Rob Ford Radio Personality

Rob Ford, the mayor of the city of Toronto, went on the air today via radio for two hours accompanied by his side-kick/brother, Doug Ford.  I can only imagine that the Mayor feels his support slipping away and is now in full campaign-damage-control-look-at-me mode.

 

The term Agitprop immediately sprung to mind as I listened to a report of the latest buffoonery from the Fords.  The term agitprop originated as a result of a department in the old Soviet Union; namely The Department for Agitation and Propaganda.  Only a regime clearly not for the people or perhaps George Orwell (in irony) could have come up with such a blatantly obvious name for a government department.

While in it's original form the Department for Agitation and Propaganda did not have any unpleasant connotations, it was later changed to Ideological Department....another autocratic brain wave.  Agitpro changed meaning later to mean any artistic or dramatic means of carrying a message to the audience.

While I don't expect the brothers Ford to know any of this, they do know what to do in order to win support for their transit program -- flood the airwaves, distract people, cajole and bully, until you get your way.  Men's men they are.

And while i'm at it, why do tyrannical governments always come up with the most grandiose and convoluted names for their governmental deparments?  Is it an attempt to cover up the real work of the departments concerned with baffle gab?  Or is it an indication of how out of touch most tyrannies are with the pavement and the people?  If any of this is the case, then all the brothers need is a catchy, and at the same time, convoluted name for their new show.

February Update

 What am I up to?  Let's see:  I am swamped at work.  This is the result of two things....the first, a rookie's mistake.  In order to be the helpful new guy, I have taken cases from clinicians on the Adult Division Team.  A lot of horse trading goes on in the hallways - "I have a client that would respond really well with you." - Then, instead of saying, "No."  I slowly begin to think that just one more client won't make or break me.

So now I have over 24 active clients and with three of them very involved with everybody and their brother in on the action -- hospital, parents, other agencies, in-house clinicians...

I easily have 13 to 19 voice messages each day and the flow of e-mail, junky and real, is endless.  I am trying a to-do list app for my ipad and iphone.  I try to prioritize.  But, having an ADHD brain does not help.  Sometimes, the last call or e-mail I read gets done first, and the first thing I should have done gets left behind.  I find spending an hour (ok, or a little more) at night helps to keep the clutter of voice and mail messages down to a manageable amount.  Closing the door at the office and putting some music on in the background also helps.  Most of all, you just keep swimming.

Home:  The kids are doing well and we are working on bettering their involvement at school.  Tarah is taking piano lessons and Broadway dancing lessons at Seneca College.  Seth is still semi-interested in his Tae Kwon Do.   And I spend the latter part of each evening (when possible) watching fabulous TV that aired on premier channels and or, that I totally missed.  Firefly and The Big C are two great TV series that come to mind.

The wife is still working on her Masters and we continue to do the parent thing as well as we can.

I drive to work.  The winter has been un-seasonably warm.  The sun was out most of the week.  I've dropped two inches off my waist and am on day 70-something of not smoking.  Hurray for me!

Getting physically close to the kids involves, besides the usual hugs and kisses, pretending to be a puppy who is all excited to see the kids and is jumping and snuffling and yelping at their necks and arms.  Tickly fun.

The Big C

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Walking

Walking in my shoes is such hard work sometimes.  I tire and resort to sitting, shuffling on my ass, rolling or sometimes, undulating across the floor.  I like it.  It gives me a whole new point of view....oh, I say to myself, so this is what it's like to be three feet tall!  Sometimes, when the locomoting gets to be too much, I take a chance and try walking a mile in my own shoes again, only to find that they are sooo uncomfortable.

The leather is soft, worn in and a perfect rust-brown hue; but somehow, by the end of my short walk, I end up writhing again from the inevitable, undeniable truth: Walking in my shoes is such hard work.