Author Archive

your dreams will be reduced down to breathing, and you will be grateful

The thing about not-being-a-person is: They will say those people and the price of being a person is to nod and agree that yes, those people aren’t people at all. They will have no idea who they are talking to. You yourself will start to forget, too. They will say a million small things that sow the seeds for violence done against you, and you will smile and let them. You will do math, constantly. How much do I want to be a person today? How much do I want this project to succeed? How much honesty can I afford? How much dishonesty will kill me? What is the cost of coming out? Is there a way to delay, soften, transmute? How long can I survive as half a person? Ever since the world ended ... I don't go out as much. People that I once befriended, just don't bother to stay in touch. Things that used to seem so splendid, don't really matter today. It's just as well the world ended -- it wasn't working anyway. Your dreams will be reduced down to breathing. [Read More]

on 03/5/12 | 2 Comments | Read More

How far can autistic culture develop without excluding neurotypical people? (2011 redux)

How far can autistic culture develop without excluding neurotypical people? For many years I have been married (to the same guy).  It’s obvious to me that we are both on the autistic spectrum, ...[Read More]

on 12/22/11 | 2 Comments | Read More

Is this guy for real? Baron-Cohen’s latest book is a real urban legend!

The other night the kids and I much enjoyed watching a very corny and over-the-top horror movie. They had seen it before, so there were lots of "this bit coming up is really gross" moments. There w...[Read More]

on 07/29/11 | 2 Comments | Read More

Blog pieces about the work of Baron-Cohen well worth reading

I am very much indebted to Socrates at The New Republic for writing nice things about my blog, and also for spreading awareness about some most interesting writing in blogs about the work of the fam...[Read More]

on 07/29/11 | No Comments | Read More

The Prof put on the spot - a recent interview with Professor Simon Baron-Cohen about his latest book

Kim Wombles has done a long and interesting email interview with the controversial Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, a professor at Cambridge and a Director of the powerful and prestigious Autism Resear...[Read More]

on 06/21/11 | 7 Comments | Read More

WARNING! Oxytocin the xenophobia drug!

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has published online ahead of full publication a science journal paper with the title Oxytocin promotes human ethnocentrism See the abstract ...[Read More]

on 02/1/11 | 2 Comments | Read More

Why women aren’t funny (in general), and female autistics are up the creek without a paddle (in general)

After sitting in an idle moment watching one of those terribly popular cooking shows on TV, because someone else wanted to watch it, I have become convinced of my explanation as to why there are so fe...[Read More]

on 01/18/11 | No Comments | Read More

Our Christmas - Some Things Never Change

Hubby and I have had some all-autistic Christmas Days, and also some Christmases in the company of non-autistic people (or to be completely correct, non-autists and an autist who has unsuccessfully...[Read More]

on 12/31/10 | 3 Comments | Read More

How far can autistic culture develop without excluding neurotypical people? (Redux)

How far can autistic culture develop without excluding neurotypical people? For many years I have been married (to the same guy).  It’s obvious to me that we are both on the autistic spectrum, e...[Read More]

on 12/23/10 | No Comments | Read More

A Disturbance in the Family

Who are they? Where did they come from? Where did they go? Was there something not quite right about that level of involvement of siblings with each other’s lives? Did they find whatever it was that...[Read More]

on 11/29/10 | No Comments | Read More

No Rest for the Obsessive

I've done some more work on my old list of autistic fictional characters, giving it a spruce-up and adding stuff.  I hope it now looks a little bit less ancient and neglected.  This list of mine ...[Read More]

on 11/9/10 | No Comments | Read More

I See Dead Blokes

Donald*, could you please tell me, what is this all about?  I'm pondering the same question now that I wondered about twenty-odd years ago, when I was in my 20’s, a graduate on a quest to find a de...[Read More]

on 11/1/10 | No Comments | Read More

More Than a Fine Line

“Men who leave their mark on the world are very often those who, being gifted and full of nervous power, are at the same time haunted and driven by a dominant idea, and are therefore within a measur...[Read More]

on 08/26/10 | 1 Comment | Read More

I’ve Lost My Focus

You will have to excuse me, I’ve been out of sorts lately. The tide has gone out and I’m feeling all washed up. As I wait to pick up the kids in the car I slip into sleep-deprived but not tired...[Read More]

on 08/10/10 | 2 Comments | Read More

Shrink on the Box

When Lili Marlene finds time to watch the tube in the daytime, she doesn’t waste a moment on tripe like Oprah or Dr. Phil or that other rot on the commercial stations.  I tuned in to the National P...[Read More]

on 07/13/10 | 1 Comment | Read More

The Last of the Wild Autistics

I've said it before and I'll say it again — my generation is the last of the wild autistics.  Many of us were never given any autism-related diagnosis as children.  Those of us who did recieve cli...[Read More]

on 05/31/10 | 2 Comments | Read More

Lili Marlene discovers the cause of autism in between bringing the laundry in off the line and washing some dishes

I was recently perusing some back issues of science magazines, and I came across an article about an aspect of human genetics that is interesting but is not currently connected with any “cutting edg...[Read More]

on 05/10/10 | No Comments | Read More

Is misandry relevant to autism?

Is misandry relevant to autism? [This is a recycled enhanced question that I posted a while ago at an online autism discussion.  It attracted an answer, but I don’t think it addressed the full s...[Read More]

on 05/5/10 | 7 Comments | Read More

How far can autistic culture develop without excluding neurotypical people?

How far can autistic culture develop without excluding neurotypical people? For many years I have been married (to the same guy).  It’s obvious to me that we are both on the autistic spectrum, e...[Read More]

on 04/26/10 | 7 Comments | Read More

The Dark Side Of Theory Of Mind?

“Our reputation-conscious ancestors would have experienced a pervasive feeling of being watched and judged, he says, which they would readily have attributed to supernatural sources since the cognit...[Read More]

on 04/20/10 | 1 Comment | Read More

You Could Be An Autistic Person If …

you are a very curious person, in both senses of the word you say goodbye to your husband in the morning as he goes off to work, and your heart leaps with joy at the prospect of spending the day home...[Read More]

on 04/16/10 | 1 Comment | Read More

Emotions: who is the expert and who is the dunce and what exactly are we talking about?

Over and over again I read that autistic people are disabled in the ability to understand not only the emotions of others, but also our own emotions.  Could this mean that the subject of “emotions�...[Read More]

on 04/7/10 | 2 Comments | Read More