Blind bland?

In another place I read an article about visually impaired (i.e. blind) people, which elicited the following request:

'People who struggle to see are not "VI people" or visually impaired people - they are people who have a visual impairment. Society has a hideous tendancy [sic] to see the impairment and not the person. Their impairment is but one part of them - only one.'

This is unnecessary pedantry. People from Scotland are usually described as Scots or Scottish people - there's no need for the extra words, which don't change the meaning.

A third party has defended the original writer as 'conscientious, caring' etc - which I didn't, and wouldn't, dispute, and which I suggest misses the point. There is no benefit in trying to hide someone's status (as blind or visually impaired) with clumsy extra words... even if worshipping at the busy altar of political correctness.

Deep-fried in print

This month's Wanderlust magazine includes, in its Serendipities feature, my short article on deep-fried Mars bars in Inverbeg. This happened on our way back from Tobermory, on the island of Mull. Mmm, I can taste those Mars bars right now...