This seems like a good topic as we head into the weekend. I keep reading how professional workers are doing increasingly better at reducing their levels of smoking. Unfortunately, that same group of people – e.g. your lawyer, psychologist, doctor, and accountant- is not doing half as well at controlling their intake of alcohol! Ok, ok people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones (you may be thinking), and let me be the first to admit to enjoying a wee dram of Scottish wine (that’s Scotch to the un-initiated). But recent surveys show that binge drinking is widespread and is at its most prevalent among the better-off, wine-imbibing professional classes. [continue reading…]
Dr. O’s Rap
If confession is good for the soul, then I must start the new year with a confession about my addiction. I seem to be addicted to the movie Pride and Prejudice I have watched it 4 times in the last month, and can even recite some of the actors lines. Yes, this is sad, and I know some of you will be encouraging me to leave the house more often, but what can psychology do to de-mystify this behaviour. Yes, I understand that both pride and prejudice are barriers to understanding, and maybe are at the heart of many social evils, but that does not help me. Maybe I am an opponent of social class, and just want Elizabeth Bennett to triumph over that; that does seem to be pretentious of me. Maybe I just like period costumes. Worry no longer; research published in the New Scientist this week suggests that Victorian novels like Pride and Prejudice teach us how to behave!. Now I know I am in trouble, because my other addiction is watching Wedding Crashers. Now who doesn’t like crab cakes?
I am slowly coming to the conclusion that I hate e-cards at Christmas. If I see another Christmas Jib-Jab I think I will scream. Please don’t send me any e-cards. What is the point of them? No one knows you’ve got them, you can’t put them on display and visitors will think you have no friends! Call me old-fashioned but I like receiving cards from my dotty aunts who can barely remember my name, let alone that I live in Vancouver. Give me the barrel-chested Robin on a snow covered log and the white glitter snowscapes anyday.
Tell me what’s wrong with standing for 55 minutes in a queue at the post office while Mrs. Smith in front of me is sending a parcel to her long list of relatives in Australia or Timbuktu. Hasn’t she discovered the internet I ask myself? Is she just doing this to annoy me?Doesn’t she realize I need to get to work!
So really what is about this ritual I find so appealing? Would it really be better for the planet if I stopped sending my paper cards by mail? Sorry but that is exactly what I will continue to do… and one day I (not too far into the future) I am going to be the dotty relative who slips $20 into the silly Santa card that my grandkids will eagerly seek out, just as I did and my children did.
On Sunday 2nd November summertime will officially end for us here on the West Coast of Canada when we turn back our clocks and usher in the dark, never ending rainy days of fall.
Like many people I look forward to that precious extra hour in bed on Sunday, but the dark fall and winter days are no laughing matter for those who suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. [continue reading…]
