Myron Uhlberg's memoir of growing up with deaf parents, Hands of My Father, has already attracted a lot of attention in the mainstream press for its depiction of how much responsibility young Myron assumed, acting as his father's interpreter from about the age of six...he doesn't mention doing this in quite the same way for his mother...maybe the neighbor women were more patient at accepting handwritten notes or maybe she was content to allow her husband to be the public face of her family in the world...it's hard for a frustrated wannabe egomaniac like myself to believe there were ever women that domestically inclined, but that's material for another book. It is hard to believe that only within one person's lifetime, there was no closed-captioning and no way for ordinary folks to get sign-language interpretation, even when their seizing second child needs a doctor.

My remote died the other day, a loss which I realize would not generally occasion the tone that my fake boyfriend Keith Olbermann might use to eulogize fixture of Negro League baseball Buck O' Neill or anything like that. It bugs me though, because I'm feeling kind of helpless this week and like my plans tend to count for nothing, and it's hard enough to cope with the fact that my idea of excitement in the bedroom is knowing that King of The Hill is on Adult Swim at eleven. If I were able-bodied, I'd like to think I'd hardly notice, and the truth is, if I got magically cured today, I probably wouldn't for a day or two, just because I'd be standing up and sitting down randomly(Because it's there!) or running gratuitous showers

With all the talk about Downs Syndrome in the news lately, it made me think about a book that has been hanging around our house for months. Despite watching a well-acted but ultimately disappointing "Lifetime" movie adaptation, I strongly recommend this book.

Though The Memory Keeper's Daughter is a work of fiction, it is immediately apparent that Ms. Edwards has done a lot of research among people with Down's Syndrome and their loved ones to bring her vision to life, and it's in the little details with which she excels.