tony’s blog

Humans continue to drift into even more stupidity. A whole generation has grown up with MS-Word “correcting” their letters from “re:” to “Re:” and from “cc” to “Cc” – now they actually believe it’s correct. Tony received an invite to “our upcoming Knowledge Exchange Event: Promoting Healthy Living Among Low Income and/or Diverse Ethno-cultural Women” (honestly!). It came from either the “Leadership In Learning Centre” or the “Centre For Innovation And Discovery”. Puke.

The new Chief of Medicine oop noarth is native, and is pushing “traditional healing” as a healthier alternative to psychiatry – and guess where the funds are going? A yob started backing out of the parking lot without looking, almost hit Tony parking in the next slot, and had a huge shout at him (Tony thought rather sadly about natural selection).

But sometimes humans fight back! We have a “wet hostel”, Claremont, in which alcoholics are given wine every hour of the day for free, until they die. (It’s cheaper, cos they don’t cause road accidents and call ambulances and use up court time.) One of the “clients” (ugh) got really ill but miraculously recovered last month. He was so impressed that he’s given up drink … and so have several of his friends! Now the staff are wondering if these clients should be evicted? “You MUST drink zis Vine!!”

A fully-booked flight from Vancouver to Trunna was delayed many hours, and the passengers were delighted by the opportunity to see our country win the Olympic hockey final against the USA. When the flight was called in mid-match, ALL the passengers refused to go, and the plane was obliged to wait an hour on the tarmac until the end of the match!

MoiDeGaulle. a predecessor to Idi Amin, once told the American ambassador loudly and publicly “I want every American out of France forthwith”. The ambassador replied smoothly “Does that include the ones buried here, Mr. President?”

Occasionally there is even supernatural help. The United/Universalist Church of Hamilton (which doesn’t believe in anything much) purchased a German church here, took out the pews etc, but were stuck with a huge cross made into the wall, which they found offensive. So they painted it over. During the next month it gradually reappeared, through the paint! So they painted it over again … and the same thing happened. Three times.

One of Tony’s colleagues oop noarth reminisced about being sent to the Residential School at age 9. (Canadians have been taught that this was the Supreme Evil, on a par with Hitler.) She said it was great! “They had running water, so we didn’t have to carry water from the river every day. AND they had electricity. AND a wood furnace – I went down to the basement to see it – so we didn’t have to gather wood every day.” Bit different from Tony going to boarding-school in 1951 (a decade or two earlier).

Ooh la la – the first cerebrovascular event. Tony gets home with Ben from a walk, sits down, and notices the left side of the world flashing in his left eye – just like when you drive past sun shining through branches, and it flickers on your eye. Went on for about 5 minutes. Alas, this time there won’t be a “deus ex machina” to explain it away, in the shape of Victoria’s pot-muffins.

And Tony had a thought. When his IBS gets bad, he doesn’t get abdominal pain (which is why it took 10 years to get diagnosed). He gets extreme fatigue, weakness, malaise, light-headedness and sometimes vertigo, for hours or days at a time. Hey! IBS runs in families … Do you suppose that some cases of “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” (aka “Myalgic Encephalomyelitis”) might actually be undiagnosed IBS?