# Gabrielle Giffords just asked for toast. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 9, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785 "2011-02-09T18:29:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![xanthous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/53a042/32.png) [@xanthous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanthous)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/1 "2011-02-09T18:29:19Z")
Looks like she’s talking. How cool is that? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/2 "2011-02-09T18:34:10Z")
This is good news! I raise my glass and toast her victory! \ ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/3 "2011-02-09T18:42:09Z")
She wants better hospital food. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/4 "2011-02-09T19:19:45Z")
Sounds like she’ll be able to be an effective witness for the prosecution. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/5 "2011-02-09T19:23:28Z")
Awesome news! Is there an article? I assume you mean that she asked verbally. ETA: I was clued in, eventually, by the fact that the OP said “Looks like she’s talking.” ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/6 "2011-02-09T19:27:18Z")
They misunderstood her. Toast meant she wanted champagne to celebrate that she can talk. 😃 Mark tweeted she’s eating three meals a day. That’s great news. They were worried initially that she might have problems swallowing. I guess the feeding tube is long gone now. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/7 "2011-02-09T20:38:58Z")
It’s on the front page of CNN as breaking news. All I can think of is ‘please leave the poor woman in peace’. Seriously, what if her first words were ‘I need to pee’? It’s one thing to report she’s doing okay, another to report on every minute detail. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/8 "2011-02-09T22:16:35Z")
> [@kushiel](#): > > what if her first words were ‘I need to pee’? You must have missed it. That was her first _Tweet_, a few days ago. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2011, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/9 "2011-02-09T23:11:55Z")
I came in to post this. Here’s a news article. [Wounded Rep. Giffords speaking again: reports](http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/09/us-usa-shooting-giffords-idUSTRE71863K20110209) I think this is great news. One month after a brain injury she is speaking and eating. Looks like she’s on track to attend her husband’s space shuttle launch. Anyway, this news is coming from her spokesman, who, I am sure, at least has Mark Kelly’s pemission to speak for Gabby and him. If her first words were indeed, “I have to pee,” I’m sure he would have refrained from making it public. ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/10 "2011-02-10T00:20:48Z")
Powdered Toast Man: suit up! Giffords has called you to champion her vengeance! ---
**Author:** ![Kilmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a6a055/32.png) [@Kilmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilmore)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/11 "2011-02-10T00:39:24Z")
My first word would have been “bastard!” if I’d got shot in the head. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/12 "2011-02-10T00:51:44Z")
Really, there’s been no information leaked at all since Gabby entered Rehab. The location of her injury (in the speech center of the brain) had everyone worried if she’d ever speak again. I’m thankful they choose to let us know that she is beginning to speak. I’m not interested in learning much more. Rehab is a slow, slow process. They won’t know for months exactly how much of her life she’ll regain. So far, it’s sounding like things are going extremely well. > [@cochrane](#): > > I came in to post this. Here’s a news article. > > [Wounded Rep. Giffords speaking again: reports](http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/09/us-usa-shooting-giffords-idUSTRE71863K20110209) > > I think this is great news. One month after a brain injury she is speaking and eating. Looks like she’s on track to attend her husband’s space shuttle launch. > > Anyway, this news is coming from her spokesman, who, I am sure, at least has Mark Kelly’s pemission to speak for Gabby and him. If her first words were indeed, “I have to pee,” I’m sure he would have refrained from making it public. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/13 "2011-02-10T02:18:24Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Really, there’s been no information leaked at all since Gabby entered Rehab. The location of her injury (in the speech center of the brain) had everyone worried if she’d ever speak again. I’m thankful they choose to let us know that she is beginning to speak. Yes. Just because we don’t know her doesn’t mean we’re not concerned about what’s happening. I was very happy to hear that not only did she speak, but that she’s hungry and can specifically ask for what she wants. That’s wonderful progress for somene who has had something so horrible happen to her. I wish that was true for everyone who was shot that day. :(:mad: ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/14 "2011-02-10T03:30:54Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Really, there’s been no information leaked at all since Gabby entered Rehab. The location of her injury (in the speech center of the brain) had everyone worried if she’d ever speak again. While that is normally the location of the speech centers it’s not _always_ so - some people have some of their brain centers “reversed”, so what’s normally on the left is on the right and vice versa. It’s more commonly seen in left-handers (though not universal among them) but does occasionally show up in right-handers. Also, some people have more decentralize speech centers than the norm. It _might_ be that she is either someone with a mirror image of normal organization, or one of the people with less defined speech centers, in which case she is _very_ lucky… not that she isn’t anyhow. Or she could have the more typical brain layout and the bullet just missed some of those language centers. She could still have some residual impairment not yet readily observable as well. So while it’s a good sign only time will tell how she will do long term. (When my mom had her stroke it was on the left side, near what is normally a speech center, but she’s a lefty who apparently had some cross-over compared to normal, so she recovered much better than expected. A case where being not quite normal was an advantage. Even so, she still had some lingering deficits though in normal conversation it might not have been noticed by the average person.) ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/15 "2011-02-10T04:06:12Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Sounds like she’ll be able to be an effective witness for the prosecution. Quite likely not. Short term and long term memory seem to be handled differently. Sort of like the RAM vs. the hard drive in your computer. People who get knocked out rarely are able to recall the preceding few seconds, because those events never had time to get stored in long term memory. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/16 "2011-02-10T04:34:13Z")
> [@Kilmore](#): > > My first word would have been “bastard!” if I’d got shot in the head. I’m pretty sure she was misinterpreted and what she really said was “That fucker is TOAST!” ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/17 "2011-02-10T04:44:54Z")
It was mentioned in the report I saw that she’s been working with a speech therapist. I was hoping that she’d just blurted it out on her own. Instead it looks like she’s been wanting to talk but hasn’t been able to. Still very good news, though. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/18 "2011-02-10T06:04:45Z")
It’s wonderful news. That said, I can’t help but think of Elwood Blues. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2011, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/19 "2011-02-10T14:22:59Z")
> [@Kevbo](#): > > Quite likely not. Short term and long term memory seem to be handled differently. Sort of like the RAM vs. the hard drive in your computer. People who get knocked out rarely are able to recall the preceding few seconds, because those events never had time to get stored in long term memory. But, I had heard that was why she was at the supermarket…to buy toast. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2011, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785/20 "2011-02-11T02:14:10Z")
Excellent news. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gabrielle-giffords-just-asked-for-toast/570785.md?page=2)