Stevie Wonder is still the coolest guy in the universe

You know what a bad blind person I am, so I'm late coming to the news that Stevie Wonder made a blind joke, but I'm thrilled to be reminded what a cool guy Stevie is. I caught him a few years back on the Spike Awards, which is an award show for games, and, before announcing the winner (probably of the best game soundtrack), Stevie said something tot he effect of "In the future, I hope more of these games will be accessible," and the next day game boards freaked out, and all I could do was shake my head and say, "What were you thinking when you invited a blind genius to be on your show talking about games of which not one could he play?"

Stevie's braille joke also remeinded me that, back in the day when VHS was a thing, I would label my tapes in braille, which made my sighted friends crazy, especially when I would say, "What? You can't access that? Welcome to my world."

So, while I was searching for a video of Stevie doing the braille thing (in hopes of converting it to mp3), I came across the "Stevie Wonder isn't really blind" conspiracy. WTF? You crazy sighted kids: Stevie isn't too cool to be blind; Stevie is too cool to be sighted. This reminded me of my college days, when people often said to me, "But you're not blind-blind," and I would have to say no, I was as blind as they came, really, I had removable eyeballs, fercrissakes.

Also, question of the day: what is it called when a word is repeated for emphasis? I'm reminded of this trickster god I like, whose name is "Old Old Coyote."

(no subject)

The title is _The Far Forests_, and I found it in digital format on the library for the blind Web site. It's a digital recording made from an audio recording, done in mono, and in the '70s, so I'm getting a paper version to scan.

About the book: These are possibly Aiken's darkest stories, darker even than _The Green Flash_, my other favorite collection, which probably accounts for why this collection doesn't get a lot of love. It's definitely not for read aloud to children, but would probably appeal to young adults who like spooky stories. Another aspect to these stories which probably account for it being one of her scarcest to be found collections is that many of the stories feature middle-aged or just plain old characters. A number of these older characters (who, in the way of Aiken stories, may or may not possess uncanny abilities) is that they are very content with their definitely eccentric lives, something which is hard to find in modern fiction. I love the way these people with their small magicks go about making the world, not dramatically, but quietly, a slightly better world to live in.

My favorite story, which I have described to other Aiken fans, none of whom ever remembered reading it (doesn't that make you crazy? it's as if you are a character in a Borges story, reading a slightly different edition with one extra story no one else has ever laid eyes upon; okay, that actually sounds pretty cool when I describe it that way)...
Anyway, my favorite story is about a young woman who sits in a storefront window and is paid to destroy any paper documents that the customer wishes to get rid of (yes, this is before paper shredders ertr a commonplace office item). This story is more of a screwball comedy--there are a couple of thse in this collection--and the title is "Safe and Soundproof."

so, ta-da! There you have it, my long lost Joan Aiken story collection, soon to be scanned and available for sharing.