Rob Ford's Weight

Look people, we all know that the ridiculously ridiculous Mayor of Toronto (or IS he? Well, at the moment he still is), Mr. Rob Ford is a large man. But COME ON, surely there are other things that people can focus on, like, maybe the fact that he puts his football team before, you know, the well being and inner workings of the largest city in Canada. Making fun of his weight? That's just silly, petty playground "bullying" kind of stuff.

In this day and age when we must fight so hard for body image acceptance, the first thing that people want to pick on when it comes to this incompetent buffoon is his weight. Look, he's a big guy, we all know that. We know that for health reasons it's most likely the best idea to lose some weight, but physically he is who he is. Attacking the guy based on his weight is much akin to attacking someone like Barak Obama for the colour of his skin. How does Ford's weight come into play here?

Please, people, the guy has enough ridiculousness surrounding him that there is no need to go after his weight. If there is one way in which we should accept him, it is as who he is physically, even if we don't accept his politics. I feel for kids who turn on the TV or go to "social media" or whatever they are calling it these days, and see people making fun of Ford for his weight. If they happen to be on the larger side, they read this, look at themselves and....well, I wonder what they think?

Anyway, that's it. That's all. I don't like Rob Ford. I don't like his personality, his politics or his politics and his personality....and definitely his personality....and politics. But I accept him for who he is physically and don't believe that it plays any role in his personality....and politics. Leave him be on the weight issue people! Let's love our bodies for what they are! 

With All Apologies to Kyle Petty

Oh man, social media, you can be a harsh mistress.

So, here's the story. Yesterday, I see a tweet to a driver/broadcaster/charity dude and member of one of the biggest families in motorsports, Kyle Petty. A lady, or a gent, not sure which, asked Mr. Petty what year he started his charity motorcycle ride. Mr. Petty sent a brief answer: "95 or 96". When I saw that, I laughed, and I laughed and I....well, okay, I'm exaggerating. I just had a chuckle. That's a pretty short answer, right? Am I right? I'm not the only one thinking that, right? Please tell me that I'm right on that one? Right?

Anyway, so I sent back a twitter message saying "That's going to be a short story!". Now, Mr. Petty sent a tweet saying "No! its about me, NOT you... that would be short.." Ouch! Okay, you still following me with all of this? So to sum up what we got at this point: Writer asks Petty for info for a story, writer gets short answer which is understandable on twitter, me thinks this is funny, me sends ill thought out tweet, me get reply back, me obviously been misinterpreted.

Now, really, in the grand scheme of things, this ain't a big deal, right? And, I'm sure all participants involved except me have forgotten about it, or don't care, which is understandable. But, you know when you get a tweet from a celebrity who has been part of your life, from a distance, but still, part of your life for as long as you can remember, and it's for all the wrong reasons because your tweet was misinterpreted? I'm not the only one, right? I'm sure others have had this terribly agonizing dilemma  no?  It has to happen a million times a day, correct? Work with me here people! Validate my concerns!

So, how does one deal with such an embarrassment? A blog post! Voila, here you have it! Now, with all of this stated, to make this terrible mistake right, I would like to formally, and publicly apologize to Mr. Kyle Petty for this misunderstanding. I don't believe a story about his endeavors would be short. I also believe that it would be quite interesting and worth reading. As the original tweeter pointed out later "[My story is] at nearly a thousand words and I haven't even gotten to his off-track endeavors with charity and music." Aha! There you go! See! Plenty to write about there. I will not deny that! See? See what I'm saying here? Thank you. I appreciate the understanding.

And now my mind is clear.