From the archives of strange but true life stories, I’m going to tell you about how I have Twitter, fat shaming, and @DrJasonFung to thank, for me having officially received my promotion to Associate Professor last night (thread). /1

The story starts back in Nov 2016 when I was attending @ObesitySociety’s Obesity Week and someone shared a tweet of Jason’s with me. In it he posted the photos & names of two speakers, & stated that we were in good hands learning from those “obesity experts” (scare quotes his) /2

As you might have gathered from the prior tweets, the speakers he scare-quoted as “experts” both have obesity. And so I tweeted out a bit of a rant. I tried to thread it then, but failed, and so for the ease of reading, here’s a Twitter moment of it. /3 https://twitter.com/i/moments/1099448010092744706

(And for a bit more, here’s @JuliaBelluz’ article about it all where when asked if he was fat-shaming, Jason doubled down and asked her, "Would you take financial advice from a homeless man?") /4 https://www.vox.com/2016/11/3/13510410/fat-shaming-tweet

I left Jason’s name out of my tweet stream because I felt that naming him would distract from the bigger issue, and I also had little doubt doing so would lead to issue hijacking and a mob of keto and IF acolytes responding angrily to defend and excuse Jason and his tweets /5

That was prescient because once Jason outed himself a few hours later, that’s exactly what happened, replete even with some random antisemitism, and of course some separate classiness from Jason /6 https://twitter.com/YoniFreedhoff/status/794914860496801792

After a few weeks (and even a few huffy blog posts about how much of a bully I’d apparently been), the ruckus died down and on we all went with our lives. Then one day I received an email from my department chair Dr. Dianne Delva @UOttawaMed asking me to come in and see her. /7

I figured it was just a check in as it had been 5 years since I’d been appointed an Assistant Professor @UOttawa and I hadn’t been back to chat with anyone about what I was up to. And so I checked my schedule and booked that meeting for the next week. /8

I showed up, & after a few minutes of waiting, I was ushered in to Dianne's office. We exchanged pleasantries & then she hit me with, “So I called you in to see me because there’s been a complaint”. What? My jaw hit the floor. I was dumbfounded. What had I apparently done? /9

She continued, “A nephrologist from Toronto (Jason) called to complain about your posts on Twitter and he suggested that we should rescind your academic appointment.”. I honestly can’t recall if my primary emotion at the time was rage or shock, but she quickly went on, /10

“And as I explored the issue I quickly realized it’s a tempest in a teacup, but while researching it, it seemed to me that you’ve accomplished a great deal these past few years and I want to encourage you to apply for a promotion”. /11

Now getting promoted is anything but a slam dunk. From painfully prepping your promotion package (truly dozens of pages), securing external referees who’ve not worked w/you, clearing your department’s & then the University's promotions committees, there's a great deal of work /12

I’d missed the 2017 window, but given the circumstances, I couldn’t resist throwing my hat into the 2018 ring, and last May I received word that my promotion had been confirmed! (Huge thanks here to Dianne for the support, my department, my referees, & the committee members) /13

And yes, last night was the ceremony (which was lovely and I was able to enjoy it with my wife and 3 wonderful girls). And honestly, without Dianne's encouragement, I never would have thought to apply. /14

Finally, I want to send out a big thank you to @DrJasonFung, because no doubt if it weren’t for his calling my chair to ask for my firing after my not-naming-him tweets about his fat shaming of those two speakers, I’d not be an Associate Professor today /15

So Jason, tonight I will raise a cup of tea to you (no alcohol for me during the week). Though it won’t be the “fasting tea” you sell along with your expertise claiming it will give me “2x the results with 50% the effort”, I’m sure it’ll be plenty satisfying nonetheless. /fin