Word: cords
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...have long been reluctant to criticize Christopher Reeve. It is not easy attacking someone who suffered such a devastating injury and has carried on with spirit. Nor am I particularly keen to violate the Brotherhood of the Extremely Unlucky. (I injured my spinal cord when I was 22 and have been in a wheelchair ever since...
...consciousness, he says. Convinced that a cure is imminent, he wants to share the good news with the largest possible audience. For 28 years I've been hearing that a cure is just a few years away. Being a doctor, I have discounted such nonsense. Most of the spinal-cord injured, however, are not doctors...
These are the facts. Yes, there is research into spinal-cord regeneration and, occasionally, there are some positive results in animal models. But the research is preliminary, at best suggestive. There remain enormous scientific obstacles even beyond the extremely problematic question of getting the neurons to regrow. Yes, this research will bear fruit one day. Unhappily, it is overwhelmingly likely that this day lies many years in the future...
Second, when that time does come, the principal beneficiaries will be the newly injured. People long injured--who've developed scar tissue at the site of the break and whose distal spinal cord (the part below the injury) often turns to mush as the old neurons die--will be the last people to be helped by this research, if they'll be helped at all. The "cure" will probably end up like the polio vaccine: preventing paralysis, not abolishing...
...appliances are good for? Well, here's one that actually solves an everyday problem--Oreck's new vacuum cleaner with a built-in radio. Now you can rock out as you air your rug out without worrying that your Walkman will get tangled up with the vacuum's power cord. There's even a hook to hang your headphones on. Of course, you still have to haul the vacuum up and down stairs and push it around the floor. But hey, what do you expect for $499? The Oreck XL is available in stores or by phone...