Choriamb pointed today to a blog entry by Scott Adams, the guy who invented Dilbert.It seems he was afflicted with Spasmodic Dysphonia, a condition in which you lose your voice - but only in certain contexts. Apparently it's a neurological condition.
"The weirdest part of this phenomenon is that speech is processed in different parts of the brain depending on the context. So people with this problem can often sing but they can’t talk."
You see that sometimes in victims of strokes.
Adams says he recently discovered that he could still speak in rhyme, and began to repeat, over and over:
"Jack be nimble, Jack be quick.
Jack jumped over the candlestick.
"Somehow, he says, he managed to remap his brain by repeating this rhyme over and over again, and now he is on a path toward recovery - which he says is practically unheard of. The Wikipedia article on the condition sounds skeptical about his cure.
Even though Wikipedia's not so sure,
I'm glad Scott Adams found himself a cure.
So just remember, if there comes a time
When your voice fails... do try a nursery rhyme.
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