Wednesday, March 21, 2007

largo

largo - noun - a slow and solemn tempo marking having between 40 and 60 beats per minute

microcephaly


microcephaly - n - An abnormally small head and underdeveloped brain.

The microcephalon, popularly known as a pinhead, is usually mentally retarded, or, if you prefer Newspeak, exceptional or special. Tod Brownings tasteless 1932 movie Freaks, loosely based on Todd Robbins's really disturbing short story Spurs, featured genuine circus Freaks, including such celebrities as Siameses twins Daisy and Violet Hilton, midgets Harry and Daisy Earles, basket case Randian, half-man Johnny Eck, and pinheads Schlitzy and the Snow Twins. Schlitzy was unusual in that he was not as severely retarded as most pinheads. and especially in that he was a transvestite.

I finally saw Freaks around 1973. It's a creepy movie, and one of the few I've seen where castration plays a prominent role.