111 - Cone Sheep

Okay, this title really does warrant an explanation.

When I was fresh out of high school, a friend of mine, well, more of an acquaintance really, worked as a custodian in a local hospital / hospice that, amongst other things, housed mental patients.

On more than one occasion he talked about the peculiarities of one of the institutionalized patients, I no longer remember the patients name but have better sense than to put here anyway if I did. This man could only speak three word, “cone,” “sheep,” and “shit.” All of his communications with nurses, other patients and visitors were limited to those three words, with slight variations.

If he was in a good mood he would wave at you and exclaim “Cone sheep!” If you asked him how he was feeling and he wasn’t well he might say “sheepy shit.”

According to my acquaintance, through a combination of vocal inflection, facial expressions, gestures, and choices from his extremely limited vocabulary, he was usually able to communicate his desires / needs.

=