POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

The Gift That Keeps on Giving: Treacher’s Knee

[Comments are closed]

In response to some kind of internet provocation, Dan Riehl and Sean Medlock (aka Jim Treacher) got into it on Twitter today, with Mary Katharine Ham providing the chorus. Had Dan known what Sean has gone through with his knee nightmare, I've no doubt he wouldn't have said what he did.

And goodness knows, Sean's gone through a lot.

In case you somehow missed it, Sean had just moved to DC a year and a few months ago to take the job offered him by Tucker Carlson at The Daily Caller when, as he was using a crosswalk to go grab some stuff at a drug store, he was hit by an SUV that was, he discovered later, driven by a State Department employee. This being in DC, he was presented with a ticket for jaywalking while at the hospital, though the ticket gave the wrong intersection.

The driver of the SUV attended to him while he lay in the street waiting for an ambulance, but didn't identify himself as such. As far as I'm aware, Sean has not received any sort of satisfaction for his injuries. The accident caused him, among other things, to lose an apartment that he intended to lease and have to begin his search over again, not to mention first confining him to a wheelchair and then causing him to have to use crutches. You can see his nasty scar over there at his blog.

Almost a year after the original surgery, it was determined that the knee wasn't healing properly, so they had to go in a second time, which meant more time off the knee and then virtually having to re-start the rehab process. A couple of days ago, he was told he could dispense with his crutches, and naturally he overdid it, so that's been the subject of a couple of his recent posts.

Now, there's been some complaining about his posts from some quarters, who feel that he's being whiny about it and that it's TMI regarding his personal situation and that he should get back to the funny stuff. "More little people hitting each other! That's what I like!" At some point, I recommended that he give the knee its own Facebook fan page, which he did.

Say what you will, it's been an enormous factor in his life. It's caused him a lot of pain and frustration and, I would imagine, anger. It's not for me to say whether or not I would have dealt with it any other way than the way that Sean has. In fact, I think that I may accidentally have offended him by being glib about it on a couple of occasions. We used to talk. So, I understand a bit where Dan's coming from.

I know from first-hand experience that this is so, because during my first week at college, I tore cartilage in both of my knees. The lack of mobility combined with the challenges of learning a new place was demanding, and helped to drive me into a depression.

Now, imagine that you're in a new place, trying to get your bearings, and you're struck by a car and handed a ticket. That's a little traumatizing. And you can't get the injustice resolved. And you are a humorist. I'd say it's a little bit daunting. And then people complain that you talk too much about your injury, even though, as a humorist, it's natural that you should share your daily observations, which might even include information about this persistent crap that you're going through. It could even make you a bit thin skinned.

So, I get it, I think. And I will tell you that I was happy to hear it when Sean took 10 days off last month, because I thought he needed a break. I thought so, because his posts were more bitter, and less suffused with the wonted sweetness that is a big part of his charm as a writer.

Someday, we'll have a laugh over this. Then someone will break a stool over my head. And I'll probably have deserved it.

I'm thinking now might be a really good time to change the subject, so . . . look over there! An awesome drug smuggling submarine!

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

Website - More Posts