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The Citizen, 2005-01-27, Page 5Other Views THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2005. PAGE 5. Snoozing is good for you So I’m humping through Vancouver’s International Airport, already jet-lagged and frantically searching for Gate 47A so 1 can catch flight 8960B which I’m pretty sure, if I can decipher the drone on the public address system, is in the final stages of boarding. 1 round a corner and behold...three snow- white sarcophagi splayed out on the terrazzo. They look like something out of Star Trek. Large global pods with what looks like a single bed jutting out of one side, each pod big enough to engulf a human body. Indeed, one of them has the better part of a man’s pair of trousered legs sticking out of it. What the hell is that? I ask. “That's a Metronaps Lounger,’’ the smiling attendant explains, handing me a brochure. 1 read the fine print. For a mere $15 I can buy 20 uninterrupted minutes to recline in one of these gizmos, wherein an assortment of vibrations and 'sounds from nature’ will block out the hustle-bustle and the hurly-burly of the world around me allowing me a microsnooze. A quick nap in the middle of a crisis-heavy day. smack in the centre of a busy airport. Sounds daft, but some experts say it’s an idea that’s overdue. Experts like Bob Stickgold, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Stickgold says that all of us need more sleep than we’re getting. He warns, in fact, that an appalling percentage of us are little more than walking zombies. Our banzai lifestyle is leaving us seriously sleep-deprived and that’s not good for us - or for the people around us. “You're phenomenally stupid when you're Finding seats in the legislature difficult Ontario Progressive Conservatives’ new leader John Tory might have been better off calling Ticketmaster to get himself a seat in the legislature, but he is luckier than the last opposition party leader in the same predicament. The Conservatives expected their former leader and defeated premier, Ernie Eves, would step down quickly from his safe Orangeville area seat so Tory could run. But Eves is hanging on looking for a public appointment, which they cannot offer because they are out of government both provincially and federally. Ex-premiers, however, normally do not stay long as backbenchers and it would be unthinkable if Eves does not yield his seat soon and assure Tory a smooth path. Contrast this to when New Democrat Bob Rae ran for his parly’s leadership in 1982 and launched a search for a seat that created bitterness on a scale that has become known fully only since he retired from politics. Rae was an MP and his federal party’s golden boy, intelligent, articulate and seen more on national TV news than its anchors. Former Ontario leaders Stephen Lewis and Donald MacDonald were among many who urged him to seek the provincial leadership. Rae was so admired he won on the first ballot, but the much harder part was winning a seat. Rae held a federal riding in Toronto’s east end. He wanted to run where he had suppori and first approached Jim Renwick, whose provincial riding included much of the same area. Renwick had won his riding from the Conservatives 18 years earlier, was a former corporate lawyer who brought the NDP new clout on legal issues, would be on any list of most effective MPPs of recent decades and felt his own stature was equal to Rae’s. Renwick and Rae, both successful. Arthur Black sleep deprived, and you're too stupid to realize it,” says Stickgold. “We (humans) are the only known organism that sleep deprives itself.” And it costs us big. The Exxon Valdez oil spill was blamed on a captain who was groggy from too much booze and too little sleep. The Chernobyl nuclear disaster was caused by overworked and under-rested reactor personnel. We’ll never know how many plane crashes, train wrecks and highway collisions could be chalked up to simple human fatigue. It seems like a cruel joke. Our ancestors would have killed for the labour-saving devices that we take for granted. But the irony is, our ancestors, overworked as they were, got 'way more sleep than we did. They napped regularly and by and large, they went to bed and got up with the sun. They didn’t have alarm clocks to jangle them awake in the pre-dawn murk or electric lights to keep them up after dusk. They didn't punch time clocks or pack Blackberrys on their hips and they didn’t mainline coffee for a chemical buzz to get them through the nine-to- five. Which is another thing our ancestors didn’t have - a nine-to-five template to fit their Eric Dowd From Queen’s Park confident men with egos, disliked each other from the start. Renwick thought Rae was over­ rated and made it clear he would oppose him for leader and never give up his seat for him. Renwick instead endorsed Red Richard’ Johnston, the furthest left candidate, who criticized Rae for being reluctant to call himself a socialist, and drove with Johnston around the province seeking support. Rae felt Renwick was bored with doing routine, day-to-day work needed in his riding and left the task of building their party there to his federal counterpart Rae read disparaging comments in newspapers about him he felt came from Renwick and called it a “painful episode.” Rae then asked Marion Bryden, MPP for an adjoining east Toronto riding who supported him for leader, to step down and she agreed. But her husband Ken, who once held the riding and was a force in the party, talked her out of it, saying residents would resent an outsider being parachuted in. Bryden also was the NDP’s only woman MPP and a party which put so much emphasis Final Thought It is astonishing what foolish things one can temporarily believe if one thinks tob long alone. - John Maynard Keynes working hours into. That’s a regime that works well for factories and offices, but not so well for the average human body. We all have biological clocks and they operate in a completely different time zone. Left to our own devices, without artificial stimulants like fluorescent lights, looming deadlines and a baleful boss staring meaningfully at the office clock, most of us would probably fall asleep between one and four in the morning and one and four in the afternoon. That’s when our eyelids naturally get heavy, our body temperature drops significantly and our Inner Cro-Magnon starts subconsciously looking for a cozy cave and a nice sabretooth tiger skin rug to curl up in. But we’re not allowed to. It’s against the rules. So we suck back another espresso, rub our eyes, go back to the grind and make one more deposit in our sleep deprivation account. Which goes a long way to explaining the presence of those power nap chair pods I saw in the Vancouver airport recently - and which. I’ve learned, are destined to eventually show up in shopping malls, office lobbies, train stations, bus depots and anywhere else frazzled folks might be tempted to buy a little peace and quiet. So did 1 go for it? Did I spend 15 bucks for 20 minutes of intense napping? Are you kidding - and miss my flight? Besides, 1 had an ace in the hole and I knew it. 1 was heading for Mexico. Land of the siesta. on helping women could not be seen attempting to push her out. Rae went to Tony Grande, an MPP of Italian ancestry. He replied that the entire Italian- Canadian community would be up in arms if Rae tried to force him out. Rae’s boosters turned back to Renwick, but he told them they should have recognized they would have a problem finding Rae a riding before they pushed him for leader and it was up to them, not him, to solve it. Renwick’s supporters warned also that any attempt by Rae to run in Renwick’s seat would provoke “all out war” and they would contest the nomination and felt sure they would win. > Rae concluded nothing in politics is more difficult than a leadership contest and in the end accepted MacDonald’s unselfish offer to give up the seat in northwest Toronto he had held for 27 years, which had grown less safe, and won in it. But the rancor over his search for a seat lasted for years and brought recriminations and defections. Tory should be relieved he has been spared it. Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters io the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our glideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your tetters brief and concise. Bonnie Gropp The short, of it Not what we seem Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) was a dramatist, aestheti^ian, and critic. It was Lessing who once said that “people are not always what they seem.” While these seven words seem to succinctly state the obvious, they shouldn’t be taken for granted. Every one of us at some time or another has misjudged another human being or misinterpreted their intentions. The complexity of the species can create individuals who are walking oxymorons — the loud mouth's boisterous facade covering a massive insecurity; or the high school jock with an artist's sensitivity. Recently, I was asked to speak at a gathering of people. What may surprise some is that the request brought me no small amount of anguish. It was reasonable of this person to consider that someone in my line of work would be amenable to the suggestion. Also, 1 knew her personally and had had one-on-one conversations so she was comfortable, I assume, that I wasn’t a complete dolt. However, what these friendly chats, nor anything else she knew about me, had not exposed is an aversion to public speaking and to walking into a room with more than one other person in it. Sure, 1 can do it if 1 must, but I'd really rather not. Entering crowded halls to cover meetings or meandering into gatherings to take photographs is something my job requires But what might surprise you is the low level of panic that precedes each of these. It is a little above normal stress for me so I don’t volunteer to put myself in the same position in my free time. And I'm absolutely never going to get up and say anything. Things such as this can be puzzling for other people. It can also give false impressions. Over the years my reserve in public has been seen as unfriendliness, snobbishness, even coldness. It’s unfortunate, and 1 am sorry, but it’s the way I am and I think unlikely to change too drastically at this point in my life. Ironically, I have caught myself on occasion thinking the same thing of others. A wariness, a quiet attitude, and for one instant I suspect this individual of being a little snobby. Fortunately, with myself as a template the assessment quickly changes and 1 consider other, less nasty possibilities. One positive that does come from my tendency to stand back is an interest in observation. I like to study people and at least try to understand them. And it’s entertaining wondering what makes a person the way they are, (hough not generally 100 percent accurate. People are all too confusing to be fully understood. Yet. giving careful consideration to another’s behaviour over a course of time can be a twisting, turning path of occasionally accurate, usually surprising revelations. Someone you’ve known for years as a tremendously strong individual when faced with a crisis can display a previously unseen insecurity and frailty of spirit. A warm, charismatic individual, introduced into a different social environment can become withdrawn and shy. None of us are what we appear to be. But what we are is so much more than a first glance will reveal. Our complexity, a mix of the positive and the negative, means only you can be sure who you really are.