Be humble

Someone asked me today what movie personality I would like to meet.  Note the question had no reference to grope, fondle or caress.  “Really like to meet”, means to me, “have a beer with.” Only one I would think of was Steve MacQueen.

Here I asked what I consider logical questions.  I now wonder if:

• Is there a well known Montague business person (liberal) involved to serve as ‘criticism repellent’.
• Is the Charlottetown lawyer a well known Tory supporter who is ‘connected’ to others who have enjoyed Tory largess?
• Is the Charlottetown lawyer connected in any way to those who participated in the (in)famous golf deal?
• Who actually wrote the cheque to the Lending Agency?
• What (if any) concessions were offered to the Florida orange farmer, to induce him to purchase land at what has been suggested as being below market prices
• Regarding the other participants in the consortium, are any of the shareholders of the numbered company also former shareholders in the golf course investment?

Just asking.

The bright light shineth.  The Honourable Chester, has stated that he is against the ER docs working in the walk-in clinic because he is concerned about burnout.  He has also referred to the fact that if he grants these docs a billing number, the Province will be in violation of the master agreement with the PEI Medical Society. 

WHOA - wonder what that agreement says.  Do you suppose some of our media investigators, might determine what that agreement might say?  Seems like something the consumer of medical services should know.

Does the Honourable Minister actually think that the good docs of the ER, who now drive out of province to provide medical serves for extra pay, are likely to be more stressed by going to the walk-in clinic on Water Street?

I watch very little TV.  Other than Canada Now which I am in the process of tuning out, TV is something I that I use to help turn the brain off at the end of the day.  There is an exception.  Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” is a show that I will sit though if it happens to be on when I start the end of the day.

My enjoyment of the show has nothing to do with the content of the show.  Occasionally, an actor is perfectly cast, and, IMHO, Richard Belzer’s “John Munch” is one of those characters.  One of my favorite all-time TV characters is the intrepid existentialist philosopher, sidewalk prophet, and NYPD Detective John Munch, a character which has survived six different TV series. 

toldyaso, toldyaso, toldyaso...this from Google.ca:

As herself spent 2 years researching the genealogy of various prospective “next dog” purchase, one of the traits she insisted on was a ‘high drive’ dog.  “Whatever”, I would mutter, “sounds expensive”.  If you think about the dogs that serve in law protection, the German Shepard, the Belgian Malinois and the German Poodle (I refuse to call them a French Poodle, the French stole the breed from the Germans) - and if you might have met any of these working dogs while working, there is a similar trait.  They are bold, alert, energetic, watchful, and none have a timid or fearful nature.  They tend to be strong willed, but at the same time they are passionately loyal to their person.

Wee Dax came from a line of ‘high drive” dogs, and I am beginning to understand the term.  Kes, our older female, lives to please her people.  She always looks over her shoulder for approval before and after she does anything and she lives to be praised and patted.  She is a wonderful companion.  Que, is much the same, but he is a timid lad, and a harsh tone or overly stern correction in his training, will cause him to get sad and timid.  I have read that one of the evaluation processes that working police dogs are put through, is a harsh slap on the nose with a rubber hose - if the dog backs up, they fail.  It is inconceivable to me that any young dog would tolerate that.

Then wee Dax sailed into our lives.  Now I understand high drive.  She is very definitely high energy.  She loves everyone and will not hesitate to approach any person to lick their hand.  She is delighted to be a dog and delighted with herself with whatever she choses to do.  While she is not aggressive, she is afraid of nothing.  Big dogs, little dogs, loud noises, people - it does not matter - she just tears around with a silly grin on her face letting everyone know she is just happy to be a dog. 

It appears that a high drive dog will want to do whatever he or she wants - rather than the wishes of the people.  The challenge will be to convince her that what we want her to do, is also what she wants to do.

Last evening, I dozed off in the chair, and at that point Dax decided it was a good time to jump up and club me in the head.  Instinctively I slapped her away (and immediately felt bad).  If I had done that to Kes or Que, either would have been devastated.  Dax sat on her haunches, looked at me with a puzzled but unyielding look on her face, and jumped into my lap.  I guess that may be the difference.  She is extremely inquisitive as her exploration of the hot tub demonstrates.

I am still trying to sort this one out in my mind.  I have even discussed it with Squire Locke, who often has a remarkable way of focusing what I am trying to sort out.  In the early 90’s I ran a dial-up BBS - and sadly the Internet killed the BBS star.  BB S’s were dial-in communities and a huge component on the BB S’s was a message area.  Fido Net was the the key group of messages, having over 40,000 topic areas of discussion.  Each BBS (and at one point there were 140,000+ around the world) would ‘carry’ the topic areas of interest in his or her BBS.  Each BBS on PEI (there were less than 10) would pack up their message and call my BBS and deposit them at my system, and I would pack all of mine, plus theirs and send along to my hub in Moncton, who would do the same and pass along to his hub.  At the same time, I would download his message bases and pass along to my nodes on PEI.  ....and so on, and messages (conversations) would be passed around the world.  I could be having a conversation in a topic area with someone who was on the opposite side of the earth, and the day or two delay created some interest and anticipation. 

Blogs have created an instant exchange, with notifiers letting us know within mere seconds that the conversation continues.  Yet we still have a small community in each blog.  So what makes a community?  What is the commonality that might make a blog community?  It might be an aggregator of commonality (see 84 fitzroy) which certainly aggregates blogs that have have some common interest.  My view of aggregators, is that they tend to remove the reader for the personality of the blog.  I use aggregators , but only use them as notifiers which then triggers a visit to the actual site.

Squire Locke has suggested that perhaps there is nothing more to it than reading each other’s blogs.  I am still struggling. 

A Kodak moment - herself was just removing the roast from the oven and the very aged Pita was perched on the counter (before you gasp and feel compelled to comment on allowing a geriatric feeble cat on the counter - save it, I could not care less what you think), hoping that a wee drop of roast might go astray.  At the same time I was reaching up to pick two mugs from the shelf to make tea to accompany the roast.  Clunk, I dropped one of the cups and it hit Pita on the head (not hard).  She was so startled that she fell off the counter - Que too was waiting for some roast to fall (he was on the floor directly where Pita fell).  Pita landed on Que, who quickly jumped to his feet, Pita shreaked as only a Siamese can, and wee Dax came sailing into the room and leaped into the middle of flying fur.  Wise old Kes hung back, looking at me for direction.

I scooped Pita out of the flying fur and had to sit on the floor I was laughing so hard.  Yeah, they all got some roast - and Pita got some extra.

Cyn has found it offensive to refer to the female partner on a relationship as “the wife of....”.  I am in complete agreement with her thoughts on this.  It reminds me of calls that used to arrive at my domicile, when the former wife of C Willson would answer the phone.  “How yas doin Missus, is the boss there”, was often the voice on the other end. 

This was usually followed by taking the phone receiver, smacking it against the wall twice, and then responding with, “yer talking to her, Buckwheat!” This was often followed by a dry chuckle on the other end, and something like “Eh, Missus, you must be one of them equal rights gals.” Followed by herself responding, “why the hell would I want to be equal to a man?”

(sigh), she was a beautiful, intelligent and articulate woman.  She was also a redhead.

It is rumoured that the hard faced men and women who serve PMPM (and others from the PMO) are scrambling all over Pier 21 in Halifax in anticipation of a PMPM / Bush visit.  It also reported that officials from the Dept of Agriculture have been instructed to be present in Halifax.  Presuming truth to these unconfirmed rumours, should we expect an announcement on opening the borders to CANBEEF?