nearly ninety

jane jacobs has died! order of canada recipient, bespeckled brat against expressways, heroine of bicyclists and city-centre-lovers everywhere...

i missed making a note of how my heart clenched when betty friedan died in february, but i will not miss this chance to champion a great american thinker for her inspired and on-fire writings. ms jacobs was an expert in so many subjects, it is indeed a dark age ahead we face without her broad and common sense.

lapping up lapper

the spidering pre-proposal dissertation Lost episode of my life is on...and from the stream-of-consciousness wikipediaing of my connective tissue interests in birth defects, dangerous drugs, and the twin cover-ups of risk (thalidomide, anyone?) and then the risked (i.e. the disabled), i came across this beautiful self-portrait of allison lapper, a brit with phocomelia and one hell of a sense of humour. she is not actually a thalidomide baby (she had a congenital disorder). but like a number of thalidomide rock stars (tony melendez, thomas quastroff), she is swimming against the disturbing undercurrent of phocophobia lurking in our memories of health agency failure and contemporary pharmaceutical risk management programs. the deformed, PERFORMING. check her out: allisonlapper.com