Beaton: Hey there, podcast and transcription land, welcome to Gab Talk. This is Fayer Beaton, your host. With me in the studio today is Ed Head, Mayor of our beloved Nossexville. Your Honor, what would you say are your principal
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I Don’t Even Want to be a Friend: A Recollection
1 A girl named Emily, who sounded austere when she spoke in the high school social studies course we were both taking, made a point one day of walking with me to my next class. “Are you looking for a reader?” she said. It happened I was. We
Words That Betray Us, Politeness That Offends
Words and phrases that corrupt meaning slip into common parlance the way bacteria infiltrate the body. They can impair how we think and reason. Similarly, polite phrases can be messages of expectation that can, instead, frustrate and
Minority Within a Minority
Back around 1971, the parents who ran the Guild for Fairfield County’s visually impaired students, in Connecticut, arranged for a group therapy session for six high school students, including me. Each of us was the only blind student in our
Words That Make Us Feel Hopeless
Certain phrases and words in common use today contribute to widespread feelings of futility. It’s a despair we can’t afford. Here are three examples. 1. Chaos When I think of chaos, I picture a herd of cattle in a stampede or refugees fleeing a
The Friend Who Confuses Himself with ChatGPT
Is it me, or does everyone have eccentric friends? Subscribers to this blog have met Neil, the most gentle of men who, among other adventures, nevertheless slashed a series of face-smacking branches extending out on to the sidewalk he regularly
No Numbers, No Stories: Disability and the Harm of Secrecy
1. Without Facts …? It is impossible to obtain objective information about the quality of a college’s services for disabled students. For other identifiable groups, we can get numbers, but not for disabled students. Members of those other groups are
Comma Wars
With all the questions swirling around us, one that doesn’t get enough attention is the role of the comma. Yet ask almost anyone about the placement of a comma, and you’ll get a passionate reaction. I told a well-read, non-author friend
Was Your Childhood Really So Boring?
The other day, a friend told me her childhood was boring. I’ve been thinking up questions to lead her to discover her childhood wasn’t boring after all. First, when you say your childhood was boring, were you bored, or are you saying telling your
The Tenacity of Childhood
In September, here in Brooklyn, there will be a summer-warm afternoon, heavy with moisture, when a fall front approaches. Above me is that summer sky that made May and June beautiful, fragrant with flower scents and optimism, but that by now has
Serenity
My old friend Neil was last seen on this blog in “James Bond and the Errant Shrubs.” There, his adventure began when he cheerfully cut off branches that protruded beyond private gardens across a public sidewalk, sometimes smacking him in the
Rarified Bubble
“Super blink” might be the harshest insult inside the so-called blind community. It refers to a visually impaired person who has done so well in mainstream society that they’re out of touch with other blind people. The mainstream equivalent might be
Have You No Sense of Decency?
Could the Republicans’ resounding victory on November 5 be an indicator of success for progressive causes? I don’t pose this ironic question lightly. I’m hopeful that the good news for Trump will turn out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Now that
Despair Is Not an Option
In recent months, the presidential campaigns were all-too-compelling distractions. Now that Donald Trump has won and Republicans look likely to control Congress, with a Supreme Court of soulmates watching on, we are forced to contemplate a disturbing
Ray
Fictional characters are often said to be based on real people. However, in my experience of writing fiction, a character’s initial resemblance to some real person soon blurs. I think of a secondary character, Ray, in my novel Caroline. He’s a
Paying Full Fare
Here’s a dilemma few people face and perhaps even fewer recognize as a dilemma. When my parents lived in Connecticut, I used to take the New Haven train from New York’s Grand Central Terminal to Stamford, where they’d pick me up and
Temperament and Literary Critics
I recently spoke glowingly to a friend about Amor Towles’ story collection, Table for Two (2024). She acknowledged, without enthusiasm, having read his A Gentleman in Moscow (2016), a novel about a charming man leading a charmed life in a hotel
Speech Therapy
In this short recollection, I am attending a school in London at the age of eight or nine. I’d had a cleft palate surgically repaired when I was too young to remember, and now I was required to undergo speech therapy. Looking back, I marvel at the
Belonging: A Story
One morning years ago, a number of decades I could count on the fingers of one hand, I was waiting on the platform of my local subway station. A train arrived and opened its doors right in front of a woman with long, dark brown hair. A yard or two to
A Perfect Love
In September, here in Brooklyn, there will be a summer-warm afternoon, heavy with moisture, when an autumn front approaches. Above me is that sky that made May and June beautiful, fragrant with flower scents and optimism, but that by now has become
The Elizabeth Street Garden: Is New York City Really Going to Demolish It?
Do we want a place of scenic beauty or, in its place, affordable housing for homeless people? That’s the seeming choice facing New Yorkers who love Manhattan’s Elizabeth Street Garden. For people in this extremely built-up stretch, Elizabeth
The Return of Trumplodyte
It is astonishing to watch how events during the past three weeks have conspired to make Donald Trump’s victory in November seem certain. But they say the darkest hour is just before dawn. On June 27, there was President Biden’s catastrophically
One-Liner
November 15, 2018 Through my sophomore and possibly junior year of high school, I argued in favor of America’s involvement in Vietnam. I also argued on the wrong side of history leading up to George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. I was persuaded by
Libby Speaks 7: A Qualified Candidate for President
Republican Council Member Max Morano was working late at the office—late for him—when he heard the news of the jury’s verdict in the case against his party’s candidate for President. “Perversion of justice,” he yelled to everyone and no
Libby Speaks 6: Conventional Thinking
“One more state to go to a Constitutional convention.” So proclaimed Republican Council Member Max Morano’s latest tweet. Having read it, Gavin Kane, his Democratic counterpart, summoned his chief of staff, Tina Millette. “What’s he getting at