I confess to scepticism over the need for these Assertiveness Courses.

[I assume you heard of the two nuns leaving the college?  One turned to the other and remarked, ‘Mother Superior, aren’t these Self Assertion Classes just ***** great?’]. 

The newspaper article (Houston Chronicle, Brazil 21.08.03) made me think again.

Valdemar Mores joined the others in the clinic’s waiting room.  He had ear-ache that made others’ speech sound garbled.  The nurse called out for Aldemar, the surname of a patient no longer in the room, and Valdemar stepped forward.

In the consulting room a doctor was performing vasectomies.  Senor Mores obediently dropped his trousers on request and raised no objection when the doctor started shaving his pubic hair.  He didn’t even protest when the snip got underway.  Perhaps he assumed that his ear inflammation had reached as far as his genitals.  Perhaps he saw an opportunity for a desired vasectomy on the cheap.

In any case he returned the following week for treatment for his ear inflammation.  He did not mention the vasectomy.

I suppose it takes all sorts.  At least the rest of us have the consolation of knowing that, if his underlying condition was genetic, he was one of a kind! 

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