Monthly Archives: November 2017

Two days ago I got a call from the office of a doctor that Dar’s general physician had referred us to. The calm-voiced lady on the other end said, “We received your intake forms. Dr. E______ believes that the school needs to provide much more support for Dar.” “Oh, okay, well, thanks for that. How soon can we see the doctor?” “Well, we would like to refer you to another doctor.” “Uhhh…” “Dr. E______ doesn’t really see kids like yours…” […]

Politico’s headline on November 7 said it all: “The Democratic Circular Firing Squad Dodges a Bullet.” After resounding wins in Virginia, New Jersey, and elsewhere, Democrats proved that their perpetual in-fighting wasn’t necessarily a recipe for electoral defeat. Or did they? Within hours of the November 7 elections, the national press, as it must always do, put a face on the story, and that face was…not the white cisgender straight male face belonging to the new governor of Virginia, or, […]

Grateful for all the ways in which Dar’s autism could be worse. He could be screaming more than he is. He could be hitting himself more than he is. He could be more generally violent to others. He could refuse to show any affection at all to his mother and me. When I see autistic people on TV, I often think, “I’d trade Dar with this verbal, aware, Raymond Babbitt-like person in a heartbeat.” But…there is worse, so I’m grateful. Grateful to […]

I have been meaning to write a post-IEP-mortem. We and his school team agreed to meet again in December; I’ll have more then. Right now, the most important thing to report is his new Behavior Intervention Plan. I’m happy with this; my only question is why didn’t we have this before? I think one answer is that we DID have it before, at least informally. But the formal is good, because it means they’re taking his tantrums more seriously. I consider that pivot a […]

Our memory of Kevin (reprobate) Spacey’s career deserves better. Not the person, but the career. When Louis C.K.’s career ended because of accusations of sordid behavior, several major writers rushed to memorialize him – hurried to tell us what Louis C.K. meant. Caveats and qualifiers were in full effect, but there was a heartfelt sincerity to the Louis C.K. requiems. Kevin (asshole) Spacey’s career ended the week before C.K.’s because of some other accusations of sordid behavior. Why hasn’t Spacey’s career […]

SIX MONTHS LATER Prime Minister Norine Maciel sipped her red wine. A lovely vintage. Whatever else you wanted to say about Mars’ weather, the prolonged seasons helped the vino. Pablo had escorted Julia and the grandkids into the little temple, leaving Norine alone at the picnic blanket. Unless you counted the little Mars ants. Actually, Norine didn’t find ants as strange as looking at foods without McPepsanto logos, or any logos at all. Martina’s birthday was next week, but Norine […]

The following story takes place on Sunday, November 5, 2017, at 5:00am. It also takes place on Monday, November 6, at the same time. And on Tuesday, November 7. And today, Wednesday. I knew we’d have a problem with Daylight Savings Time. I just didn’t know how big a problem. 5am rolls around and Dar wakes up. Despite years of attempts at conditioning, he gets loud. Real loud. We can lock him in his room but we can’t keep him from […]

    This week marks at least three significant anniversaries of world history: the quincentennial of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the door of a German church, the centennial of the Bolshevik Revolution, and the one-year anniversary of the election to the U.S. Presidency of Donald Trump. Despite the calendar confluence, I haven’t seen writers discussing these three epochal events together. I’d argue that they have crucial aspects in common, and that we glean insights by seeing the current […]

Julia was reeling in and out of consciousness. Images flashed: Kenyatta, Mom, sims training, Martina, Aquinas, Godfrey, Olympus Mons, the mothership…Mom. Never surrender. Julia had to fight back. Had to. Whether it made sense or not, she couldn’t die on her knees. Or on her back. She began resisting, pushing, shoving…but then found she couldn’t move. She was frozen in place. The New Dagrebians were still pushing to pummel her. Jībā. No. “Back off!” Julia heard someone say from beyond […]

After a combined 13 years as a parent, this was pretty much my first Halloween. By “combined 13,” I mean that I have an 8-year-old and a 5-year-old. And by “first Halloween,” I mean this was the first time that I did what I picture parents of “normal” kids doing. By the way, Halloween has long been my favorite holiday, I think mostly because I love the idea of identity fluidity, of putting on masks, of excuses to look at […]