I picked up one of the local events publications the other day, called “Currents”. The cover story features coming of the independent movie “Murderball” to the downtown theater.
Unfortunately, the editors apparently don’t know the difference between “quadriplegic” (someone who is paralyzed in the arms and legs) and “paraplegic” (someone who is paralyzed from the waist down only).
The image this typo conjures up is both hilarious but also very sad.
Here are illustrative aids to explain the problems this typo presents:
The answer to the quad- vs. para- is explained in the movie. The confusion that most people have is that they are assume that it must be total paralysis of the arms and we are expecting all quadriplegics to be like Christopher Reeves. However, depending on the severity and location of the spinal injury that leads to the paralysis, quadriplegics can have partial use of their arms. In the movie you will see that different players can’t close their hands or rotate their arms. The movie talks about how the players are graded on a scale of 0.5 – 3.5 depending on how much use they have in their arms and hands.
Comment by some dude 09.13.05 @ 9:46 amPlease stop ruining my jokes with facts.
Comment by Allen 09.13.05 @ 2:15 pmlmao allen-the images that were conjured when i read it were like the ones you drew, and i can’t stop laughing. i understood what you were getting at, so the joke’s not comepletely ruined. 