Cane Me

I've been thinking about canes, as I hobble around the house (not too much outside; I can't drive because I can't painlessly get my left leg into the van). For one, as I hang it in various places, I wonder why canes don't have an optional 'gripper' - something that you can use to pick up things when you still have the cane but can't reach something. Obviously, it wouldn't work all that well if what you've dropped is the cane itself!

I also wonder if people ever give thought to the design of the cane. Why do canes frequently have a smooth curved handle? That can't be comfortable, or lead to having a good grip. At least the ones with the right-angle handle are easier to grab, though neither is loaded right down over the shaft as the T-handled ones are. I think there ought to be a anti-skid coating on the underside of the handle tip, to keep it from sliding off the slick surface you just hung it on -- nothing like being two feet away, watching it start to slip, and reaching for it while thinking intently don't rush don't rush don't rush. For that matter, what about those places you hang them? Does anyone make a CaneHook, a device that clamps pretty securely to a surface, with a soft gripper that will hold the cane? If not, why not? This whole area needs work, I think.

I told my wife that having to fiddle with this knee brace -- loosening it while I sit, tightening it when I walk so that it doesn't slide down (having the knee hinge a half inch below my knee is silly) -- gives me a whole new appreciation of people who wear, and therefore have to constantly adjust, garter belts, which I've always thought a silly affectation. (Okay, yes, they do figure in erotics quite nicely. Nice to know they still have a role in life.)

Read an article from the Post of a few days ago where a guy from the Council on Foreign Relations says that 'its time for the Democrats to admit that the surge worked'. I thought that was a nifty turn of phrase, given that a few paragraphs before he'd said that the surge wasn't the prime reason why things are better now in Iraq (oh, how low the concept of 'better' has gone), but still: okay, I'll buy it. It was a good idea, and Bush was right in pushing it. (Pause while I eat a snarky thought.) So, will Democrats ever admit it? My guess is, not as long as they think there's a decent chance someone will say AHA, so you admit that the entire Bush legacy is one of glory and triumph! Which the opposition just might do. Privately, quietly, sure. In public, I doubt it.

How many people are getting pardoned by Bush tonight, and maybe tomorrow with breakfast?