Proximate cause

Russell Wangersky — he's not even one of the Newfoundland Wangerskies — is disturbed:

And what disturbs me is that it certainly sounded like Williams was reacting not to what Simms had said, but to what he had been told Simms said.

Russell, Russell, Russell... nothing could be further from the truth.

What He said was:

I'm calling 'cause I had several calls from people who heard your opening comments.

The Word of Our Dan, who then went on to spew a distorted version, not even paraphrase, of Simms' comments, comments which he clearly had not actually heard, so that He was reacting not merely to what He had been told Simms said, but either to second-hand distortions of what Simms said, or first-hand imaginations of what he'd been told Simms said.

That is what set off the Dantrum. That makes it all the more disturbing — and it's not as if the Dantrum wouldn't have been disturbing, on its own, even if He had listened twice to a tape, and read the verbatim three times, before chewing Simms out for being insufficiently Premier-positive.

What is it about Him, that he not only needs constant sunshine, but cannot tolerate shade, let alone healthy rain?

(And if anyone asked Him, who are the "people" who placed those "several calls"... what would the answer be?)