The meeting opened with an impassioned plea from Norman LaForce (speaking as a private citizen from El Cerrito) for Albany to put its electoral process house in order by placing restraints on Golden Gate Fields. He didn't mention any problems with the horses or the hard-core gamblers (see photos at right) but he did express concern that GG Fields had spent too much money losing the recent election.
Later a discussion about a possible Albany ferry came up and Norman appeared again, but this time as a Sierra Club rep. Turned out he didn't like ferries, at least not in Albany.
AC was amazed at how smoothly Norm morphed from one personalty to the other. A rare talent indeed. So interested were we that we decided to ask one of our consultant friends, Sanders P. Landers, how this was possible.
Landers: Always a pleasure. What's up?
AC: Well, we happened to watch two presentations by the same person before the Albany City Council recently. In the first one, the presenter spoke as a private citizen from another town, but in the second one, he spoke as a representative of a well-known environmental group. He seemed to move from one role to the next in a most amazing and seamless fashion. Isn't it hard to separate dual personalities in this way?
Landers: Not at all. Actually, it's quite easy.
AC: But how did he manage it?
Landers: Well, if you've done some reading, you'll know that we have a left brain and a right brain. And in this case he probably used his right brain for private citizen stuff, and the left one when he was acting as a rep. Or it might have been the other way around--I wasn't there to observe. But the point is that with proper training he could keep them separate in this way.
AC: But supposing views on a given issue differ between the two personalities? Won't that present sort of an internal conflict-of-interest problem of some kind?
Landers: Excellent question, and the fact is that we don't really know. We do know, however, that practioners of this art do not seem to complain about internal conflicts, excessive guilt, or similar syndromes.
AC: But if you were making a presentation and got challenged on a difficult point, wouldn't you be at a disadvantage in responding using only half your brain?
Landers: As Rush Limbaugh often points out, he keeps half his brain tied behind his back just to make it fair. I'd say that if your presenter is as clever as he sounds, he could probably handle most situations with half his brain.
AC: I see. And thank you Professor Landers. I hope we can call on you for further insights and analysis as time goes on.
Landers: Sure thing, Jimmie. Always happy to help roll back the frontiers of ignorance.