Sumana @69: Thanks! Now I can share the punchline I found the other night, which is that out of curiosity, I Googled one of the publicists mentioned in the column (the last one, Alicia Levine, who shares a memorable story about her entrance to an intramural basketball game).
I found her resume, which includes this line: "Applied innovative methods to secure additional MuseumShop.com premium coverage with The Washington Post Magazine."
I bet she fiddled with that credit for a long time.
I read that story last night and was impressed and moved.
Which is not how I felt about the violinist story, which I thought was facile, and am very disappointed to learn won the Pulitzer. Scraps was the one who came up with the analogy of making random phone calls and having a top-notch actor read passages of Shakespeare, and then acting surprised (and drawing sweeping cultural conclusions) when people hang up the phone.
Weingarten also wrote one of the funniest pieces I've ever seen in a newspaper, a 10/15/2000 Washington Post column where he told PR reps that he would write about their product glowingly in the newspaper if they revealed a humiliating personal secret about themselves, which he would also print. Nine of fifteen agreed; Weingarten kept his end of the bargain.
As it happens, Seven Swans is playing in the other room right here as I read this. Moments of beauty shared thousands of miles apart.
So so so glad to hear all this good healing news.
Received in email from Eleanor Lang:
The big news is that Scraps is in fact making progress. The bleeding in his brain has stopped, and while there is still swelling, the doctors expect that it’s starting to go down. All of his vital signs are stable, and he continues to respond well to all neurological stimuli. In short, Scraps is pretty much out of the woods, and we can all indulge in a very small sigh of relief. Yesterday, he was very agitated and was able to communicate that we was in pain. The neurologist came in and ordered a shot of morphine, which took about four minutes to work. He has not needed one since. While yesterday he was alert but highly agitated, today he is more alert but much less agitated, which is a good sign. He received a feeding tube yesterday, and now, for the first time since admission, he is receiving more nutrition than can be administered through an IV. The speech pathologist comes by each day to do a “speech and swallow†evaluation, which assesses his ability to swallow food and control his throat. Today, he showed progress and ate applesauce, which he seemed to enjoy, although he couldn’t manage water, and the speech pathologist seemed to think that this was an excellent sign and said that as soon as he can actually swallow enough calories each day, they’ll remove the feeding tube. It should be noted that yesterday, he would not swallow soft food, but it was vanilla pudding, which he loathes.
Scraps can clearly understand much, if not all of what is said to him. While he has not cooperated with some doctors, it seems to have as much to do with cranky preference as ability; today’s neurologist and speech pathologist were both pretty young women. Yesterday, not so much. He tries to communicate, but has difficulty with hard consonants. He can clearly say some words, like “OK,†“No,†“Where,†“When,†“Now,†and “Home,†but becomes frustrated when he tries to put a sentence together. He has been able to communicate what music he wants, that he wasn’t worried about the manuscript he was working on, and when he wants to sit up or lie down. He knows he is in a hospital, but looks somewhere between panicked and outraged when he’s reminded of why he’s there. Today we tried giving him a pad and a sharpie, and he really understood the concept, couldn’t quite grasp the pen. If there are any OT specialists in the house, suggestions on better tools would be appreciated.
He knows when people are in the room, and when they’re talking to him, however, he doesn’t seem to recognize or track on all people. Part of this is because he doesn’t have his glasses and can’t see. Not surprisingly, he tracks best on the people and voices he knows most well. Similarly, he does best listening to Simon and Garfunkel, Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, and other artists he knows note for note.
While his recovery will be a long haul, the preliminary signs for the recovery look good.
(crossposting from the other Scraps topic, with apologies)
Hey, New Yorkers: Here’s something you can do to help.
Velma has been at Scraps’ side pretty much constantly, and could seriously use some relief. But for obvious reasons, she wants there to be a friendly and familiar face for Scraps whenever he’s conscious.
If you could take a full day or even a half day off work in the next couple of weeks to come to Methodist Hospital and sit with Scraps, it would be a blessing and a huge help.
Bill Tipper has volunteered to get the ball rolling on organizing a schedule. Email him at
william period tipper at gmail period com
and let him know when you could take a shift (and of what length). Scraps’ mother and sister are about to come to town, so we’re looking to start next Tuesday (the 14th of October) and get a schedule through the end of the month.
(This effort may need organizational help in the future--if you’re interested in being point person after this first fortnight, let Bill know that too in email.)
Hey, New Yorkers: Here’s something you can do to help.
Velma has been at Scraps’ side pretty much constantly, and could seriously use some relief. But for obvious reasons, she wants there to be a friendly and familiar face for Scraps whenever he’s conscious.
If you could take a full day or even a half day off work in the next couple of weeks to come to Methodist Hospital and sit with Scraps, it would be a blessing and a huge help.
Bill Tipper has volunteered to get the ball rolling on organizing a schedule. Email him at
william period tipper at gmail period com
and let him know when you could take a shift (and of what length). Scraps’ mother and sister are about to come to town, so we’re looking to start next Tuesday (the 14th of October) and get a schedule through the end of the month.
(This effort may need organizational help in the future--if you’re interested in being point person after this first fortnight, let Bill know that too in email.)
Okay, one loaded iPod is en route to NYC. Velma, I sent it to Bill T., who will swing by the hospital to drop it off (if that's not a good idea, and you'd rather he do the handoff elsewhere, let him know).
Patrick/Teresa: Please email me the best (work?) address to send a FedEx package so it will get to one of you. If I get the iPod out this afternoon, Scraps should be able to have music by tomorrow evening.
Also handy, I'm guessing, would be a cradle or iDock or something of that sort, both so Scraps can listen without requiring headphones, and so the iPod can charge up.
I have an old iPod that I'd be happy to send over, already loaded with music Scraps will enjoy (including copies of some of the many CDs he's burned for me over the years). Like Tom, I'm on the wrong coast, but I will head right over to Federal Express if Scraps isn't already buried with local iPods.
I'm totally in a state of denial about this news. My fervent wishes for quick healing to Scraps and my deepest sympathies to everyone here who loves him (especially Velma).
"Vindaloo" dates back to the '98 World Cup; at the time, parodying the "Bittersweet Symphony" video in the promo clip was up-to-the-minute.
As Scraps said, it's one of my favorite pop-music artifacts ever; I wrote about it (and the other World Cup singles of that year) at some length here.
It's worth noting that although "Vindaloo" endures, "Three Lions" is still the song more likely to be bellowed by triumphant drunken Englishmen on the streets, if my trip back to London a few weeks ago is at all indicative.
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