Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Protactile took root only when a group of DeafBlind leaders in Seattle decided to conduct meetings and workshops without any interpreters. DeafBlind community members were shocked by how well those events went, with participants communicating directly and rotating from cluster to cluster. This success emboldened us to break many taboos related to touch, including touching one another's bodies instead of just moving our hands in the air. A grammar soon developed to coordinate all that contact. A new language was born. It's no accident that this explosion occurred when we took a break from the most prevalent manifestation of access in our midst: ASL interpreters." -- John Lee Clark, "Against Access", McSweeney's, September 2021 [expect to see more quotes from this article later -- there's a lot in it.]

---

Merry Christmas to old-calendar Orthodox Christians (e.g. Russian Orthodox)!

Today is:
Gregorian: 2022 January 07 -- Distaff Day
Julian: 2021 December 25 -- first day of Christmas
Hebrew: 5782 Shevat 05
Islamic: 1443 Jumada al-Thani 03
Persian: 1400 Dey 17
Mayan: 0.0.0.13.0.9.3.4
Indian (civil): 1943 Pausa 17
Coptic: 1738 Koiak 29 -- first day of Christmas
Today is also the 110th birthday of cartoonist Charles Addams.