Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with amputee

Have Space Pogo Stick--Will Travel

The Bridge on the River Kai Ryssdal — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:37:47 -0800

Name-that-golden-age-SF-bookfilter: a kid wins a contest to go to a space station, and it's not Have Space Suit--Will Travel. I must have read this in '95 or '6, but it was old, old enough that my parochial school library's copy had a signature on the card from one of my classmates' parents. The basic premise: a kid wins a contest to go to a space station (a big Von Braun-y wheel, depicted on the cover) and plays a sort of junior science intern role there. There's a kindly commanding officer who doesn't have any legs, but that's no problem because everyone gets around the station on pogo stick-esque devices, bouncing off the walls, and (maybe?) an older brother character in one of the junior members of the crew. There are pygmy-esque Martians (on Mars and in movies, I don't think the main character ever meets any of them), a satellite colony for the elderly the main character goes to on some sort of field trip, and a swimming-in-microgravity contest where the characters try to get across a room starting from the middle.

It's totally not implausible that I'm mixing up a bunch of stories I read as a kid here, but the one I'm looking for is the one where everyone gets around the space station on pogo sticks and the commander doesn't have legs. Not that untangling any others I'm mixing up wouldn't be nice, though! I've been googling the story for ages, but haven't ever come up with anything. Hope me, Ask Metafilter!

A first person account of self-amputation.

stuboo — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:01:14 -0800

Help me find the first person account of a man who cut off his own hand and (successfully) made it look like an accident. A few years ago I read an essay that was a first person account of a man who cut off his own hand after many years of suffering from a form of body integrity identity disorder.

I can't find that story now. Can you help?

Wii and Amputee

lil' ears — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 17:01:41 -0800

Wii and amputee: Can anyone help out with which games are one-hand friendly? A friend would like to get her husband a Wii. He had his left arm amputated (leaving approx 3 inches of forearm below the elbow) and so the nunchuk could be strapped to the area we affectionately call "Stumpy". Besides the normal Wii sports and most of Rayman Raving Rabbids, which fun games could he play?

Amputee Handshake

ElmerFishpaw — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 22:33:14 -0800

You lost your right hand in an accident. Do you want me to use my left hand when giving you a handshake? Whats going on in your brain?

Does it make you uncomfortable that I thought ahead: "Okay this guy is missing his right hand and has to give people the somewhat awkward left-to-right handshake, I'll use my left."

Does it feel better to shake hands more like everybody else, left-to-left? Do people do this for you often? Or are you so used to left-to-right handshakes by now that youre over it and it bugs you when people make an exception for you and remind you of your deformity.

Is there a difference if this is our first-ever meeting handshake or if we've known each other for a while?