Dear Mister Smart Ass Cripple,
I am wondering if you're familiar with the song "Get Up, Stand Up" originally written by Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. My question is- have you personally, ever taken offense to this song? Does any part of you feel that this song is anti-cripple in any way?
Sincerely,
Devoted Reader #721
Dear DR 721,
You wanna know what song I hate? I’ll tell you what song I hate! I HATE the song “Teddy Bear”, the super giant mega monster hit 1970s country song by Red Sovine!
“Teddy Bear” is barfsville from beginning to end! Sovine doesn’t sing, he talks out his wretched lyrics over a background of soft, plinky piano. It’s the story of a trucker who talks to a kid named Teddy Bear over the CB radio. The pitiful little Teddy Bear says:
"Now, I'm not supposed to bother you fellows out there
Mom says you're busy and for me to stay off the air.
But you see, I get lonely and it helps to talk
'Cause that's about all I can do, I'm crippled, and, I can't walk!"
I swear I’m not making this up! I wish with all my miserable being that it all was a sick joke and the song “Teddy Bear” never existed! Oh that we lived in such a benevolent universe!
And then Teddy Bear says his dad was a trucker who died in a wreck:
“Mom has to work now, to make ends meet
And I'm not much help, with my two crippled feet!"
The song deteriorates from there into a sucking cesspool of drivel. I’ll spare you the details. I fear I may have already exposed you to too much. You can look it up if you’re a fucking masochist.
I also hate any song sung by Barry Manilow. That guy sings like his nuts are crammed into a size two thong.
Dear Smart Ass Cripple,
What can I get you for Christmas?
Your smart ass fan,
Mrs. Santa
Dear Mrs. Santa,
You wanna know what you can get me for Christmas? I'll tell you what you can get me for Christmas! I need this machine that I don’t know the name of or if it even exists. But you put it in your closet and it humidifies or dehumidifies the air or whatever so your clothes don’t shrink. Because I just broke out my winter clothes and once again I found that they all shrank! Six month ago these clothes fit me just fine but now my shirts don’t button and my pants are too tight! This happens every damn year! So I figure there must be something unstable about the air in my closet that shrinks my clothes. Maybe the pH balance is all out of whack or something. What else could it be?
There must be a machine that can do something about that. Get me one and I’ll be your friend
Dear Smart Ass Cripple,
I’m so excited! Quadruple amputee Phillipe Croizon, who swam the English Channel in 2010, is at it again! In the spring, he plans to swim through a shark-infested, 12-mile crossing between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. He is the first quadruple amputee ever to attempt this feat!
Aren’t you excited?
Yours truly,
A Big Fan of Amputee Swimming
Dear Big Fan,
I hate to burst your bubble, but, technically, Phillipe Croizon is not the first quadruple amputee to swim these treacherous waters. A Belgian named Hugo van Sprout did it in 1996. Van Sprout had all his limbs when he jumped into the water in Papua New Guinea. But by the time the sharks got through with him, when he came ashore in Indonesia he was a quadruple amputee.
However, Phillipe Croizon may very well still make history for cripples. If the sharks are biting that day, he could be the first person to complete the swim as a quintuple amputee.
Dear Smart Assed Cripple,
ReplyDeleteSanta says he can't arrange the closet machine this year and wants to know if a box of chocolates will do instead?
Your Smart Assed Fan
Mrs Santa
Dear Mr. Smarty ass crip
ReplyDeleteIf it helps you get over your " teddy bear trauma," it might help for you to know my sister bought me a " build a bear" who has his own wheelchair, is rainbow color, as peace signs on him, and has pajamas with neon ice cream Cones on it.
From one perspective I can understand if you might think this was just part of a vision I had on a bad acid trip, but my sister " gets it" about crips, gays, and I'm sure every other movement you can think of.
I named him " Mr. Natural" (remember that character from the psychedelic cartoonist " crumb" who is also famous for doing the album cover for Janis Joplin, big brother and the holding company? Anyway that's why I call him Mr. Anyway, he reminds me of all that sixties stuff (movements Trippy cartoons, plus he's doing his own thing so what better name than Mr. Natural? Maybe all that is swinging to the opposite extreme of the teddy bear song, but that disgusting song was so extreme anyway, I don't see no harm in swinging. I think Mr. Natural would agree.
With a name that has "go" and "sprout" in it, you would eXpect him to just go ahead and grow his limbs back in place. I wrote a Christmas letter in 1998 that uses that as an invention for my crippled three legged dog. She was a wonderful dog that in real life survived getting ran over twice. We had her front limb taken off but she wound up being a very good dog that loved to race you when you took the trash to the trash can in the alley. She eventually lived to be around 14 before passing away in her sleep. She had a designated seat in my wife's van that she loved to ride in to the wife's place of business and was great with kids.
ReplyDelete