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Film critic Roger Ebert has lost his ability to speak, but still communicates
AP ^ | February 16, 2010

Posted on 02/16/2010 2:31:11 PM PST by ConservativeStatement

NEW YORK (AP) — Film critic Roger Ebert lost his ability to speak nearly four years ago, when he underwent a tracheostomy, a procedure that opens an airway through an incision in the windpipe, after surgery for cancer in his jaw.

In an interview in the new issue of Esquire magazine, the 67-year-old film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times uses pen and paper and text-to-speech computer software to communicate. He's developed a kind of rudimentary sign language, and he sometimes draws letters with his finger on the palm of his hand.

(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: critics; ebert; movies
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To: Beelzebubba

My wife had bone cancer of the jaw. The surgeons removed over 50% of her jaw and put in a temporary titanium structure that looked a lot like strap metal.

A year later, they removed a bone from her lower leg and refashioned a new jawbone and last year she received dental implants to regain some chewing on that side of her mouth.

She will never be the same again, but every day I am thankful for how God and skilled doctors restored her to a vestige of what she had once been. It has been six years and so far, no return of cancer.


41 posted on 02/16/2010 3:37:44 PM PST by formerlytempaussie (Minnesota- National Headquarters for Recounts)
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To: Vision
This illustrates the fact that victimhood confers no virtue. Victims tend to be just as big a bunch of a-holes as perps do. They just caught a bad card.
42 posted on 02/16/2010 3:38:53 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: Palladin

If you read his Twitter feed, you might develop a dislike. It’s all “teabaggers” and “Palin is the devil.”


43 posted on 02/16/2010 3:41:03 PM PST by Rastus
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To: formerlytempaussie

Marxism tries to suck the life out of free people. Guess it is only fair that it sucks the life out of it’s proponents.


44 posted on 02/16/2010 3:42:21 PM PST by Eleven Bravo 6 319thID
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To: formerlytempaussie

May God bless and keep you both and I will pray that it NEVER returns.


45 posted on 02/16/2010 3:46:17 PM PST by Salamander (....and I'm sure I need some rest but sleepin' don't come very easy in a straight white vest.......)
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To: originalbuckeye
He's developed a kind of rudimentary sign language, and he sometimes draws letters with his finger on the palm of his hand.
Hey it's too bad he's not a conservative or a Palin cuz that would make a good Family Guy episode or a SNL skit
46 posted on 02/16/2010 3:58:19 PM PST by lewislynn (What does the global warming movement and the Fairtax movement have in common? Disinformation)
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To: Salvey

I find most older people either become sweeter in old age or bitter in old age and typically it boils down to how they coped with the trials in their life. The person who finds the good in hardships and disappointments learns to cope better than the ones who just become more harsh and critical.

It seems obvious which way Ebert handled his challenges because he seems to be a very bitter man.


47 posted on 02/16/2010 4:00:50 PM PST by OrangeHoof ("Barack Obama" is Swahili for "Bend over suckahs".)
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To: woofie

That picture isn’t Ebert — it’s Pat, from Saturday Night Live!!


48 posted on 02/16/2010 4:14:34 PM PST by WL-law
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To: Palladin
"I never disliked him—just thought he had poor taste in movies."

I'm always interested in what Ebert has to say about film. Agree with him or not, he's a thoughtful critic and I've learned something from him again and again.

That said, I'm not too keen on his politics, but I wish him only the best.

Life is hard.

49 posted on 02/16/2010 4:16:29 PM PST by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: originalbuckeye

50 posted on 02/16/2010 4:20:54 PM PST by Libloather (Tea totaler, PROUD birther, mobster, pro-lifer, anti-warmer, enemy of the state, extremist....)
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To: reagan_fanatic
"My Mom has chewed snuff (she’s an old-fashioned Southern woman)"

I was under the impression that Southern women chewed dirt. But what do I know.

Just something they tell kids growing up in Massachusetts.

51 posted on 02/16/2010 4:21:42 PM PST by billorites (freepo ergo sum)
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To: DB

I had to click the link to see what you were talking about. What a shame. He is still a hateful provocateur, but he can now witness the ugliness of his thoughts reflected in his mirror every day.


52 posted on 02/16/2010 4:28:07 PM PST by Sgt_Schultze (A half-truth is a complete lie)
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To: Rastus

He’s a “teabag” accuser? What a shame for his current condition, it looks like he out of business for any feltching.


53 posted on 02/16/2010 4:30:44 PM PST by Sgt_Schultze (A half-truth is a complete lie)
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To: Sgt_Schultze

I don’t know what that is, luckily. Someone asked if he could take a donkey punch, so now I know that one. LOL.


54 posted on 02/16/2010 6:46:38 PM PST by Rastus
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To: Rastus

I hadn’t heard of that “technique” before. Suffice it to say, it’s tame in comparison. Highlight, right-click and search. It’s the perfect response to the teabag moniker.


55 posted on 02/16/2010 7:36:50 PM PST by Sgt_Schultze (A half-truth is a complete lie)
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To: mountaineer1997
Suggest that FReepers be respectful of people experiencing facial surgeries, whatever the cause.

I hear that. I will merely say that Ebert recently made fun of Rush Limbaugh because Russ had a weight problem.

That's all I'll say.

56 posted on 02/16/2010 7:39:41 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (I was born in America, but now I live in Declinistan.)
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To: TET1968

What do you mean? That writing about the Arts is inherently immoral?


57 posted on 02/16/2010 7:50:02 PM PST by Borges
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