note: a "cox" is the guy/gal yelling "row, row faster" at the front of a competitive row boat.
Angel: Did [you] know that Stephen Hawking used to be a cox for Oxford?!
Me: um, was his talking wheelchair water-proof?
Angel thought it was funny, but it can be seen as a mighty offensive comment against the handicapped. But, I mean, seriously, the man is an talking wheelchair, and his monotone computer voice couldn't galvanize anyone. How the hell was he a cox?
And Nick, if you make one comment about me talking about "cox," I will internationally smack the back of your head.
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A while ago my lunchbox went missing, and I decided to let you know about the resulting upheaval. Sometimes I'll be clever, witty and insightful, or I'll discuss the mundane and fail to use a semicolon. Sometimes I'll discuss the state of the world, or reference John Mayer lyrics. This is my blog; you game?
the blogger
- Warren "not G"
- I have a hunger to know what’s going on in the world, the intelligence to establish an opinion, the understanding that others may and will disagree with me, and the maturity to realize that sometimes the others will be right. But, I have the drive to figure it all out.
2 comments:
i'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that he probably wasn't wheelchair bound at the time. Wait, here is the answer as provided by wikipedia:
When he was young, he was athletic (although Hawking's biography on his official website would seem to refute this) and enjoyed riding horses and playing with the other children. At Oxford, he coxed a rowing team, which, he stated, helped relieve his immense boredom at university. Symptoms of the disorder first appeared later while he was enrolled at Cambridge. He lost balance and fell downstairs, hitting his head. Worried of losing his genius, he took the Mensa International test, to verify that his intellectual abilities were intact. Diagnosis came when Hawking was 21, shortly before his first marriage, and doctors said he would not survive more than two or three years. He battled the odds and has survived much longer than most sufferers of ALS[1], although he has become increasingly disabled by the gradual progress of the disease.
Thanks Nick!
But now this means I've made fun of a currently wheelchair-bound man who fell and hit his head in his 20s. Great.
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