Mr. E'Toile

In high school I failed a pop quiz.  In English class we were studying Ernest Hemingway, reading A Clean, Well Lighted Place.  I was the outlier--the only girl in class at Gonzaga, an all-boys school.

I had done my homework.  I read the story and loved it.  I analyzed that short story with my friends the day before, so I was not fazed when my English teacher announced we were having a pop quiz.  I knew the story and was confident until I saw the question.

What was the old man's handicap?

I thought it was a trick question.  The old man was not handicapped per se, but drunk, which was disabling and caused him to walk unsteadily.  My teacher gave me an F.  "He was deaf," Mr. E'Toile told me.  That blew my mind.   

Standing in that classroom with my teacher, it dawned on me that people see deafness differently than I do.

That moment came back to me while I was writing the post about Levi's reading list.  I wrote, "Levi says mirror."  I typed that sentence a few times over, typing the exact same thing each time.  Should I say "say" or "sign"?  

Am I committing a non sequitur when I say "say" is to express something, and "sign" is to express something so those two words mean the same?  

No.  Thank goodness there is no Mr. E'Toile lurking around, waiting to give me an F!  I blog with an awareness that many people would answer the pop quiz just as Mr. E'Toile expected.   I also blog with the attitude that the old man's handicap is his drunkedness.  

To give Mr. E'Toile credit, he knocked off that F and gave me another pop quiz.  :)