"When Jerry Met Mary" - I like a good love story. I didn't see the actual news report on CBS about this, but I did read the web story and am familiar with these two marvelous human beings, joined together in mawwiage. There is a movie coming out soon, on December 12 (2004) in fact, titled Mozart And The Whale, which is based on Jerry and Mary's life together. Awww how sweet. I previously wrote about it for WrongPlanet some months ago, and you can bet that while I do not see much cinema, I will be getting a ticket for this. I hope it will depict autism respectfully and humorously (the facts and foibles of life-well-lived) and I must observe that Radha Mitchell, who plays Mary, has eyes that look eerily similar to her real-life counterpart. Which is always cool, because they say that "eyes are the windows to the soul", and it is especially more meaningful because autistics tend to not do the contact thing a whole lot.

I can really relate to this a lot:

Jerry Newport always knew there was something wrong with him. But as he was growing up, he didn?t know what it was.

?The one thing I've never had is natural grace. I guess that's the part of me that I've always felt was missing, that everybody around me seemed to have, was this natural sense of when to talk and how,? says Jerry. —What to say and how to say it, and do all those other unspoken things.?

I frequently felt the same way too. I had to learn things that other people did so fluidly — seemingly — by rote, and sometimes, very frustrating trial-and-error and elimination of undesirable variables. Of course, life has plenty of chaos and cannot be controlled, but on the bright side, some of those awkward memories now seem rather funny.

I also heard that The Jane Pauley Show had an episode about Asperger's Syndrome autism. I'm not familiar with her so I can't say much on that, but if it's anything in its scope like the Men's Health article?which I really, really enjoyed, then I have to give it a thumbs-up!?:D In any case, hope to see it someday… even backtrack.

Some call obsession a "pervasive interest", but that's too many syllables for me. I'll stick with "obsession" or even a "sess". I like to repeat some key phrases over and over again. Which is contradictory with me disliking redundancy, of course, but I embrace contradictions. It comes naturally to me. I am currently obsessed with the site NEURODIVERSITY.COM, which has been around for awhile, but only now have I really gotten into checking all the content out. Thank goodness it's so organized, even with so much sprawling linkage. (I won't need to take a virtual machete into this jungle of knowledge.) I suspect that someday, connections will furrow deeper together and knit themselves like cute little kittens making mittens, and that Second Life will be a more prominent platform for those to would like to?express themselves but?who have great difficulty with it in real life.

I am suddenly reminded of Anya, the beloved character from Buffy The Vampire Slayer, as portrayed by Emma Caulfield. She, being an ancient demon trapped in the body of a young woman, had quirky ways to interpret social cues. For example, while being outright greedy is supposedly looked down on in our society, she took "American capitalism" to the max as she worked in the magic shop. (She would have been a big admirer of Trump, methinks, although it was never explicitly mentioned on the show.) She also did not understand why it was such a big deal to talk about sexuality in public, and her takes on pop culture — Charlie's Angels being one — were always a thrill for me to watch.

Speaking of social cueing, Temple Grandin is up to her helpfully explanatory self again.

The highlight was a lecture by Temple Grandin, a woman who is autistic herself yet able to explain how her brain functions in a way that is fascinating to the general public.

"My mind works like Google for images," said Grandin, a gifted visual thinker. "But my mind can also get off track easily."

I read her book, Thinking In Pictures, and it was incrediblicious. She is an inspiration, and if I ever happened to meet her for real, I would be like "OMG!!! WHAT A TRIP!!!" Of course, I would be respectful of her sensitivities and her personal space, but that doesn't dampen my enthusiasm one iota. I have an admiration for good-natured people who are great explainers. Einstein believed strongly in the power of imagination and liked to illustrate his highminded notions with cute metaphors. In more recent times, scientists like Kaku, Sagan, and Gould (Stephen Jay, not Glenn )have continued this great way to get the public interested in science. If an idea cannot be communicated, it is worthless. (So some say.) So, with something as isolating as autism, it is important to be able to explain things in a simple way to help other people go "AHA!" instead of "WTF?!?".

Good communication is important. In greener days,?I terribly miscommunicated with a girl who I adored, and it depressed me greatly. In hindsight, it's kind of hilarious but it's sort of a twisted laugh — the pain is still there. If we could all understand one another better, or at least make more gentle allowances for our unity in diversity, the world would be a much better place. It's not hard to be nice… personal attacks don't just come out as uncontrolled as blood bursts from an exposed artery. And yet, in society, there is this lowmind tendency to attach negatives to happiness with words like "cheesy" and "corny" and "that makes me sick!" What makes me sick is seeing people so down on being uplifting. There is enough pain and suffering in the world as it stands?and if anything, we need more love.

It was proper of these Sheriff's officials to apologize.

The girl had been missing since Aug. 29, when she walked away from a foster home in the Fern Prairie area north of Camas to meet a man she had communicated with on the Internet.

She has Asperger Syndrome, a form of autism in which a person has normal intelligence and language development but poor social and communication skills.

I think we'll be seeing more of things like this in the news. Call it as close as I can get to a "hunch" or a "gut instinct", or maybe, just cold logic. I am happy to hear that this 14-year-old girl is safe now. We could all use some more safety and security in our lives too, with so many uncertainties.

People want to know, "Is it going to be alright?"

I certainly hope so.