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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 12 of 12. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by medlib on January 24, 2002, at 14:31:04
Hi Judy--
I very much enjoyed your reply on PB! Lest this post lead you to imagine that I've suddenly reacquired a short-term memory, I printed your message before making the journey.
I haven't piloted a plane in a long time (not since the skies got crowded and I got poor), but last night I seem to have gone "up" without benefit of license *or* plane. Tonight I seem to be "down", but not yet out; that is, I'm "grounded", but still punning. It may take a couple of days before I subside into basic morosity again. How typically atypical that my version of hypomania (and my notion of "fun") is a cloud of inchoate verbosity.
Am I a "word nut"? Oh, yeah. With me, it's just a matter of how nutty now. I blame it on my mother, who did the NY Times crossword every morning and played demon Scrabble. I'm not a dictionary devotee, tho, just a skilled context reader. That's her fault, too. Whenever I asked her what a word meant, she'd say, "Let me look it up for you" and beetle off to her 2 volume set, which was too heavy for me to lift off the shelf had I wanted to--which I didn't. She was utterly incapable of explaining *anything*. By the time she produced the official definition, I was several pages away from the word in question and felt interrupted by her input. I learned quickly not to ask--just to approximate or infer and move on. 3 years of Latin in school helped a whole bunch, too. (I never really understood why Latin "died." It isn't any more awkward-sounding than German or Russian. I finally surmised that it must have proved too limited to grow--too much symmetry and order [which, of course, is why I liked it]). I will admit to having a couple of dictionaries on my browser hot links list (to check my understanding of words before I confuse others).
BTW, why couldn't your son major in words? OED is still going strong, or he could write a newspaper column answering reader questions on the derivations of phrases or words. Our local newspaper had one; on second thought, I'm not sure newspapers aren't terminal. Or, he could take a giant leap into linguistics; that's been a hot topic since Lucy the Chimp learned to sign. And in academia, it's possible to rediscover the obvious almost infinitely if your vocabulary is large enough. Speaking of which..., having been careful not to burden my kids with a dictionary, I was amazed when my son scored in the 95th percentile on vocabulary, the only non-aptitude on an aptitude test he took. His speech, which didn't appear until he was 3, is not exactly polysyllabic. When I expressed my surprise, he said patiently, "Mother, normal people don't sound like a dictionary." My daughter, on the other hand, has no interest in any term which isn't "practical", which includes most of my vocabulary. She is, when she wishes, an error-free proofreader; and, as such, she has utterly given up on my "creative" punctuation. Now that they're no longer impaired by my pecularities, my kids have become remarkably tolerant of them. I have yet to develop any tolerance for their tolerance.
My official diagnosis is "Double Depression" (Dysthmia interrupted regularly irregularly by Major Depression). I find it an irrelevant designation, since I have no health insurance and the label seems to have no unique clinical implications. My pdoc (who became one "in order to have a life") rarely hassles me, and just as rarely helps me. I'll probably ask him to "prescribe" Adrafinil next time I see him, which he can't legally do, since it's not FDA approved. My Aspergers is self-diagnosed, as it is for most adults; it didn't exist as a clinical entity when we were young, and the only trait we *all* share (that I can discover) is the inability to perceive and/or decode nonverbal communications. I find that my perceptual deficit extends to written communication, as well. So often I aim for tongue-in-cheek, only to produce foot-in-mouth. Usually, after I've penned a number of such missives, I'll stop writing and just read (at least until my common sense takes another vacation).It's been obvious to me since kindergarden that I came from "some place else"--I just didn't know it had a name until I found PB. When I found Liane Wiley's book, I saw that she had summed up my life as well as hers in her title, "Pretending to be normal". Our details differ (she gets lost easily, I have an excellent sense of direction, which I employ rarely since I seldom leave the house), but her descriptions of the tensions involved in having to dissemble to socialize, having to hide or moderate enthusiasms and, sometimes, intelligence, having to put a lid on logic so as not to trigger the weirdness alarms. I've often wished that I had some creativity; it seems to me that society cuts creatives sizable slack, accepting weirdness as the price of artistic endeavor. If I had to be so different, it would have been nice to be productively, acceptably different!
Typically, I differ from the different, as well. Altho my brother is bipolar, I am the original Immovable Object--I've never been hyper--or happy (except I had one identifiably happy experience at age 9, or so). "Dispassionate" is a fairly accurate descriptor for me. Even my enthusiasms lack impetus; I rarely inflict them on anyone except Babblers (who can easily click them away when they (and I) bore or annoy. My forays into the real world are infrequent, and, whenever I might be tempted to verbalize impulsively, memory of my brother's nonstop mouth and the reactions of others to it effectively squelches my potentially similar mistakes.
I'm glad to hear that you've found a med combo that seems to work for you. (Now crossing my fingers.) I describe my mind in digital analogies, too. Right now, my mental browser lacks a working back button. since loading a new page seems to trigger a "clear cache" command. I'm still looking for a pharmacological "work around" for this problem.
Perhaps, Adrafinil or T3 will help; Ritalin *is* a rollercoaster, but it's the only stimulant I've found so far that actually stimulates.On the off-chance that you have an infinite capacity for/patience with drivel and are still reading, I wish you well, and will probably live to bore another day.---medlib
Posted by mair on January 24, 2002, at 15:35:21
In reply to Idiosyncrasies or idiocies? To IsoM, posted by medlib on January 24, 2002, at 14:31:04
Sorry to intrude, but that was a wonderful discourse - well written and delightfully descriptive. My kids still ocassionally ask me for word definitions, but are loathe to ever let me see anything they've written, for fear that I'll "just want to change it too much." When my 8th grade daughter asks me how she might answer something it usually comes with the qualifier of "use words I might actually use." I do cringe sometimes at the disorganization of their writing, and the urge to "fix" bad writing is sometimes overpowering.
Mair
Posted by Dinah on January 24, 2002, at 15:57:48
In reply to Idiosyncrasies or idiocies? To IsoM, posted by medlib on January 24, 2002, at 14:31:04
Hi medlib,
I've tried twice to write a reply to your post but realized I wasn't making any sense at all. So I will content myself with saying this.
A lot of what you wrote could have been written by me, except that I don't have your prudence in restraining myself. I thoroughly enjoy your posts and find that your humor shows through quite well. So please don't exercise your prudence too much here at PB. This place seems refreshingly tolerant of differences.
Dinah
Posted by IsoM on January 24, 2002, at 16:32:55
In reply to Idiosyncrasies or idiocies? To IsoM, posted by medlib on January 24, 2002, at 14:31:04
Ah, medlib, I think you're very normal - just not at all average. [Average = boring]
I have a few friends who are sweetly strange too (mostly young, I'm not) & we laugh saying "what a pity so many miss out on our perspective of life."You wrote "It may take a couple of days before I subside into basic morosity again. How typically atypical that my version of hypomania (and my notion of "fun") is a cloud of inchoate verbosity."
Well, it seems morosity has settled on me yesterday & today. My adrafinil that came again has not had sufficient time to kick in & the weather is appallingly dreary. 1:00 PM & the sky's dark; it's cold, windy, & raining. I wouldn't be surprised to see some strange morose creature come skulking from the trees' edge like you'd see in Lord of the Rings."inchoate verbosity" sounds like a fun-time for me. I become very animated when talking, leaning on the edge of my seat, punctuating the air with my hands, but I'm not an action person except when I work & move about. My idea of a great party is to cook a huge simple meal, buffet style, & invite my sons & their friends & a few of my own, over for a game of Balderdash with a moderate amount of beer & wine thrown in. Played till the wee hours, it's my idea of paradise. (My sons have inherited my love of words.)
Another great game between 2 or 3 people only is Cheater's Scrabble. You don't keep score. The point is to see how many words can be made & it doesn't matter how you acquire the letter squares. If you can distract the persons in order to steal the letters from the main pile, each other or the board, it's allowed, but you can't be caught doing so. We'd have 2 or 3 islands of words unconnected to each other on the board from theft. If you take letters from the board though, it still needs to spell out real words. It's just a hoot to play & nobody feels competitive.
Well, for feeling gloomy today, I still can do enough talking. I so enjoyed your post. For a person who doesn't have Asperger (I can read social interactions & signals like a neon sign), I still have many of the other charateristics of it. It's probably why my one son with Asperger can get along so well with me. I understand him better than anyone else. Dinah, here on the forum, is similar to us. I love reading her posts too. In a couple of days when I'm feeling more human, I'll post back & read all the other posts too.
"On the off-chance that you have an infinite capacity for/patience with drivel and are still reading, I wish you well, and will probably live to bore another day.---medlib"
I don't have infinite patience but I do have an *appreciation* of your writings & enjoyed it to the very end. Thank you for your answer!
Posted by susan C on January 24, 2002, at 18:27:34
In reply to Idiosyncrasies or idiocies? To IsoM, posted by medlib on January 24, 2002, at 14:31:04
can I be part of your 'club'?
I wrote to OED in 1976 about the absence of the word "nanny" as in a care taker of young children. I was so shocked that it was not in OEM...The reply to my letter was written by Mrs. L.S. Burnett, Asisstant Editor (General. I wonder if she is still there... she informed me that the word would in fact appear in the volume two (H-N) of A Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary to be published shortly....with numerous illustrative quotations dating from 1795 to the present day. The etymology to be given is "appellative use of the pet-form of Ann(e".
And I think I am weird now...
Thank you for all your delightful insights, everyone.
Mouse with a large dictionary requiring a magnifying glass (That was free)
Posted by Seamus2 on January 27, 2002, at 19:18:16
In reply to Idiosyncrasies or idiocies? To IsoM, posted by medlib on January 24, 2002, at 14:31:04
medlib,
Your post here was my first good chuckle of the day, seeing so much of myself in what you wrote.
I'm from "some place else", too; self-diagnosed "touch of this and a touch of that" < g >
> >Whenever I asked her what a word meant, she'd say, "Let me look it up for you" and beetle off to her 2 volume set< <
Ah, there we differ: I was told to look it up myself! Fortunately, the house came well provided with Webster's Third; but I'll never forget the day ol' Mother discovered Chambers...
So, to keep on topic, is it idiocy or idiosyncrasy to take up Latin at age 40? I've always been a little miffed at the Jesuits for dropping that requirement before my high school days, so I've found a tutor and begin next week.
Posted by Seamus2 on January 27, 2002, at 19:32:14
In reply to Foibles or Eccentricies? » medlib, posted by IsoM on January 24, 2002, at 16:32:55
> Another great game between 2 or 3 people only is Cheater's Scrabble. You don't keep score. The point is to see how many words can be made & it doesn't matter how you acquire the letter squares. If you can distract the persons in order to steal the letters from the main pile, each other or the board, it's allowed, but you can't be caught doing so. We'd have 2 or 3 islands of words unconnected to each other on the board from theft. If you take letters from the board though, it still needs to spell out real words. It's just a hoot to play & nobody feels competitive. < <
Could you outline the rules a little more clearly? It sounds like fun because it's not so competitive. I always win, and even though I try and moderate my playing, an alternative would be useful, so to keep them coming back....
> >For a person who doesn't have Asperger (I can read social interactions & signals like a neon sign)I still have many of the other charateristics of it. < <Me too! Maybe we should take up poker instead! Although I've thought about it, I've never had the nerve to try.
PS -- will reply to your email shortly; it's at the shop and twas a busy week.
Posted by IsoM on January 27, 2002, at 19:33:23
In reply to Re: Idiosyncrasies or idiocies? To IsoM, posted by Seamus2 on January 27, 2002, at 19:18:16
Posted by Seamus2 on January 27, 2002, at 19:37:12
In reply to I have a letter from OED » medlib, posted by susan C on January 24, 2002, at 18:27:34
> >The reply to my letter was written by Mrs. L.S. Burnett, Asisstant Editor (General.< <
Wow! Suitable for framing!
Speaking of words, I didn't get Michael Quinion's "World Wide Words" this weekend. Did he go on hiatus?
Posted by Seamus2 on January 27, 2002, at 20:36:00
In reply to Know Any Good Teach-Yourself-Latin books? (nm) » Seamus2, posted by IsoM on January 27, 2002, at 19:33:23
Part 1
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195212037
Part 2
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195212053
Part 3
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/019521207Xseem to be the most well known textbooks
Posted by IsoM on January 28, 2002, at 1:48:09
In reply to Cheater's Scrabble, posted by Seamus2 on January 27, 2002, at 19:32:14
Cheater's Scrabble is just a game we made up one stormy night. It doesn't have rules really. No score is kept & the point is just to be silly. We'd start off playing normal (but no score keeping) & then when we'd almost have a word but needed another letter, we'd sneak it off the board, from another player's letters, or even from the box. The whole point wasn't to be caught.
When someone would notice that a word was made using 5 letters but there was still 3 letters left over, we broke into fits of laughter. You try to distract each other subtley so as to sneak extra letters. Once one of us had 9 or 10 letters on their holder but no one saw him take them so he kept them.
There is no rules - it's just pure silliness & laughter. Anyway, I 'suck' at poker. I've got the most unpoker-like face there is - someone might as well write it all over me with a felt marker, I'm that obvious.
Posted by IsoM on January 28, 2002, at 1:50:56
In reply to Re: Know Any Good Teach-Yourself-Latin books?, posted by Seamus2 on January 27, 2002, at 20:36:00
This is the end of the thread.
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