New Source of Humour

The upcoming Ontario Provincial election has brought to my door the usual assortment of candidate brochures. These are not usually items that I spend much time with. They tend to say the obvious, endorse goodness and light and be vehemently, even if politely, opposed to all other political parties.

Yesterday, in the midst of an idle moment, I picked up two brochures that had gotten trapped in the usual debris on the kitchen counter and began to read. I hadn't gotten far into the first one when I began to chuckle. This brochure proudly proclaimed that the candidate was the father of six children and then in the very next sentence proclaimed that "he was a man of action." The second declaration hardly seemed necessary. I began to wonder if his promo writer was perhaps secretly on the payroll of one of his opponents.

The second brochure also began with a declaration that eclipsed everything else that followed in the glitzy brochure. The candidate's opening declaration was, "Nothing is more important to me than representing the people of ... after October 10." Wow! Who says that winning isn't everything.

The intentional, or unintentional, disclosures in these two brochures prompted me to scuttle off to the recycle container to retrieve the brochure from the representative of the third major party in the election. Unfortunately it didn't offer anything to match the revelations of the other two. It just had two themes - the evils of those other guys and the absolute saintliness of the candidate. Other than sounding like it might be the first salvo in a beatification submission it offered no comparable personal revelations.

My, aren't elections fun?

A Common Affliction

Ironically, in today's newspaper, it was a movie review that offered the most insightful comment on the world. An Associated Press review by Christy Lemire of the movie "Music and Lyrics" was the source. The review states, almost as an aside, concerning one of the characters in the movie, "Cora takes herself very seriously but has no idea what she is talking about."

Eliminate the personal reference and you are in possession of a comment that surely has a broad application. Our world is one in which each individual's right to express their personal opinion is sacrosanct. And, ridiculous as that sometimes becomes, I have no desire to restrict it - even when people obviously do not know what they are talking about. However, it is often the arrogance and blustering that accompanies the expression of such opinions that causes them to lose their charm.

When I encounter such pronouncements in the future perhaps I can save a little stress on my blood pressure by just muttering "Cora" under my breath.