda bleed out over time. When those pilgrims showed up to start building shit here, shit got weird. Now, I haven’t read any of this myself, but the kid who told me all this did, and according to him, if you go back and read through the journals and writings of those guys responsible for building up Gotham originally, you can see that they were fucked in the head. They kept writing about dreams they’d be having, silent streets of gleaming white they’d walk through while they slept and how the visions of great towering spires and skyways and a billion fucking gargoyles filled their pages whenever they tried to draw up designs. [[6]] So that’s what they all wound up making, one bridge and building and road at a time. A perfect mirror of the City Below, but reaching up in the sky instead of down into the earth. Each stalagamitite tower hanging down in one had a tower reaching up in the other. And smack in the middle of original Old Gotham stood the tallest building of all, right over where the pit was drilled far far below. [[7]] The Clocktower aint the tallest building in Gotham anymore, but it used to be. And while the Gotham Below remained pure and gleaming white, up here they hadn’t even finished putting up the first medieval porta-potties before shit was stained with soot and ash and coal smoke and whale oil residue.

[[6. Harris overstates things, but the base assertion is correct here. The writings of Cyrus Pinkney are infamous for their frequent reference to ‘dark and shadowy dreams’ (end note (iii)) and his open acknowledgment of how much those dreams influenced his designs. Not to the extent described here, though.]]

[[7. The Great Gotham Tower. Known better these days as The Gotham Clocktower or just The Clocktower. It was placed at the center of Gotham as it existed in it’s original state, with the rest of Old Gotham laid out around it in expanding circles connected by thoroughfares at each of the eight cardinal directions.]]

     And that’s how we got to where we are: With the White City, Gotham Below, and the Black City, Gotham Above.

Now, you can’t go building an entire fucking city without the downstairs neighbors hearing the noise and poking their heads out to see what it’s all about. This is another case where you can find references across all that early writing stuff they keep in the libraries. People started seeing ghosts. I mean, they were calling them ghosts, but they really obvious weren’t. People up high, watching people below. They’d wear big white robes that looked like wings when they moved. They wore strange masks with big smoke-glass eyes. They moved through shadows like they were part of them, they could climb a building as easy as walking, and anyone who tried to climb up to one would either find them gone, or would next be seen falling off the tallest building in the neighborhood.

     As the history goes, the masks they wore looked vaguely birdlike. A specific type of bird. But it quickly became obvious that whoever these people were, they really didn’t like it when people called them… that specific bird species. So we don’t. Adults still do sometimes, but that’s because they’re fucking idiots. [[8]] If you need to talk about them, call them the White Birds. Or, even better- They’re vain, these White Birds. If you flatter them, they’re less likely to decide to kill you for talking about them at all. The term that tends to get used a lot these days is Exquisite. [[9]] Not sure who came up with it, but we’ve barely had any kids go missing since we started. Still, it’s best to wait until the middle of the day, and talk about them someplace out in the open where you can be sure no one’s lurking in any shadows.

[[8. Beware the eyes of owls

Who watch us all the time

From lofty perches up on high

To the deepest pits of grime.

They watch us as we work and play

They watch us in our bed

Speak not a whispered word of them

Least talons strike you dead.]]

[[9. “Exquisite” is recorded as being Gotham street-kid slang for ‘untrustworthy john/rich person/official’ in the early 1980s (end note (iv)). An article in The Gotham Gazette from 1954 quotes a homeless kid as saying “We all always knew you couldn’t trust him. He was a full Exquisite Bird type through’n’through. None of us is surprised they found all those bodies up’n’in his place.” (end note (v)), and a stylized EXQU was used as hobo code for a place that seemed nice but must be avoided at all costs along the mid-Atlantic coast during the 1930s. (end note (vi)).]]

     So throughout all of Gotham’s history, they’re just… there. Watching from up high in the shadows, the Exquisite Birds. If you see one, no you didn’t. If someone asks you about them, you don’t know what they’re talking about. They don’t like it when people admit they see them, and they’re as quick to slice open witnesses as any other two-bit gang.

     So that’s where shit stood for a few centuries. Then something happened. We really don’t know what, and no one who would is the sort who’d tell us, either. We just know what resulted. Grownups call it the Cataclysm, or the Big One. [[10]] One day, the earth just turned over in a giant earthquake, split open, and half of Gotham fell down. Then, suddenly, there were monsters. Monsters everywhere. Gotham had always been shit, but now you had people dressing up like insects and murdering people with giant roach traps, or gangsters turning from murdering assholes to mass-murdering assholes who’d torture you for five hours then pull out your eyeballs for their collection, or giant piles of toxic mud coming to life and eating people.

[[10. It goes without saying, but at this point, Harris’ version of events deviates radically from the known timeline. The first recorded footage of Batman was taken eight years before the Great Gotham Quake, with the first rumors of his existence being almost twelve years earlier. This condensing down of timelines and assuming all events from more than five years ago took place at around the same time is a known phenomenon with children-created mythic cycles. (end note (vii))]]

     It was chaos. Everything broke down, no one knew what was going on. The rest of the country looked at what was happening in Gotham and flipped out and shut it all down. They blew up the bridges, put mines in the rivers and blockaded the entire city to try and contain whatever the hell this all was. [[11]]

[[11. No Man’s Land did take place, but if it was because elements of the US government were concerned about an outbreak of mythical monsters in the city, that fact remains undocumented.]]

     Now, like I said, we don’t know how everything kicked off, but we know how it ended. Somehow, whether on accident or on purpose, someone broke open the prison buried deep under out feet. Not all the way; none of the truly giant world-ending shit has gotten out. But all those twisted shadows and invisible whispers and nasty spirt ghost fuckers? They slid out just fine. We don’t know if the earthquake cracked it, or if the cracking of it caused the earthquake. We don’t know if the Exquisite Birds did it on purpose, or why if they did. We don’t know if they didn’t stop it because they didn’t care, or they just couldn’t.

     End result, though? Chaos in Gotham and monsters killing and corrupting and twisting everyone they could get their semi-visible claws into. And the Exquisite Birds just sitting there up high, watching and doing jack shit about it.

     These days, we know what to do when shit like that goes down. We know how to feed wishes to the gargoyles and how to call out for the Bats and the Robins, but people back then, they didn’t know any of that. Hell, there wasn’t anything to pray to or to collect those wishes yet. So you had a whole city of people hoping and praying for something to come save them, and nothing for all that power and energy to ground itself in. And there was a whole lotta power in the air. That ancient magic prison had just busted open after all, so along with all the evil smoke demons and monsters and shit, you also had all that raw protective magic leaking out at the same time. And it got mixed up with all those unanswered wishes and pleads as it coiled up through the spires of a city that was the mirror of its own. And there, at the top of everything, it all found it’s lightning rod and grounded itself and WHAM! Just like that, everything changed.

     Now, I’ve seen the old photographs, from back when you got pictures of city skylines from giant blimps and stuff. And the resolution on them is never great, but you can see it all the same. Back when The Clocktower was the tallest building in the city, it had a big fuck-off gargoyle on top of it. Big swept back wings and these curved back horns, and hunched all over looking out towards the ocean for anything that might be sailing in to do harm.

     It’s not there anymore. Supposedly, it fell off during the Cataclysm, but I’ve never heard of no reports of it getting dug outta the rubble. [[12]] We know what really happened to it, though. All those wards on the monster prison had failed, all the watching guardians of Gotham Below had failed, and Gotham Above was filled with unanswered prayers. It all came together at the highest point of Old Gotham, and the Bat Man statue sitting there was imbued with both the power and the motive to protect us. All of us. Bam! Batman!

[[12. The Sentinel of Gotham was an actual statue that stood on top of Gotham Tower for over 150 years. It was an angel-winged figure standing ten feet tall with a sword at its side and a shield held facing out to the bay. It fell off the top of the Clocktower in 1967 along with a significant portion of the north-western corner. The damage would remain until the revitalization of Gotham at the end of No Man’s Land. What happened to the statue is unknown. It was recovered for restoration and assumed display in one of Gotham’s museums, but I can find no further word about it after 1968.]]

     I mean, we all know about the next parts, yeah? Lots of punching, lots of asskicking. Big giant monster with glowing eyes descending from above to kick the teeth in of anyone who’d given in to the whispering shadows, to the monsters wearing human skin, to the demons and their shadows and all the rest. And it was awesome.

     But the kids at the time, the kids like us, they had it rougher. I mean, the way it’s like today isn’t like it was back then. Batman’s been alive for a lot longer now; he’s had time to learn how to be a person and not just some sort of monster-fighting gargoyle. But you can still see it. He talks like most of his throat’s still rock, and he moves like it too. He’s got a punch that sends people through walls, and bullets only make him bleed when he remembers they should and they never keep him down for long. And he still doesn’t really get what it means to be a person, or how to deal with humans. Like, you can tell he tries, but he’s an ancient protective guardian powered by even more ancient vengeance magic and there’s only so much that can do. To the kids of those early days, he was even worse. He didn’t understand that they’d be hungry or lost or alone. He didn’t understand why something like him would be terrifying, and he didn’t get why sometimes you had to steal to eat and survive.

     So some of the smart kids of back then got together and worked out a plan. There was still a lot of that protection magic in the air from the prison getting busted wide open and they got the idea to try and channel it all, but on purpose this time.

((The wishes!!))

     Right, the wishes. This is when that started. They spread the word. When you needed something, when you’d lost something, when you needed someone to help, you would write down your wish and what and who you needed to fix it, and you’d feed it to a gargoyle. Wish by wish, paper scrap by paper scrap, we taught the gargoyles what sort of protector the city’s children needed. There were attempts to get kids to feed them all to one specific gargoyle or another, but it didn’t really work out, everyone just wound up stuffing them into whatever gargoyle they liked best, or was easiest to reach, or was safe to get to. Turns out, you don’t need to feed the wishes to any specific gargoyle, they all talk to each other. What you wish to one gets picked up by all the others. [[13]]

[[13. This tradition appears to have started a year or two after Robin first premiered. It’s unclear exactly how it originated, but it’s now city-wide knowledge, especially among the kids, that you can feed wishes to gargoyles if you want them to come true. Previous writers have compared this to wishing on a star and have suggested that it’s how Gotham’s youth have adjusted for the fact you can rarely see any stars to wish upon in the city. (end note (viii, ix)). ‘Wishes for Gargoyles’/’Wishing on a Gargoyle/Gargoyle Wishes’ is often used by older Gothamites – particularly parents, teachers, and other caregivers – to refer to young foolish wishes, but with a positive connotation (similar to the phrase ‘puppy love’ meaning young foolish love, but with a positive connotation). (end note (x)). And despite what some city officials have worried, there’s never been a need to invest in going around and clearing years of paper pulp out of gargoyles across the city. What exactly is happening to the wishes instead is unknown.]]

     And it worked, is the thing! It barely took a year before there was a second shape following behind the Bat at night. And it wasn’t like the Bat at all. It wasn’t a soot and ash-stained version of the Exquisite Birds, carved out of stone and one with the shadows. It was small, and bright, with the colors of Christmas, Halloween, and the circus all in one. He laughed and told jokes and understood the difference between kids who were crying because they were scared, or tired, or lost, or had just too much happen to them too soon. He knew how to talk to kids and how to help us. He stood between kids who just needed money to eat and the Bat Man’s strict ethics. We’d done it, we’d made a protector of our own. Warmer, more real, more human.

     Kind a little too human, it turns out. Robins aren’t eternal like the Bat is. Robins grow up and grow old. Robins can die. Turns out, Robins aren’t made by a gargoyle coming to life like the Bat Man did. It’s more like, the gargoyles sort of push out the essence of all those stored wishes into a form that’s shaped after themselves, but made of our wishes and hopes and needs instead of just stone and rock. We don’t even know exactly which statues most of them came from.

     We know the Second Robin’s gargoyle. But we’re Crime Alley kids, so of course we know. He went back to it whenever he needed to rest and heal. There are kids who still climb up there to tend to it and feed it offerings. We’re never gonna get Our Robin back, but it doesn’t feel right to let his gargoyle sit abandoned. And there are some kids who think, or hope, that if we can feed it enough wishes and offerings and positive vibes, maybe someday Crime Alley’s Robin will be able to reform to protect us again.

     Until that happens, though, we keep feeding wishes to all the others. The first Robin evolved into Nightwing and became the protector guardian of Bludhaven. Kids who were smarter than me figure it’s because that protective magic is still leaking out of the broken prison and spreading out like a fog. It’s spread far enough out that it can feed them the next city over. Which means they also have those invisible whispers and corruptive shadows and all the rest, which, if you’ve ever talked to a kid from there, you know they absolutely do.

     The Uptown Robin dyed himself Red and moved in closer to us here in the Alley. Personally, I figure it’s because he’s been getting all those wishes and offerings we’ve been giving to Second Robin’s gargoyle. It’s sort of merging the two of them a little. Hell, if it wasn’t for that Red Hood guy showing up, he probably would’ve become the Crime Alley guardian fully by now. I always kinda wondered if the Uptown kids have a gargoyle they keep up like we do ours, they just don’t tell anyone about it. I mean, we scarcely do. We sure as hell don’t tell anyone who doesn’t need to know where it is, that’s for damn sure. [[14]]

[[14. I only asked after the second Robin’s gargoyle’s location once. When I told that information wasn’t shared, I didn’t peruse it any further. All the extra glaring here was just really unnecessary.]]

     Oh shit, good question, yeah, no, the Bat Girls totally come from the same place. Why some go by one and others go by the other is beyond me. There’ve been girl Robins, and it wouldn’t surprise me if there’ve been guy Batgirls. I think it’s because Gotham’s kids feed so many wishes into the system? There’s a lot of need out here, and so Gotham keeps birthing out new protectors for us. For awhile, I thought it was just a case of there were usually two ‘new’ ones at any given time, so one would get called Robin and the other would get called Bat Girl, but then we had two Bat Girls for awhile, and then Red Robin went back to being Robin while the other Robin was also Robin, but then they kept changing names, and…

     Look, I’m sure there are kids out there who have a better grasp on this stuff than I do. I just know where they come from, not what sort of weird rooftop pack/hive dynamics they got going on these days, you know?

     So, couple of other points before we close this all up. First, on the nature of wishes. I know it’s real cathar- ceth-. Fuck. Real good feeling to wish death by a thousand cuts on those fuckers who beat you up and stole all your food, or wish that the dad who beat you has his arms chopped off and whatever, but we’re all, all of us kids, city-wide, we’re really pushing that everyone cut down on the violence level of the wishes. The latest Robin we got came out with a sword. He’s straight up merc’ed a few guys too, and it didn’t work out as well as it feels like it should. We don’t want the next one to be even worse. Robin is supposed to be our protector, not our vengeance.

     If you want someone to wind up stabbed, you learn how to use a knife and take care of that shit yourself.

     We’re pretty sure the one extra invisible Bat Girl was formed out of the Bat’s shadow. She doesn’t talk much because they have to share the same voice, and she’s usually happy to let him use it, but this way the Bat’s able to properly Bat at two different places in the city at once. So she’s like the born wish of a born wish. It’s no wonder she’s so slippery and invisible half the time. Unless she’s actively punching something, she barely physically exists at all.

     And no, no one’s exactly sure what’s up with Signal. I mean, yeah, obviously he was formed out of the Bat Signal. Skin’s the same color as the metal, outfit’s the same color as the light, and he actually shines and glows and all the rest. And he says he’s The Signal. This is like obvious base level shit.

     We just don’t know who’s wishes he was born from. I mean, it’s possible that somehow the Bat Signal’s gotten tied into the gargoyle network, but that seems kinda implausible to me. Some have said maybe he was born out of the wishes of the police for Batman to show up and help out during the day for fucking once, but he’s way less violent and murdery than you’d expect from something born out of cop wishes.

     Buddy of mine who’s pretty damn smart and is usually better at these things than me thinks Signal might’ve been born from the police commissioner’s wishes specifically. Which kinda makes sense. He’s like the one cop who actually gets upset when someone gets shot twenty times in the back for no reason, and he’s always the one turning on the Bat-Signal and talking to the Bat under it for years and years and years.

     Kid I knew a year back actually managed to ask Signal who’s wishes he was born out of, but Signal just laughed and said something along the lines of “Doesn’t really matter who wished for me. What matters is they wished for everyone to be safe, so that’s what we’re here to do.” Then he blasted apart these giant shadow-bat things with bat-light beams and it was awesome.

     So yeah. That’s where Batman and the Robins and the Bat Girls and all the rest came from, and why they do what they do. Give thanks to Poshkid for the food, remember to put out your fires before you sleep, and if anyone wants to talk about the EBs, track me down tomorrow and we’ll go hang out in Leeds’ Park around noon so we can be sure nothing’s listening in.

[foreverisntenough]

https://x.com/footy_road/status/1891878107734327319?s=46&t=cTewoY6LDkdOqH08xLfUYg

why would they say it like that 😭

Can I be so real right now and say something mildly parasocial? I see a flicker of sadness. He coughs a bit which isn't normally a part of his vocal disfluencies.

Also, I saw this float around twitter yesterday, just want to clarify that the interview was posted two months ago... So mid-December time, and probably filmed a bit before that.

I think he was doing mental maths thinking how can I carve my name into this club another way and then he falls back into his normal cheek. But frankly, I think it's really sad.

If you want a rant... you're in for a treat...

I have a lot of thoughts about his contract specifically I can share but in short, I think it's been mismanaged from both sides. That said, besides that, so many people continually attack him for his lack of media presence as we get closer to the summer and I've criticized him at times too. But in reality, he's done interviews, he has. Case in point this video circulating now. I made a post about why does he even do work with brands if it's not promoted, this is the same. He does so much and yet it's NEVER covered unless it's something headline worthy like the ballon d'or answer he gave.

He even does pre and post match interviews if you tune into LFC, but people say he hasn't. All his interviews have just been in highly controlled environments. Written word only sometimes.

I truly believe these interviews hurt him, that it's is painful to do.

You can say I'm reading into it and that's fine but you cannot pull up an interview of his from 2021 and tell me that that person and this one have the same spirit. And I say spirit, not attitude. He’s always been laidback so I don’t buy the whole "he doesn't care anymore." No, he genuinely looks sad to me and it's a byproduct of what has transpired not on the pitch, but off it, where he has the least control....

His career has been so mismanaged, and while yes, he is at fault partially, he also isn't the professional in the media field. It must actually pain him that everyone throws stats at him and yet still creates a narrative that it's not enough. And as someone who is so competitive like Trent, so eager for acceptance, approval, and accolades, it must kill him. They drag him in the media anyway, no matter the numbers. If you look at some stats now, it's closer to 90 now for Liverpool but people on twitter or even as legit sources as BBC say "well he doesn't do interviews and won't sign so he's greedy and leaving his boyhood club to go to Madrid." The 90 contributions don't matter. It's not enough. The narrative shouldn't be him leaving his boyhood club.... Yes, that part is heartbreaking but it's also circumstantially WHY. It's the fact that an ENGLISH footballer has been exploited to the point where his own club won't even pay what he merits after winning everything for them so his hands been pushed to move to Spain. Any shouts for the FA? Because loosing yet another home grown talent to another league is mental.

And the criticism is only going to get worse for Trent when he leaves unfortunately... I don't know if you've seen the other trending video this week of some Madrid fans saying Trent is "only known for one corner, the rest had been bad defending, fluke free kicks and he's overrated." Liverpool fans now saying "they don't need him, after winning the lot for the city, Bradley is better anyway."

With this type of things happening to him for years, I raise this- For example sake, when Jude came out and said he stopped doing press when the media was bothering, hurting his family, is this any different? Not really. Because the media is hurting HIM. And not only does the gp of the internet but the likes of Sky Sports tear into him every weekend and pile on tenfold on their podcasts and then expect him to show face when even his own club won't help him... Why would he subject himself to that?

I'm at a loss honestly....

He's an individual but he's also an individual a part of a club, a team, an agency, a country's association that I think do a very poor job at supporting him, backing him, and honestly, I rarely have seen anyone ever come to protect him besides Klopp. In fact, more often than not, they shove him in front of the cameras when things get shit and it's actually jarring. This Euros was one of the few times I've seen another England player, bar LFC boys, compliment Trent on something other than just passing, but rather as a player and a total package, a value and asset to the team- thanks bestie Jude. But it shouldn't have taken 8 years of his career to get that. Like after that penalty... if that wasn't the most blatant "I don't give a fuck, let me protect phil foden." decision I don't know what was.

This interview is heart wrenching. You're telling me, a man that has won it all, most assist for a prem deffender EVER, not only was played out of position, has been easily passed in caps by someone 5 years his junior, only had his immediate family and a 21 year old to confide in that to and find support in... Like his manager relishing in the glory of deploying Trent as a midfielder to create buzz and hook him, and use him and it as a distraction for yet another tournament he'd fuck up says to Trent "you're on, and you're going fifth" for penalties and Trent's talking about manifestation?... NO, hun, you're getting fucked over!

My biases aside, end of the day, I often worry about footballer's mental health. Trent, I think is an oddity that has managed this abnormally well all things considered. In reality, if he didn't have the silverware, I think he would've gotten spat back out. And I say that not to dismiss his talent or hard work but simply because of the sheer agenda against him from the jump.

I think of his England career and wonder if the likes of SG had no choice other than putting him in the squad because how would it look for the England team to not include a player who was in 'The English PFA Team of the Year' the year leading into that world cup? Bad. And yet, someone regarded as the best in the league, was never utilized. Instead we watched him get torched in the media with interrogation type interviews and sent to be in Qatar for two months only to play 30 minutes of football. Like that is so mental to me.

I've heard the likes of Gary Neville say "oh if he played for another country he'd be so valued..." that is the most disrespectful thing to me because he doesn't play for another country. He plays for his country and for a club in that country and is at the top of record books in England and in the world and they still go after him. I know I talk about salaries facetiously sometimes but no money, no lifestyle or holidays makes this mildly comfortable mentally to live with that being said about you. It just doesn't.

Personally, that is what I think triggered the shift. I made a post the other day making light of it because yes, he was looking mighty good ahead of and after the WC, but frankly, they destroyed him. There is so much content out there pre world cup of Trent talking about ambitions, even down to things like discussing fashion, music and hair, and then we flash to now... he looks scared on camera half the time. His environment and “support systems” passively devalued him and the only way he can try to get a handle on what's said now is to try to be the one controlling the narrative because he makes headlines when he breaths. It's the only option, good or bad, done well or the way he does it now, it wouldn't matter.

He didn't have a fall off like Marcus has had, but he also hasn't had the limelight the way someone like Jude has been having. He is text book damned it you do, damned if you don't. And I bet that eats at him to be threatened so greatly by your own self... when every bone in your body is full of self belief, confidence, and competitiveness and yet the very system you want to thrive in dismantles your efforts.

There are many points I didn't cover in a discussion like this and I didn't touch on maybe some of his faults and things like ego and regrets and their involvement but as an empathetic person, who really cares for this player, I just wanted to cover what I felt like has created such a sad situation in my opinion.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

As you may have noticed, I'm big on the benefit of the doubt, aka there's more truth and knowledge in knowing you don't know than pretending you do. The pundits pretending to be neurologists with a specialty in gerontology that qualifies them to condemn Biden's brain don't actually have either the expertise or the evidence to reach the conclusions they are airing. They're in a sort of mass-hysteria bandwagon to sabotage the current alternative to Trump, which is as dangerous as it is familiar from the 2016 election.

Meanwhile fascism is staring us in the face (in the person of a man so dim he keeps boasting he did well on the kind of cognitive test given when they're actually worried about your brain: in 2020 "President Trump again sought to showcase his mental fitness on television by reciting, over and over again in an interview broadcast on Wednesday evening, what he said was a sample cognitive testing sequence." That was the “Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV" business).

The New York Times, which has been running a concerted campaign in both news and opinion sections since at least February to convince the public that Biden is incompetent, has led the way. This is not my argument that Biden is the best candidate though he's certainly the best-placed candidate in that it's not so easy to get a new one up and running at this stage.

It's my argument that a whole lot of high-profile (mostly) men are suffering from too much faith in their own belief in their superior objectivity and cool rationality. Which is is too often why they're exceptionally unaware of the feelings/motives driving them and why they're jumping on the bandwagon. They seem to suffer from a particular kind of memory impairment: how with the same strategies, they (and, yeah, it's some of the same pundits) helped undermine the candidate running against the fascist eight years ago, led by the same newspaper.

I have come across several people who are in fact qualified in the relevant areas, and their opinions and some of the criteria for those opinions follow. A number of actual experts piped up to say that Biden's lifelong stuttering disability often has a little-known related symptom called cluttering, which I hadn't heard of. They thought it could explain some of his debate performance: "Cluttering is a speech disorder characterized by rapid or irregular speaking consisting of atypical pauses, repetitions, and disfluencies resulting in a breakdown in speech clarity and organization. In contrast, stuttering is a speech disorder characterized by the repetition of sounds or words and disruptions in the flow of speech." Some of the speech experts note that in such a situation, trying to manage a speech impediment consumes some of the mental energy that would otherwise be focused on formulating thoughts.

Meanwhile, there was an essay this spring by an actual gerontologist in the L.A. Times who says that Biden shows normal signs of aging. Dr. Stone writes: "First, memory. I explain to patients that there are three components to consider. One is formation. Then storage. And, finally, recall. The most common issue among seniors is slow recall. This is the familiar “tip of the tongue” phenomenon, when a word seems to hide or a name won’t come to mind. You know the name, it’s in your bank of memories, it just can’t be accessed quickly. Given time, it usually arrives. This problem, called age-associated memory impairment, often starts for people in their 30s and gradually progresses. It’s a nuisance but not disabling. If, like me, you find yourself using the term “whatchamacallit,” you probably have it. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine." https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-03-07/joe-biden-age-memory-alzheimers-cognition

Two other medical experts on aging (bios below) wrote this piece:

There is no clinical evidence for cognitive decline in President Biden — despite armchair gerontologists declaring otherwise. It may be tempting to conclude that such evidence does not exist because an extensive battery of diagnostic assessments of cognitive functioning has not been ordered (to our knowledge) by his personal physician, and if done, something significant might be revealed. But presidents are evaluated by their physicians just like everyone else — cognitive functioning tests are not done unless the physician suspects a problem or if requested by the patient. Even then, a screening test of cognitive function is done first, followed by other more in-depth diagnostic assessments if the screen shows a worrisome score. Since Biden’s personal physician seems not to have felt cognitive screening testing was medically indicated, this represents evidence that such issues are unlikely to be present consistent with his family history of dementia-free longevity. It is also common to mistake Biden’s lifelong speech impediment for cognitive decline, his cough for an inability to speak clearly, his changed gait for a man in significant decline, an occasional misstatement as a sign of mental decay, etc. Each of us bears our own challenges with age — this is not a reason to dismiss and discard. It’s a recognition that along with the privilege of long life, come changes that require adaptation. We see them in Biden because he’s under a 24/7 spotlight. Place the same bright light of the media on any of the rest of us — at any age — and few would survive the scrutiny without a similar negative profile.

Dr. Bradley Willcox, M.D., MSc, FGSA, is a professor and director of research at the Department of Geriatric Medicine, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawai‘i Mānoa.

S. Jay Olshansky, Ph.D., is a professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, [and] a research associate at the Center on Aging at the University of Chicago.

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/4391046-is-joe-biden-a-superager-were-asking-all-the-wrong-questions/

(Rebecca Solnit)

[marcosoropoet]

cracked mirror express

1.

evocative

provisional

ephemeral 

super eight mm

autuer  

backyard 

horror show

sibling spoof 

change 

of

dimensions

& iterations

zero blank

black & white 

advertisements

smiling

brightly

diamond teeth

aerial earth

street tableau

punch thru

silvery ice 

shattering metal

mirror glass

structure 

vivifies

razor

sharp

focus

in the street

loudly

over the phone 

sequential

retro replica 

insignia

transmissions 

spatial

disorientation 

verbal disfluency

the earth is far from us now:

glassy

in the spiral silver sky 

what was so far off 

is now very close

traffic cop waved

at a glass storefront 

flash of earth 

mottled sapphire

coalesced in

loud heavy

rush hour

traffic & rain

heard in the

background

freefalling static

of

radioing voice

thunder collides

with crystalline ice 

web

splintering mirror

slices thru fog

thrum frisson 

point zero x

sub quantum

microcosm

is deflecting

soft phased in

fog spillover

inky mimeograph 

radar 

of atmospheric nascent 

star emission

in that roped off area

where thought reversal        

refracts scratched movie      

iteration subtext

holographic meme fractal 

expanding 

in neo organic palette

its just us now talking

theres nothing here 

nods

besides no one else 

recording continues

sunlight world borderless unhid coherent

convenient unceasing

white light immerses us

retrieving info z gusts

quickly brush away soot

& ash

sky divers falling

in faux flames

astronauts 

silhouttes walk 

taut silent

tightrope

lunges down stretched

out plastic         

primed to accelerate 

steeply

at the precipice      

primordial grip of                   

ancient galaxies made        

their legs lighter & rubbery

...event horizon pulled &                                   stretched 

them out like         

putty

afterwards they had  

space coffee & a

laugh

in black matter edges

of extraterrestrial night

over blossoming

neon day glo haywire 

street festival

vibe heavy crowd

rotund soap shaped 

cubist women throwing

over sized

plastic dice at the wall

the sun sets in purple

& a gold falling away

of cracked blood cirrus spatter 

o first lights red bird you are a true beauty

dark

rose

tattoo

flung oblong eclipsing sideways to

running zebra leopard

& tiger slashing

deep burning crimson

the atmosphere is 

quietly my own

minus moons

stone opal fires prisms 

moonstone 

calligraphy

i can think clearly 

again the ancient 

burning blue opal

suspended 

in a galaxy of glass

exponential fractal tactile

slow sunshine spotlight 

nano collision

flashing auras of outer 

spatial slow motion 

frozen tunnel monolithic

sideways moon stare

neon green slush

rushing black clouds

copper tea fog sepia 

burnt out time fabric

neighborhood always seems 

heavy with clouds & old houses

frost fractured thunder

strikes the luminous ice

jagged glass spray                

erupts fathomless

the first tree was hard to 

yank out 

upward cranking claw

let loose heavy tree roots viscerally tingling in mid air

2.

hazy single yellow 

lightbulb smile

goes on & off 

from across the 

sliding street 

planet neon sign

irradiating in a 

vacillating shell of 

unfolding black matter 

crystal grid specks

meta impact

skirmish

collision

flashing

space

slow

out motion

of

sideways moons

glow in an aura

more photographs                phosphorescent behind the unoccupied train yards

in the dark blue 

of gaussian night 

aroma bitter atmosphere 

burnt out off the ground 

off the sky superimposed 

the singular rainfall 

pattering when i first woke 

scattering leaves clear unstill

& lift my head up off the mossy ground to signal a single frame of pristine

black & white cinéma vérité that transfixed

a subculture of ultimate public freakout compilations

3.

moonlight sonata is

playing from

the painters window 

outside the 

harsh blare & traffic is iron & crystal loud horn ruse...

[dissociacrip]

i've only ever personally seen this concept addressed in a fanfic lmao + i only have mild speech problems at worst (mostly articulation errors and sometimes disfluency that are likely linked to auDHD and hypotonia that are chronic but not majorly persistent that i would consider myself to have a speech impediment per-se - this is not including how my speech becomes slurred when i'm upright for too long due to POTS) and also the type of ADHD impulse control where i cut people off w/o really being aware of it, but if you're someone who has the mental and physical faculties to not cut someone off in the middle of talking if they have speech problems due to impatience or w/e, then please Do Not.

some people may have differing feelings on this from me but it i'm having trouble physically speaking and someone just cuts me off or tries to finish my sentence for me it's can be pretty demoralizing/disrespectful/humiliating even if it's not meant that way and i think it's good to avoid as a general rule unless somebody tells you otherwise irt their personal situation w/ their speech problems.

[disabledstraydogs]

hiiii! may i request, if possible higuchi with tourette's or jun'ichirou with a stutter/disfluency? also, LOVE your ts kenji!!! thank you for that <333

In the q, will be posted Wednesday

I'm glad you enjoy the Kenji headcanon :D Higuchi's has been ques as well. However for future reference please read the blacklist- We won't do requests for Jun'ichirou due to personal reasons.