One of the seniors in the memoir–writing class I teach will appear on the Super Bowl this Sunday! No, not in the game. In a commercial! With the 1985 Chicago Bears!
From the WGN Radio website:
During the first quarter of the Feb. 7 game, an updated version of the classic “Super Bowl Shuffle” will light up TVs in bars and living rooms across the country in the form of a cell phone commercial. Some key elements, however, will be different this time around. Most noticeably, the now-middle aged players will be wearing No. 50 jerseys and singing refashioned lyrics to promote Boost’s new $50 plan in front of a cast of aged actors.
One of those “aged actors” is…Joette Waters, from our “Me, Myself and I” memoir-writing class. Joette did a fair bit of acting when she was younger and decided to get back into it now, in her prime. She was thrilled to get the part and said the former Bears players were all nice, nice guys who were easy to work with. Describing her role to me, she simply said, “They shuffle, and I’m the referee!”
Look for Joette during the Super Bowl.
At class last Wednesday, we all agreed that Joette will be the *star* of the commercial on Sunday. Former quarterback Jim McMahon, defensive end Richard Dent, wide receiver Willie Gault, and linebackers Otis Wilson and Mike Singletary? They’ll just be there to back Joette up. Look for the Sprint Boost Mobile commercial during the first quarter of the game Sunday night to see our superstar in the Super Bowl.
And wait. There’s more! Another student in our class, Hanna Bratman, was on TV recently, too. Hanna was featured in a Someone You Should Know segment on CBS television here in Chicago in January. You might remember Hanna from a previous blog post. Hanna grew up in Germany. Her family was Jewish, and Hanna escaped on her own before World War II. She was only 20 years old when she arrived, alone, in the United States. Others in her family didn’t make it out in time. “I’ll tell you this,” she often says to me. “I’ve always been very, very lucky.”
On January 7, Hanna celebrated her 90th birthday and the 70th anniversary of her escape from Germany to America. The CBS interview focuses on how Hanna has embraced technology to write her memoirs–she has macular degeneration and uses special software that enlarges the print on the screen for her. From the CBS web site:
What do you want to be doing when you’re 90? Hannah Bratman of Chicago is going high-tech to make memories. As CBS 2’s Harry Porterfield reports, she’s someone you should know.
I am a very lucky woman. Thanks to that memoir-writing class, Hanna is someone I do know. So is Joette. I am surrounded by superstars.
Me and class stars.
Wow. This means I’ll have to resist the temptation to go to the kitchen for snacks during the commmercials. For the first quarter, at least — I wouldn’t want to miss this!
Loved reading and especially hearing you on NPR re Braille.
Best of all was reading about the kid that asked about vets,
Thanks for all the info loved it hearing Hanna too.
Thanks, Ann — I’ve done a couple more school visits since that public radio stint and will be blogging about that soon, including more interesting questions from kids.
And I agree with you about Hanna — she truly isone of a kind!
I hope many people heard about Hanna. She’s a great antidote to just about any excuse you ever heard for not doing something…i.e. I’m too old/tired/had a hard life/sad/ill/fill in the blank. What a truly great person. Thanks Beth.
Amen! And to add to all Hanna’s other wonderful qualities, she is *very* witty, too. Truly a joy to be around. That said, she is very serious about getting her life story down on paper, she hopes that others, especially young people will learn from her true stories of being shunned by former friends in her early teens
I am Hanna’s computer instructor and it is truly an honor and privilege to know her. Hanna epitomizes strength and certainty despite circumstances.
Ingrid, I have heard so much from Hanna about all the wonderful people at the Lighthouse, so good to hear from you here on my blog post. Hanna is the oldest student in our class, one of two students in class who has a visual impairment (besides me!) and just happens to be one of our star students when it comes to using a computer to write her memoirs. I think you get to read some of her stories as she composes them, so you know what a fine – and entertaining –writer she is. That woman certainly knows how to spin a story!
The work you do at the Lighthouse helps Hanna stay independent, and if you ask me, that has TONS to do with her staying spunky. THANK YOU.
Stuart,
I have a couple of dear friends who follow the Jets, and before your comment it hadn’t occurred to me how the name “Joette” might appeal to you Jet fans. And get this: Joette was raised in New York City!
Maybe next year…?
HI Beth:
I’m so glad I found your blog!
I’m a fellow five-time Seeing Eye graduate, and i’ve heard a lot about you.
I’ve thought about writing a blog about my adventures with my dog, but didn’t know if anyone would read it!
i enjoy writing and appreciate reading good writing as well.
I loved your story about speaking to the kids about dropping food on the ground. I’ve done a lot of speaking in schools, but I never went into the gory details of what can happen to a guide dog when they pick up those tasty morsals.
One of my favorite questions came from a kinder gardener. He asked if I wanted to be cured. Out of the mouths of babes. I replied that I didn’t. I explained that I’ve lived this way all my life, and a cure would be a bigger challenge to become accustomed to. Beside, there are some things, like my dogs, that I would never have gotten to experience if I could see.
Have to go for now, but I’ll be baack…
Beth,
I had to answer my door before I could ask you some questions about how you do some things with your blog like; insert photos, embed links and insert quotes from other sites or articles using a screen reader?
It seems these are all things expected of good bloggers these days. So, for someone who isn’t a visual learner to adopt these techniques is a challenge.
thanks for any advice.
Dear Lolly,
Delighted to hear you’re interested in blogging. My advice is to start out without using links or adding graphics, I know that may sound unambitious, but I’ll be honest with you – when I first started blogging I found simply learning the blog software difficult enough, so for a while I didn’t bother adding any links or blocking quotes or anything fancy like that, I just wrote a couple paragraphs for each post and left it at thhat. As time went on, I started learning html code bit by bit, I’m guessing the words “html code” sounds super-advanced but really, after a while it wasn’t that hard. But first things first – I suggest you sign up to start a blog and just play with putting text in, selecting what catagories you want to write about, that sort of thing first. Good luck, and please leave another comment when you get yours started so I can take a look. Okay, a listen!
Beth,
I’ve managed to avoid learning HTML so far, and I’m aiming to keep my record spotless…
I have a web site that I had an accomplished programmer build for me, and I have her make the changes so that I don’t have to venture into HTML land. It’s for guide dog users who are facing life transitions with their dogs (retirement, adoption after retirement, imminent death and/or euthanasia.) It’s also for people who want to learn more about how their guides think, learn and behave. http://www.guidebrookproductions.com
The web site is where I’ve decided to put my energy at this point, so a blog will have to wait.
Sometime I wish you would write a post about how you learned to do the things you do in this blog. I suspect others might benefit from it as well.
Great idea! I meanm, great idea for you to have that web site, and great idea to have me explain how I do this blogging thing at some point. Might be somewhat of a complicated post, as the workarounds can be a bit tricky to explain, but hey, I’m up to the challenge. I will definitely post something about “blogging by ear” at some point, just can’t say when. Stay tuned!
Lolly I just checked out your web site – it’s great! As fate would have it, you left that comment with the info about your site on the very day Hanni turned ten years old, just about the time I am thinking about a “life transition.” Your site is very helpful. Who knows –I may link to it in a future blog post!
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