Heart matters far more than clothing

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/12/2023 (654 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This week on Global TV’s News Hour in Calgary, traffic reporter Leslie Horton began her presentation with an email from a viewer.

The message she was reading wasn’t about traffic. But it was all about what some viewers focus on while watching TV.

The viewer was delivering a velvet hammer — congratulating the reporter on what he called her pregnancy; “Congratulations on your pregnancy. If you’re going to wear old bus driver pants, you have to expect emails like this.”

No, he hadn’t heard any announcements that she was expecting. He was tummy-judging. And she was in no mood to ignore him.

She responded with a world-class level of assertiveness. In doing so she passed the great communicator test, speaking for so many by speaking up for herself.

Leslie Horton looked her critic in the camera eye and said, “No, I’m not pregnant. I actually lost my uterus to cancer last year. This is what women of my age look like. So, if that is offensive to you — it’s unfortunate.”

Global News Calgary traffic reporter @global_leslie responds to an email criticising her choice of clothes. #yyc pic.twitter.com/r9Od0hKbn0

— Global Calgary (@GlobalCalgary) December 5, 2023

I witnessed that unforgettable TV moment on social media six hours before my fingers touched the keyboard for this visit. I have to tell you that while my broadcaster mind was impressed, my Canadian heart was blown away. Leslie Horton’s demeanour as much as her words, took me on a trip to a very special place and time.

When my heart begins a conversation with me, it frequently includes a trip back to Adler’s Tailor Shop in the 1960s.

I learned more in that hole-in-the-wall store than all the magnificent university campuses I’ve been to everywhere in North America.

I recall the story about a friend in Boston who lectured at Harvard Law. He invited me to audit his classes. I went to just one and he asked me why I never returned to another.

“Didn’t you learn anything at my lecture, Charles?” Of course I did, I told him. But your lecture was about the technicalities of law and how they can be used to advance the interests of the accused. I tend to be more interested in the technicalities of human behaviour, and particularly why humans interact the way they do.

Some tend to clash while others want to comfort. Why do some people have their default position set at kindness while others are almost always quick to cruelty? The mechanism of the human mind interests me far more than the mechanics of law.

The Harvard lecturer then asked, “Which university was best at feeding your voracious curiousity about human beings?” Mike Adler University, I said, or as it’s known by the customers, “Adler’s Tailor Shop.”

The lecturers at my favourite campus were my dad and his customers from every walk of life, and every part of the world. It was there that a Mrs. Goldman told me why my dad’s tailoring was the best she ever experienced. So I asked the kind of question that I turned into a career many years later: “Mrs. Goldman, please tell me a story that allows me to see clearly why Mike Adler gave you the best service.”

Ten years earlier, Mrs. Goldman had some very serious surgeries in the abdominal area. Her arduous medical journey saved her life. But it did alter her appearance just a tiny bit.

While that motivated her to shop for new clothes, there was one particular pant suit that she was never going to surrender to time. She wanted to wear it for special occasions.

Naturally she brought it into the store. As you can, imagine the pants were a bit snug. She asked my father whether they needed to be let out by an inch or two. My father’s response is why Mrs. Goldman felt Mike Adler was the world’s best tailor. It had nothing to with his gifted hands. It had everything to do with his warm heart.

Dad told Mrs. Goldman that there was no need for him to make any adjustments in the pants as long as she was comfortably confident wearing them. You will always look like the kind and generous woman you are, whether I take out a pleat or leave it in. I work for you, Mrs. Goldman — not the pants.

Leslie Horton, you’ll always be one of the best I’ve seen on TV. You make me think fondly of the finest human being I’ve ever known.

There is not a pleat of doubt that the world’s best tailor, Mike Adler, would be loving your answer, your confidence and your pants.

Charles Adler is a longtime political commenter and podcaster.

charles@charlesadler.com