“ Par ma foi !” cries Molière’s would-be bourgeois gentleman M. Jourdain: “For more than forty years I have been speaking prose while knowing nothing of it”! I had my own Molière moment just recently when I learned that there was actually a name—and a scientific name at that—for my inability to smell: “anosmia.” I myself might otherwise have come up with a name like “olfactory deprivation,” or perhaps “smell blindness” (I know this is controversial), but I wanted to imply a …
Tag: Disability
“Jack’s and Steamers, a Neighborhood Restaurant Giving People with Disabilities the chance They Deserve” by Samantha Meddaugh
Have you ever walked into a restaurant and immediately felt welcomed and right at home? For me, Jack’s and Steamers in Arvada, Colorado is exactly that. When I walk in after being gone for over three years, the aromas of coffee and home-style cooking happily lead me by the nose, bringing back memories of when I worked there as a blind baker from 2014-2016. It’s a bright blue day outside, or so I’m told, when I return to Jack’s Bar …
A Blind Baker’s Perspective * Samantha Meddaugh * Interview Plus Holiday Recipe!
As a former professional baker, Samantha Meddaugh decided to have a talk with herself about why she chose baking as a career. She had a self-to-self interview about her experiences and challenges being blind and a baker, as well as misconceptions about being disabled. She spoke to herself in her home kitchen, which features stainless steel appliances, white-with-grey-squiggles granite countertops, and all-white cupboards, with a wooden butcher’s block table in the middle. Interviewer Samantha Meddaugh: How did you get into …
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“AN OLFACTORY LIFE,” Fiction by Steve Carr
My nose has been trained to sniff out every objectionable smell within sniffing range. It’s a marvel of radar technology. Why the military hasn’t used my nose for national defense, or offense, I have no idea. Being in the hospital, in this bed, my nose has been working overtime. Cleaning fluids. Pure alcohol. The perfumes the nurses wear. My urine soaking through the top sheet. My nose is unable to block out the smell of any of it. My nose …
***CLOSED*** Call for Submissions & Pitches for Aromatica Poetica’s Blind Writers Project – Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry ***CLOSED***
Thanks to a grant from the Awesome Foundation Disability chapter, we will be able to pay and feature the work of four blind or visually impaired writers in the coming months. Please peruse the site and visit our general submissions page before submitting to get a sense of what we like to publish. More info about Aromatica Poetica’s Blind Writers Project can be found below, but here’s the skinny on what you need to know: Nonfiction, fiction, and poetry from …