680News - Lisa Brandt

We do love to make a sport of whining about the weather don’t we? It doesn’t matter if it’s cold or hot or wet or dry, it’s never exactly what we want.

This summer’s rain has shattered records and there has been a lot of complaining about how wet and cool it has been. Now, with the Ex on, there is no way to fool ourselves: The summer is almost over.

It has been an alright summer as far as I’m concerned. I don’t like oppressive heat and I am a shade-seeking person. But many trips on a motorcycle later, I have several strangely shaped tan spots that are former burn spots. Although I freakishly slather SPF 60 on myself, I forgot about the tops of my feet on the one day I wore Sketchers and the bottom of my neck! I challenge anyone to determine how I acheived these diamond shaped brown areas, without knowing my choice of footwear the day we toured the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton.

This is expected to be a warm week but a wet one as well. Still, there ought to be enough sunshine to make the sun-deprived among us feel a bit like they got some summertime in. Not enough, though, I’m sure. Just consider this payback for all of the stinking hot, humid summers people like ME had to suffer through! You’ll get your ideal season back next year, I’m sure.

The 130th edition of the CNE opens this morning. And of course the buzz here as in many places this morning has been all about our Ex memories.

My family lived quite a ways outside of Toronto but I remember the big trek into the city for the CNE. Mom, dad and my brother Kevin and I would wear our comfortable shoes and dad would give us an allowance for the day’s activities. It was up to us if we spent it on rides or the midway or on so many candy apples (my favourite!) that we felt ill for the whole drive home!

I loved rides that scared me a little. I also got a kick out of some of the midway games and I remember the optimism in my little brain that I would win that big bear. The year I finally covered the big circle with the black discs was a big moment! I imagined myself going pro, as a Disc Circle Coverer. But my feat was never to be repeated.

My brother was a master at any and all shooting games and he helped me get over the embarrassment of losing my substantial cookies on the ferris wheel. I’ve never really liked heights!

Later on, as teenagers, my cousin and Wanda and I took the bus to the big city and on one visit we rode the Alpine a personal record 26 times! We just kept handing the guys more tickets as we swung around to the loading areas.

More recently, I’ve been to the Ex in my role as a Big Sister. I’d take my Little Sister and one of her friends and hold their backpacks while they had all the fun. I’m not into rides so much anymore and I’ve morphed from the fun-lover into the “parental” role. But I still enjoy a candy apple and playing a game or two. And now if it seems the carnies are getting too friendly with my pretty little charges, I furrow my brow and they back off! Such is the role of caretaker!

My CNE memories are probably pretty run of the mill. What are yours? The end of summer is coming, so let’s go to the Ex!

This country is apparently about to get a national organ donation registry. A Globe and Mail report this morning says it’s in response to as many as 1,200 people dying every year because of a lack of coordination.

It is puzzling to me that so many people are buried or cremated with perfectly usable organs intact, while others die while waiting for a precious heart or kidney. If it’s a religious issue or something else that is part of your core belief system I suppose it’s your right to decide not to become a donor. But, I will never understand kind and generous people who supposedly care about the welfare of their fellow humans, who don’t bother to tell their loved ones they wish to donate organs or tissue.

A lawyer friend once told me that I’d be shocked by how many people refuse to get a will because they think that somehow they will die right away! If only they could see the living hell they leave behind for their loved ones. The people they claim to care so much about are the ones who have to deal with the fallout from a silly supposition.

The death of a loved one isn’t always something you can anticipate. Make your wishes known - once - and then you can forget about it. My friend Marc is a living example of the kindness of a family who lost a young family member in a car crash. Marc received her lungs, replacing his failing ones, and he has been given the gift of many years to watch his young sons grow and be a partner to his wife.

As for the new system, it will reportedly include coordination of all provinces except Quebec. I believe it’s an excellent expenditure of tax dollars. And I hope it saves lives.

Sometimes my media siblings baffle me. Not my 680News siblings but those in other realms of media, in this case, in the U.S.

Since the John Edwards affair story started to bubble, it’s been fascinating to see how few of the major media outlets bothered to run with the story. There’s been some sort of strange cone of silence around the issue. Some say it’s out of respect for his wife, who’s very well-liked and is battling cancer. Others think there’s a double standard, and some sort of bizarre agreement that they keep their hands off the story.

Some time ago the National Enquirerbroke the story that claimed the withdrawn U.S. presidential candidate fathered a child with a campaign videographer who allegedly gave birth to his love child in February.

Edwards lied and lied and lied, until it became too much of a hot potato for the Democratic party whose members pressured him to say something and diffuse the situation. So he did. By admitting to an affair with the woman in 2006, but offering to do a paternity test to prove he’s not the baby’s father. Even though he’s no longer in the running for the White House, he is likely to be appointed to some sort of official role, and is therefore worthy of scrutiny.

Even if the hands-off approach was in deference to his wife, Elizabeth, doesn’t that make him even more of a cad, if he launched an affair with another woman while his wife was fighting for her life? Would any other politician get this kind of treatment? I think not.

The coverage, or lack thereof, of this story is the epitome of hypocrisy in light of the way any other political figure in a similar situation has been treated. That doesn’t mean all political figures are treated fairly but they should, at least, be treated the same. Edwards may have now sunk his political career, but at least he has finally come clean and admitted his ego got in the way of his judgment. I’ll say.

Our Shauna Hunt interviewed the author of a new book on traffic patterns who says, basically, that we need to be more confident and a bit more aggressive on the road.

But he means aggressive in a good way, not in a selfish me-at-all-costs way. And confidence is not to be confused with arrogance.

Tom Vanderbilt is the author, and - as an example - he says studies show driving all the way to the end of the merge lane before butting over, actually improves the flow of traffic.

But he also admits it’s very hard to get people to change their ways on the road and that everyone thinks they’re the good driver and everyone else is wrong. Plus, waiting until the end of the merge lane to butt in seems pretty risky, doesn’t it? What if you run out of lane?

Left lane hoggers, scaredy-cats who putt-putt in the centre lane, bobbers and weavers - they’re all trouble on the roads but trying to modify their habits is a bit of a losing battle.

The book is called Traffic, Why We Drive The Way We Do And What It Says About Us. Vanderbilt says from what he’s seen, Toronto drivers are quite polite. But he’s from New York so, it’s all relative.

I’ve often touted the virtues of a well-placed apology and now the medical community is apparently finally putting it into practise. Not because of me, of course! But because it’s just the right thing to do.

The National Post has the story this morning of how an “I’m sorry” defuses a potentially legally quagmired situation. A Winnipeg woman was given the wrong medication and instead of covering for each other, the patient got a quick apology and compensation.

One of the big problems with a mistake is when the person who makes it doesn’t take ownership. Sometimes just an acknowledgement is enough. Everybody makes mistakes! If your inner goal is to be perfect, I’m willing to bet that you also don’t let other people off the hook for their errors, and that’s unfortunate because anyone who expects perfection is usually quite disappointed by the imperfection inherent in human beings.

Apparently there’s a movement afoot in the medical community to own up to the thousands of medical mistakes that are made every year.

I had my own issue with a medical problem that happened to also be dental. My “specialist” punctured right through my gum into my sinus as his back was turned to me, while he told a dirty joke to the hygenist he was hitting on. Recovery was ugly and there were lingering issues, but my formal complaint was quashed by his peers. There was no grey area - inattention directly caused the problem! So I understand how just hearing “I’m sorry” can make things feel right.

The other spinoff to a new openness is better understanding for patients, too. Sometimes a sit-down with a medical team proves to a patient that what they think is a doctor error is actually something else. I know a man who had two knees replaced and refused to do any of the recommended exercises to help the knees “adjust.” He still blames the hospital for his limp when his laziness is the real culprit.

Some people will do just about anything to get out of paying for parking.

Our John Stall covered a story today about the city’s 17,000 parking machines and how, for a decade, they have been accepting depleted and expired, pre-loaded credit cards because they have no means with which to check them. In other words, the city gets nothing for the use of the parking spot, but the machine spits out a ticket as if it has been paid for.

This little issue has apparently cost the city about a million a year for the past decade or so.

Someone I know, who shall remain nameless, believed to his core that parking should be a right, not a paid privilege. He used to go to great lengths to actually cut and paste little numbers to a ticket to make it appear legit. He only bought one ticket once in a while, and used the discarded ones of others for his little art project! And he did it with a wry smile and, I believe, a sense of pride that he was putting one over on ‘the man.’

I don’t recall if he was ever caught, but you can rest assured that with all of the attention now on the parking machine issue, it will be rectified before the rest of the masses attempt to take advantage of it. And what will that cost you and me? Stay tuned!