Today, the bus was on time. The driver du jour was a woman who had an intense look as she drove the bus. She wore thick black rimmed glasses and had a short no nonsense hairstyle. Also today it seems we have our usual light rail driver.

As it turned out yesterday I was on time. However, I didn’t have enough time to eat breakfast. My stomach was growling throughout the morning. The Baby on the Light Rail Report: This morning she/he is quiet.

Recently, over the weekend I found my self deeply disturbed by a review posted on Amazon.com about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Basically the book is about a 15 year old boy with Asperger’s Syndrome who solves a mystery. The reviewer lambasted the book saying it was unrealistic. In a sense she/he said that autistic people were all subhuman and incapable of deep thoughts. This made me feel very upset. It was obvious that the reviewer hadn’t a clue about the differences in Asperger’s Syndrome versus classic autism. Individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome have normal to high IQ’s, therefore, it wouldn’t be a complete leap of faith that they/we would be capable of reasoning enough to solve mysteries. As to whether or not the mystery is completed in a realistic fashion I do not know as I have not read the book. I have to read it now so that I can refute her claims. I don’t feel it would be right to post a review without reading the book just to call the reviewer a bigot. I posted about the review on several e-mail lists I belong to that are primarily composed of adults with Asperger’s Syndrome. Below is a copy of the evil review:

2 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
More Sugar Coated Than The Breakfast Cereals Your Kids Eat, September 11, 2004
Reviewer: Mataja K. (New York) - See all my reviewsI hated this book. However, you may like it if you don't actually know much about autism and you've never lived with an autistic person. As someone who's done both, I find it nauseous becuase it's a growing trend of fictionalizing and heroizing what is a debilitating disease that as of yet has no cure. If you want to dismiss the seriousness of autism, read this book! It gives the protagonist waaaay more logic and order and an extraordinarily higher IQ than most autistic persons have. In essence, this is a "theory of autistics" fiction book, not an actual account and shouldn't be taken as anything more than a way for non-autistic people to pretend that they understand more than we do about the autistic world. The fact is the autistic world doesn't make sense, and they wouldn't be giving you these detailed explanations as if they're Plato or Aristotle or some other philosopher who's just rattling this off the top of their head. For those who choose to read it, remember this is fiction, not fact, and it was not written by someone who is autistic, and however much he knows, the fact is that autism is infinitely more incomprehensible, disturing, and debilitating that this book will let you know.
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On a more upbeat note: My new favorite group of the week is The Secret Machines. I really love that song of theirs that they play on WTMD, Nowhere Again. It sounds absolutely brillaint! I really must find one of their cd’s.

Today, I’m wearing a purple Hanes T-shirt that I was surprised to have found at the bottom of my dresser drawer. I’m wearing it with stone washed jeans and Payless tennis shoes.