An Historic Event
Cidu Bill on Jul 31st 2008
So I’m reading in the paper today that yesterday morning Jay Serdula became the first person with Asperger’s Syndrome to swim across Lake Ontario.
Setting aside the question of why this was considered newsworthy at all… Who the hell keep track of this sort of thing and why?
Filed in Asperger's Syndrome, Bill Bickel, Lake Ontario, swimming | 20 responses so far
Bob Jul 31st 2008 at 04:38 pm 1
Because I have a son with Asperger’s this caught my eye. I do not know who would keep the records but, I can say, because of the perfectionist nature of people with Asperger’s usually have a hard time finishing anything that complicated. The other night we sat down as a family to play dominoes and my son could not play because he had a hard tome getting the math right so rathter than be frustrated, he quit (which is better that it used to be (having fits and self-damage).
The accomplishment is something for the person to be proud of IMHO
Pinny Jul 31st 2008 at 05:23 pm 2
Remind me again why “historic” gets an “an” rather than an “a”? (Unless of course you are cockney and read it “An ‘istoric Event”.)
Steven Hunter Jul 31st 2008 at 06:44 pm 3
The answer to both your questions Bill is “News service people with an awful lot of column-inches/airtime to fill.”
And to answer Pinny’s question -
According to a quick web search, when an h-word is not stressed on the first syllable (”historic”, “heroic”, “horrendous”), then either “a” or “an” can be used.
Personally I prefer using “an” for such words because it sounds more formal. That helps me differentiate myself from all the “kidz th3s d4yz & thr txtng bllsht.”
Sari Everna Jul 31st 2008 at 10:00 pm 4
Thanks, Steven. I was just wondering about the “h” thing myself. Personally, if it’s pronounced as a consonant (and it is, here), then I think it should get just an “a”. If the “h” is silent and you end up with a vowel sound, then it should get “an”, instead. But apparently the rest of the world doesn’t conform to my extremely sensible rules.
And I think this isn’t an incredibly news-worthy event. It’s definitely a great personal accomplishment, and is probably a very good human interest story, but I don’t think the vast majority of the world would care.
I think world records people are the kind to keep track of stuff like this, though.
Mir Jul 31st 2008 at 11:01 pm 5
I have Asperger’s Syndrome, and Bob is right.
I’d like to add the fact that quite a few people with Asperger’s have difficulty with anything athletic. I seem to recall reading that the reason for that is something about the part of the brain that controls muscles functioning a little differently than normal, although I couldn’t swear to that since I don’t remember where I read it. In any case, we tend to be a little awkward physically, though there are exceptions.
That said, while this would be a really big deal on a personal level, I’m not quite sure I’d call it newsworthy. Good filler on a slow day, maybe.
Trish Aug 1st 2008 at 04:32 am 6
A or an has something to do with how the word is pronounced, like a silent “H”
a horse
a whore (the w is silent and there is an h sound)
an honor
Singapore Bill Aug 1st 2008 at 05:03 am 7
Normally when people with mental problems wander into a lake they drown. This is a “Dog Doesn’t Bite Man” story. Slow newsday.
Powers Aug 1st 2008 at 06:45 am 8
Trish, but the “H” doesn’t have to be silent, as in “an historical account”. If the “H” is pronounced, then it has to do with the accent placement, as Steven said.
As for the accomplishment, it’s not something that’s hard to keep track of. The number of people who’ve swum across Lake Ontario — Asperger’s or not — is very very small, so it’s no big leap to verify that this person was the first with Asperger’s to do it.
Frankly, I think it’s news whenever anyone swims that far, whether they have a neurological disorder or not.
Carl Aug 1st 2008 at 07:19 am 9
Singapore Bill, strictly and politely speaking, Asperger’s Syndrome is not a mental problem. In fact, by definition someone with Asperger’s has at least normal intelligence.
Bob Aug 1st 2008 at 09:02 am 10
Carl
Thanks for saying what I was going to say. In fact, some have superior intelligence but because of the perfectionism they throw away perfectly good work because it does not meet their standards. I work at a community college and we had a little in-house training about what to look for in students. Many students flunk because of not turning in the work that is not perfect.
They also have social skills problems so people, like Singapore Bill, might think they have mental problems but they just do not see things the way the rest of us do. My son see rules as good so when things are not right on the playground he tries to fix it himself rather than go through a teacher. This has caused a number of fights till we figured out what was going on.
Good thing is with counciling and training they can fit into society a lot better. Some believe it may even rewire the brain to make up for what is not right in them.
Kaitlyn Aug 1st 2008 at 09:34 am 11
I second what Powers said, and can’t quite believe what Singapore Bill said.
I don’t have any relatives with Asperger’s or any form of autism, but my mom has worked in special ed since like 97 or so, and one of her coworker friends has a kid with Asperger’s AND other problems.
All the anecdotes about mom’s kids came to mind when I saw this. HUGE deal.
Amberosia Aug 1st 2008 at 10:52 am 12
Bob (and Carl) ~ My husband has Asperger’s and has a genius level IQ. However, despite that intelligence, we can’t have a truly serious conversation without him grinning inappropriately or his mind occasionally wandering off on some bizarre unrelated tangent. But at we know why and it has saved our marriage an incredible amount of frustration.
As for the story, slow news day or not it’s nice to see the media acknowledge the accomplishment and spread the word that there’s a name and a medical diagnosis for these poor people who for years have had to live with labels like “weird,” “shifty,” or “eccentric.” A little awareness never hurt anybody.
David Skaar Aug 1st 2008 at 11:56 am 13
I was trying to find information on how many people have made the swim across Lake Ontario to find some perspective, but didn’t find anything. However, at least 4 people have done it in the last couple years, each one to raise awareness/money. A girl with Cerebral Palsy, and another with juvenile arthritis have done it recently.
If no one had ever swum the lake, the emphasis would be on the accomplishment (which is quite tough, a 52km swim, plus hypothermia), with special circumstances being a sideline. That seems to be the cycle that feats like this go through. The first person to do it (climb a mountain, swim the channel, etc) gets lots of publicity for just doing it. Anyone after is not nearly as impressive, and so needs to be some kind of first, or a new record to get a big story. Then when enough people have done it, it becomes a publicity or fund-raising event.
I don’t know how many people with Aspergers/CP/arthritis could swim the lake if they trained for it, so while the swim is still quite a challenge and I AM impressed that someone did it, I don’t know how impressed I should be that they did while while affected by whatever. However, the fact that the publicity gets people to learn something new about Aspergers is a positive thing.
eeyore19 Aug 1st 2008 at 12:42 pm 14
Like Amberosia said, I have Asperger’s, and I can assure you that I don’t have “mental problems.” Sure, I have my share of quirks and obsessions, but don’t we all to some degree?
Amberosia Aug 1st 2008 at 01:56 pm 15
Nope.
eeyore19 Aug 1st 2008 at 02:01 pm 16
Powers Aug 2nd 2008 at 08:47 am 17
Synchronicity: Wednesday’s Dear Abby column ( http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/?uc_full_date=20080730 ) was centered on whether autism is a mental health problem or a neurological disorder.
Part of the confusion is that some people don’t make a distinction between the two. Even I’m not sure exactly what the difference is.
CaroZ Aug 2nd 2008 at 09:23 am 18
I remember when Walter Mondale nominated Geraldine Ferraro for Vice President, Time Magazine’s cover read “A Historic Choice.”
They got no end of flak for leaving out the “n.”
Cidu Bill Aug 2nd 2008 at 11:51 am 19
In fact, CaroZ, I had the Time cover in mind when I wrote the headline.
Anne Sep 4th 2008 at 01:29 pm 20
I think the fact that he swam for so long that he ended up in hospital for 3 days is newsworthy. Not because he has Asperger’s, but because he should have been pulled out of the water long before he did such damage to his body. Shame on Solo Swims Ontario for letting him continue (in fact, not letting him get out of the water when he asked to!). Solo Swims Ontario exists in part to protect peoples health who want to swim across lakes, but it failed this time in my opinion. If you read the swimmer’s (Jay) blog, you can see that in fact he doesn’t appear to have passed the distance/time test that he is suppose to pass in order to have the swim sanctioned. I think the awareness that was raised about Asperger’s due to this swim is awesome, but it never should have come on the back of Jay’s health.