Went to the Tegan & Sara concert last night. They are highschool friends of one of my best friends so we had backstage passes (very exciting, I've never done that before and it made me feel very A-list). They are absolutely lovely people and I am indebted to them for making a siginificant contribution to my last break-up recovery with their song, You Wouldn't Like Me (which, much to my delight, they played in the encore). But I digress. I got into a conversation with Sara about the radio program, This American Life, and I left promising to look up an episode called Act V. Cleaning my apartment was on my to-do list today and so I looked up the program and set to cleaning while listening. This particular episode features a reporter who spends 6 months at a maximum security prison in the States where a theatre director has created a program by which the inmates learn, rehearse and perform Shakespeare's Hamlet in 5 installments for an audience of fellow prisoners, family, and the Arts community which funds the program. To be clear, these are murderers, pedophiles, rapists, you name it, performing a play about murder and revenge. Nutshelling the play: Hamlet's dead father comes to him in a dream and says, "Avenge my death. Your uncle murdered me, married your mother and stole my kingdom and my crown." I cried, I cheered, I was awed, I was horrified, I was shocked. It was an incredible hour of programming that made me consider the penal system, social hierarchy, my own preconceived notions about education and convicts and all sorts of things. I am in love with this program. And then I discovered that iTunes offers This American Life as a free podcast subscription. Yeah!
Had my night class tonight. The class is taught by two boisterous, feisty lawyers. At the end of our weekly 3 hour class they always do a bit that they call Coaches Corner. The premise of this bit is that they will tell us things that they wished they knew as articling students and junior lawyers. Today the topic was: Tasks You Might Be Asked To Do As An Articling Student. And what followed was the laundry list of taking minutes at meetings and picking up drycleaning and ordering booze for the Friday afternoon impromtu parties. And then Dr. "Bob" of previous posts raised his hand and asked the profs what the best way to handle a certain delicate situation. What follows is an approximate recitation of the exchange between them, and an interesting example of what I learn in school.
Dr. Bob - What do you do when you are tasked with taking care of clients?
Prof - Well, that's definitely something that might happen.
Dr. Bob - I mean what do you do when your client is the big Texan who's just finished his big oil deal and now wants to have a good time? Like a really good time?? Like he wants drink, drugs and a hooker?
Prof (with a totally straight face) - Well there are certain ethical obligations that we have, and I would not recommend going out and procuring the drugs or the prostitute yourself. Hmm...but I imagine the big Texan is staying in a hotel? And probably a nice hotel, right? Well, what I would do is take Mr. Oilman back to his hotel, and, with some discretion, take him to the concierge and say, "Mr. Concierge, this is Mr. Oilman. Mr. Oilman is looking for some companionship tonight, do you think that might be something you might be able to help him out with?" Delegation is an important skill to learn...And now it's not your problem any more!
Ah so...lesson learned.
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3 comments:
I love them! I tried to get tickets but they're sold out (obv) and are being scalped for $75. :(
Ah well, it's good that you enjoyed it!
I went to see T&S last weekend... they put on a great show! They seem like such fun ladies, too. Jealous!!!
I had an invite to see them in Kingston but I was away in BC at the time last week. Booo, I would have really liked to have seen them.
That classmate of yours has made me realize I should have gotten into the oil industry. :P
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