Monthly Archives: March 2017

Lately I’ve been looking at NPSs, which is special-needs-parents-speak for Non-Public-Schools. For some reason, it’s better to say “non-public” than “private,” because the latter implies something that might not fit the needs of a kid like Dar. One does not simply walk into an NPS. One calls first and makes an appointment, sometimes more than a month in advance. There’s at least one NPS in Berkeley where I’m considering walking up and ringing the doorbell, because no one answers its […]

Get Out is the first great movie of the Trump Era. I’m sure it didn’t mean to be. If Hillary Clinton had been elected president, Get Out still would have been a great film. Perhaps critics living under President Hillary might have taken deeper dives into the film’s apparent challenging of “well meaning liberals” as represented by – well, most of the film’s white people. MAJOR SPOILERS Actually, most critics don’t connect the film to Clinton or Trump. However, I’m […]

INSERT: HISTORICAL TIMELINE OF MARS 1877: Asaph Hall discovers, names Phobos and Deimos 1957: Sputnik becomes first manmade object in space, from Soviet Union 1969: Apollo 11 carries first men to surface of extraterrestrial object, from USA 1971: Mars 2 becomes first manmade object on Mars, from Soviet Union 2000: Iceland builds first machines harnessing geo-thermal power 2020: Private space travel begins, led by Richard Branson and others 2020s: Corporations move to private islands in international waters 2030: Hotel Hyperion […]

I don’t have much to say this week. Dar does. When I call him non-verbal, I wonder if there are parents out there thinking, “Oh, God, I wish my kid was non-verbal. Ten minutes of peace and quiet would be freaking great.” Yeah, that isn’t what’s happening over here in Chez Smith-Rowsey. Closer to the worst of both worlds. He can’t talk, but he also can’t stop verbalizing, and loudly. His voice-hole babbles and rambles nonsensically. You might say there […]

But it is planned. Thanks for patience, loyal readers.