Speaking his mind

Thanks to the good folks at Comics.com, for the minor inconvenience of a bit more Spam I get a Dilbert cartoon emailed to me daily. I always look forward to this email. It's a morning pick-me-up that is caffiene-free and requires no prescription (or trip to a back alley) to get.

Being the astute person I am, it only took me getting these emails every day for almost a year to realize that each one has a link to Scott Adams' blog.

Oh, yeah, I'm on top of things.

Naturally, given the recurring theme of the cartoon, I was expecting to find amusing discussions of workplace Beaurocratic Situations (BS). I was not expecting a crash course in Spasmodic Dysphonia, and most certainly not expecting to read about [Warning Alaska Jen: Do not read the rest of this sentence until you've had your morning coffee] neck injections.

Yuck.

In a nutshell, Spasmodic Dysphonia is a brain disorder that renders a person unable to speak normally (my coworker wants to know how his mother-in-law's could contract this). Speech is a complicated process that involves many parts of the brain; the disorder may only effect some of those parts. As a result, some types of verbal communication (i.e. singing) may still be possible. There is no known cure.

Scott Adams has been suffering from Spasmodic Dysphonia for a year and a half. He can still talk to a large audience, but he hasn't been able to talk to people one-on-one or on the phone.

Until this past Monday, that is.

Read Scott's October 24 post. Obviously, you don't need to read all of the 1,237 comments (as of this posting) that follow, but Scott's story is definitely worth the read.

Congratulations, Mr. Adams, and best of luck with your continued recovery!