There are no "disabled" people, but there ARE people with disabilities. The only people who are "disabled" are dead. Even the most severe disability leaves us with the ability to do *something*.

I keep seeing signs that say "Minors not allowed". It must suck to work in a coal mine. You can't even buy cigarettes!

There must be some weird "Donny Osmond" cloud hanging over me, because he keeps showing up:

• He's the dancer in the background of Weird Al's "White and Nerdy" video
• He was featured in "Mix" magazine--turns out he's quite an accomplished audio engineer
• He showed up in your blog

Strange, indeed.

NWJR, you're right, of course. The sign on the bus may have said "disabled" or may have said "those with disabilities", I'm not sure. But the girl who said the ditsy thing definitely said "the disabled".

It sure is nice to know I'm right up there with Mix and Weird Al. I've hit the big time!

My folks took me to my first concert when I was maybe 8 or 9: The Osmonds (and the first concert I took MYSELF to was Judas Priest). Yes, we are dating ourselves ;-)

When I was TAing last year, I found that most of my cultural references went nowhere. It pissed me off to no end. Especially when the topic was, say, the history of the Canadian record industry, and most students hadn't heard of Gordon Lightfoot, let alone the Parachute Club or Martha and the Muffins. They just thought I was old and weird. (Which I kind of am... ;)

I hate to nitppick, but I must take issue with NWJR's comment. The term disabled is gramatically correct. The Merriam-Webster OnLine dictionary defines Disabled as: - incapacitated by illness, injury, or wounds; broadly : physically or mentally impaired. Thus, even if disabled persons are still able to do "something",it's nice if they don't have to hobble to the back of the bus. (I will not go into whether the term is PC.)

Also, minor is an underage person, miner is a person who works in a mine.

Martha and the Muffins! Echo Beach! Far away in time! Oh, thank you, alison.

I will never forget the day I saw Vanessa Redgrave shopping at Coliseum Books. When I returned to the office, all excited and itching to brag on my celebrity sighting, only to discover that all of the salespeople were at lunch, and the only people in the office were all the 20-year-olds, who had no idea who Vanessa Redgrave was. I felt older than God at that moment, and that was almost ten years ago. Feh.

[overheard at uconn]

girl1: was this the boy who hypnotized you?

girl2: no, that was josh.

girl1: but he's josh?

girl2: the other josh.

girl1: the one who hynotized you?

girl2: the other one.

girl1: josh?

[ad inf]

Judith: I get your point, really I do. And I'm about the least PC person you'd ever know. But words are important, and the "disabled" label is just that--a label. A disability is something you have, not something you are.

dictionary.com has this to say:

"The often-repeated recommendation to put the person before the disability would favor persons with disabilities over disabled persons and person with paraplegia over paraplegic. Such expressions are said to focus on the individual rather than on the particular functional limitation. Respect for the preferences of this group calls for observing this rule, especially in formal contexts, but the “person-first” construction has not found wide acceptance with the general public, perhaps because it sounds somewhat unnatural or possibly because in English the last word in a phrase tends to have the greatest weight, thus undercutting the intended purpose."

Very true, that. Still, I find it interesting that we use words like "Autistic" to describe a person with autism, yet we don't call someone with cancer "cancerous".

I prefer to use the "person first" language whenever possible. That's all I was trying to say--no offense intended or taken.

Oh, and the "miner/minor" thing was meant to be a joke. I can't believe that wasn't understood.

:-)

(Jodi: Sorry for hijacking your comments section...)

I may not know Gordon Lightfoot but, um, Jimmy Carter is alive and well...

Ha! Yeah, UGA buses have always been a ripe spot to overhear conversations to make you feel really smart and really scared for the future of the world. I know smart people (or at least non-idiots) must ride the bus too, but somehow their conversations don't carry.