HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1972-02-10, Page 4With much fanfare the CBC recently
began a 13-part series based on the
famous Jalna books by Mazo De La
Roche. Despite having good material
to start with and lavishing hundreds of
thousands of dollars on cast,
costumes and sets, the CBC seems to
be well on its way to botching it again,
It has always been a national joke
(although it is becoming a sick one
after 20 years) that the CBC could find
a way of messing up any given
situation. Now the corporation is
trying to make it an international joke
by trying to export the Jalna series.
The Jalna books were 16 novels
written by the late Miss De La Roche
which sold millions of copies and won
friends and avid readership around
the world. The CBC saw them as an
opportunity to gain a world-wide
reputation such as the BBC gained
through such series as The Forsyte
Saga,.
The trouble is, although there were
16 books to take the story from the
CBC had to add more. Miss De La
Roche has been dead for years, yet in
the first three episodes the series has
dealt primarily with happenings of
1970. We hope the dear author is still
resting quietly in her grave but she
would have an excuse if her ghost
began haunting the CBC executive
boardroom.
Adding more material to the end of a
famous series of books such as the
Jalna series is somewhat akin to doing
the film biography of a famous
personage and adding 10 years to their
life after they died.
Perhaps the series will come back
into perspective before the final
episode of the series. If it doesn't you
can be sure that the Jalna series will
be filed away in some dark film
library and never seen again.
CBC_ 's hopes for sales of the series
to the U.S. and Europe are based on the
fact that the Jalna books had such
enormous popularity there. But the
corporation has thrown this appeal out
the window by not sticking to the script
provided by the books. Unless the
series soon gets .back on the track no
international buyer will want it and
without exports abroad the proposed
second season of the series will not go
ahead because it is just too expensive
for only a Canadian audience.
Here's hoping the CBC has not
killed the goose that laid the golden
egg.
Editori al comment . .
Doing their best to botch it
"Let me put it this way madam — will you insist on regular brushing, flossing, and fluoride.
for MY health's sake then?"
False evidence
Not all are disenchant ed
If one is to believe the mass media
these days, Trudeaumania has
become Trudeauphobia and the whole
country is ready to turf the Prime
Minister and his young family out on
the front steps of 24 Sussex Drive.
The radio, television and
newspapers have been spreading the
gospel for the last year or more that
everyone in the country is
disenchanted with the PM, including
many members of his own party and
supporters who helped get him to the
leadership of the Liberal party in the
first place.
An article in this month's issue of
Maclean's magazine however, shows
that it just isn't so. The magazine,
which has often been a tough critic of
`the prime minister, interviewed many
of the people who worked with him to
put him in the leadership of his party
and then become prime minister.
Not one of these people was
completely disenchanted with the
work 'done by Trudeau. Several
pointed out areas in which thef ,would
like to have se,en more progress but
felt that on the whole the prime
minister had accomplished much.
One young woman was interviewed
who recalled something Trudeau had
said to her when she was working on
his campaign staff. "The trick," he
said, "will be to accomplish enough in
a hurry to keep people like you from
becoming disillusioned."
This has been the chief trouble
around the Trudeau regime. When he
was elected, many people
immediately envisioned a country in
which all wants would be fulfilled and
everything would be hunky-dorey. But
they found out that that isn't the way
life is.
Trudeau was no magician and
people were brought down to earth
even harder by the fact that the
country was caught in a world-wild
period of inflation and recession. This
awakening to cruel reality has driven
many to be as bitterly opposed to
Trudeau as they were enamoured with
him earlier.
This group together with the people
who have always been critics but were
ignored before, are now the
fashionable group.
But with an election coming up it is
hard to see the electorate really
booting Trudeau out. What other
alternative is there? Although David
Lewis and Robert Stanfield claim the
government has caused much of the
unemployment that racks the country,
they would both probably have to admit
(in private and out of the earshot of any
voter) that they couldn't have done
much better. Why? Because
governments have to follow the advice
of their financial advisers who are the
same no matter what party is in
power. Prime' ministers usually do
not know enough about the intricacies
of economics to direct their own
economic policy.
Faced with these unhappy choices,
some voters have been heard to moan,
"Oh, if only Diefenbaker was back."
But the last bad recession came
during the Diefenbaker years so there
goes another choice.
Winter finally gets to Smiley
THE CLINTON •NEW ERA Amalgamated THE HURON NEWS-RECORD
Established 1865 1924 Established 1 881
Clinton News-Record
A member of the Canadian Weekly Newspaper Association,
Ontario Weekly Newspaper Association and the Audit Bureau
of Circulation (ABC)
second class mail
registration number — 0817
:SUBSCRIPTION RATES: (in advance)
'Canada, $8.00 per Year; U.S.A., $9.50
KEITH W. ROULSTON — Editor
J. HOWARD AITKEN — General Manager
Published every Thursday at
the heart of Huron County'
i Clinton, Ontario
Population 3,475
THE HOME
OF RADAR
IN CANADA
4—Clinton News-Record, Thursday, February 10, 1972
To be absolutely honest about
it, I always enjoyed going. It was
like a kid being let loose in a candy
store. The men were always so
heavily outnumbered that the
oldest and ugliest was bound to get
a little attention. It was excellent
for any man's morale.
On the night of the last banquet I
had to appear on a televisipn
program. As you doubtless know,
they've a heavy pancake make-up
they put on you so that you won't
look as if you'd- been freshly
embalmbed. Some of this stuff, of
course, came off on my shirt
collar.
My wife was cool for days
afterward. She kept saying, "Well
I expect you had a fine time at the
banquet."
"Oh, yes" I would respond
airily, "quite nice."
After about a week of this I said,
"Oh, by the way, I hope that shirt
isn't ruined. There's a lot of
pancake make-up on the collar.
Theyput'iti on zlieh,mu „op Ty,
yOu la67."
Small triumphs like that can do
much to show wives the folly of
suspicion.
Parts of the Skating Rink roof
dropped in the other day; it has
since been cleared away and
skating is going on as usual. It is
reported that the Curling Club has ,
in contemplation the erection of a
fine rink for next season.
Harvey Jackson, son of Mr.
Isaac Jackson, has •started a
paper at Burk's Falls, to be known
as the Beacon. He is a graduate of
the New Era.
The Ability Fund (March 'of
Dimes)is a member of 32 United
Appeals throughout Ontario.
Elsewhere, in some 465
communities, it campaigns on
behalf of disabled adults during
the month of January. A donation
to The Ability Fund helps to
rehabilitate disabled adults.
All winter I've been laughing.
Not wildly or out loud, so that
some people could do what they've
wanted to for years—have me
quietly put away.
No, it's just been a steady
stream of assorted chuckles,
snickers and titters, with an
occasional giggle erupting when it
poured rain around here in
January.
I was laughing, for the first
time in about four winters, at the
snowmobilers and skiers,
Winter after winter I have sat,
glowering inwardly, as the
snowmobilers tried to outshout
each other in their boisterous,
boyish manner, each trying to tell
a taller tale than the other about
how he jumped the creek or went
up a 90-degree slope with no
hands, or some such rot.
Winter after winter, I've tried
to keep the sour look off my face
as the ski hounds burble their
"in" talk about how many runs
they made, chortle with glee
every time there was a fresh fall
of snow, and brag about their
brand new Scheissmaken $80 ski
boots.
For about two months, the
winter of 1971.72 was known as
"Smiley's Revenge". There was
a little snow in December, but it
was almost a green Christmas.
There wasn't a snowbank worthy
of skidding into on New Year's
Eve. And the fine weather
continued for weeks: lots of rain,
high temperatures and virtually
no snow.
"Let their snowmobiles sit
there and rust", I whispered,
barely able to restrain a guffaw.
"Let their skis warp and their
fancy boots remain unscuffed",
muttered, scarce able to hold
back a peal of laughter.
"It's not that I have anything
personal against these mid-
winter bores. Some of my best
friends are snowmobilers, though
I wouldn't want my daughter to
marry one.
And I know some perfectly
sensible people who think there is
something ineffably enjoyable in
sliding down a hill on a couple of
inflated barrel staves. The
genuine skier thinks nothing of
spending 10 or 15 dollars on a
Sunday's skiing, even if he' has to
cut his church givings to the bone.
And it's not jealousy or spite,
Just 'because I have a ropy knee
that would put me on crutches for
two months if I had a fall is no
reason to envy those who' swoop
down the hill like a bird.
Same with snowmobiling, I have
a slight handicap there, too. I can
fly a plane and drive a car, if there
are good mechanics around, But
when it comes to small motors
which stop running, all I can do is
stand there and stare, shifting
from one foot to the other.
It's embarrassing, but I'm
being frank. It's all very well to
talk about carburetors and
pistons and fuel lines if you know
what they are, where they are, and
what to do if they aren't working.
I figure I'm lucky if I get the
lawnmower started once out of
three times, without summoning
help. Thus, the only picture I can
conjure with me and a snowmobile
in it is a nightmare: the pair of us
out in the woods, 10 miles from
nowhere, with the carburetors
seized up or burned out or
whatever it is they do.
No, I don't hate the people or the
sports. I just hate snow with a
deep and bitter loathing which
must have some psychological
explanation.
Did I wet my pants, as a small
child, while playing in the snow?
Did my parents, sick of my
eternal wailing, throw me into a
snowbank and hastily retrieve
me?
I don't know the answer. But I do
know that Smiley's Revenge has
turned into Smiley's Folly.
As I write, I can't see the house
across the street. It's snowing
sea-gulls, horizontally, with a
forty-mile wind gusting to 60 or
70.
The skiers are smirking; the
snowmobilers are laughing out
loud. And I'm crying, deep inside.
I knew it was a dream. But dream
we must, or we are nothing. Some
Winter . Well, never mind.
Hand me that shovel, woman,
and stand back, out of earshot.
Since it was only a week or so
ago that I went on the record
opposing the admissibility of old
love letters as evidence in court
cases involving the ashes of past
romances, I hesitate now to write
of the problem of lipstick traces
on men's shirts. You're going to
think I'm just an old roue, I may be
drummed out of the P.T.A.
But the news item concerning
the successful divorce action of
one Mrs. Eleanor Fellows, in
which an important part was
played by her testimony that her
husband came home from
"business meetings" bearing
lipstick marks on his collar,
cannot be allowed to pass without
comment.
There must be literally
millions of innocent men who have
been tried, convicted and
sentenced on this deceiving
evidence.
What wives don't understand,
living their sheltered, protected
lives in the home, is that a man is
mighty lucky to go through a whole
working day without getting
lipstick on his collar.
Almost any man can tell you
that the streets are simply full of
10 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Feb. 10, 1962
Frank Becker has long thought
that finding a penny was lucky as it
often has worked out like that ,for
him. Yesterday he began finding
pieces of a 20-dollar bill. They
were very small pieces, and he
has only found about three
fragments, but he's wondering
how the percentage of good luck
will workout. Even a small piece
of a $20 bill should be worth a good
deal more in the market place for
luck, than a penny.
The Hon. William A. Stewart,
Minister of Agriculture will be
guest speaker at the Huron County
Seed Fair in Exeter on Sat.,
March 10.
Subject of the Minister's
address will be "The Place of
Farm Management on Huron
County Farms."
15 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Feb. 14, 1957
This year the Clinton Spring
young ladies who have to be
rescued from under the wheels of
runaway trucks, leaving their
indelible brand in the excitement,
Men are always running into
exhuberant old lady friends (old
school teachers, maiden aunts
and such) and, even occasionally
young exhuberant friends.
Secretaries may faint suddenly in
the midst of dictation and have to
be propped up.
This kind of thing happens all
the time as any businessman,
particularly Mr. Fellows, can tell
you.
Wives who discover this sort of
evidence (I'm told) invariably
resort to the Old Freeze-Up.
Given a fair hearing the whole
thing might be cleared up in a
moment. The husband could
simply explain that he'd chanced
to be standing in front of a Ubangi
lady in a crowded elevator or that
the lipstick had been deposited
while being shaved by a near-
sighted lady barber. That would
be that. But women are so'
confounded jealous!
I know a poor fellow who toils
all day at a desk exactly like the
Show will be held on Wednesday,
May 29. This is a change from the
Saturday scheduling of the fair, in
order to attempt attracting a
larger crowd.
Decision for this date was made
at a meeting of the Huron Central
Agricultural Society here
yesterday, when 23 directors
attended and Mr. T. Leiper, the
new president of the fair
presided.
A meeting of local retailers has
been called for Tuesday,
February 19, in the council
chamber, of the town hall, Clinton
commencing at 8 o'clock.
Invitations have been sent to all
Clinton retailers, from the Retail
Merchants Association of Canada
(Ontario) Inc.
• 25 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Feb. 6, 1947
The Board of Trustees of
Goderich Township School Area
met the evening of Tuesday, Jan.
two dozen desks surrounding him,
plotting the routes and loading
schedules of freight cars. All day
long, nine to five, his mind is on
freight cars.
On his way to work or on his way
home he may glance furtively at
billboards displaying
advertisements for girdles, but
this is the height of his infidelity.
His wife gives him ten dollars a
week. Even if he wanted to
arrange a tete-a-tete he'd have to
do in a hamburger joint. But to
hear his wife talk you'd think he
was the inventory-keeper at a
sultan's harem or stage manager
of the Follies Bergere. All
because he once came home with
lipstick on his collar and, to this
day, he doesn't know how it got
there.
I do not want to go telling tales
out of school, but I'm forced to
bare the details of a personal case
to show you just how wrong wives
can be.
, At the last, newspaper where I
was employed they haXe an annual
pre-Christmas staff banquet. The
staff numbered around 900. About
800 of them were the world's most
charming, beautiful girls.
28, at No. 11 School. All members
were present. Clayton Laithwaite
was appointed chairman for a
second.
All communications, accounts
and reports, received since the
last meeting were considered.
The Board decided not to install
radios in the schools at the
present time.
The next meeting will be held in
No. 10 School on the evening of
Thursday, Feb. 27. Any persons
wishing to attend these meetings
are welcome to do so:
55 YEARS AGO
Thursday, Feb. 8, 1917
Rev. W. B. Moulton and Mr. P.
Cantelon were in Exeter' on
Tuesday attending a meeting of
the South Huron L.O.L. They
report a good meeting.
The annual skating party of the
C.C.L. was held in the big rink
last evening. Band in attendance
at the rink and lunch served in the
council chamber afterwards.
Mr. Henry Peacock of the
London Road has purchased the
residence of Mr. Ralph Tiplady,
Ontario Street. He will get
possession about March 1.
75 YEARS AGO
Feb. 12, 1897
On Tuesday evening several
members of the Independent
Order of Foresters visited the
brethren at Bayfield, and spent a
pleasant, enjoyable time, being
nobly entertained. The Bayfield
Brethren visited Clinton Lodge
tonight.
Letters....
to the
Editor
Dear Keith,
On behalf of the Winchester
Midget Hockey team, I wish to
extend thanks to the Clinton Minor
Hockey Association for their
invitation allowing us to
participate in your "Minor
Hockey Week",
The experience gained from
such a weekend cannot be
measured, Our new community is
presently in the process of
building their own arena. In fact
our midgets had their first
practise last week on their own
ice. Next week we hope to have
artificial ice.
May your active program
continue to flourish and again our
sincere thanks to all who were
involved.
Good luck to coach Bob Cook
and the Clinton Midgets in their
up-coming playoffs. We also hope
to see you in Winchester
someday.
For my wife, Jan, myself and
the Winchester Midgets, Thank
You for a very enjoyable weekend.
Yours truly,
Tom Clapp,
Winchester Midget Coach.
Green grows The Ability Fund,
new name for the March of Dimes,
whose new symbol is a thriving
evergreen tree with a branch
missing—symbolic of the fact
that disabled adults have many
abilities left to help them to live a
useful, happy life.
0 • •
PM toils
In order that
News—Record readers might
express their opinions on any
topic of public interest,
Letters To The Editor are
always welcome for
publication.
But the writers of such
letters, as well as all readers,
are reminded that the
opinions expressed in letters
published are not necessarily
the opinions held by The
News—Record.
The Editor,
In your editorial of last week
you ask: "Where do our priorities
lie?." Then you suggest that the
choice lies between 'arming to the
teeth' or 'seeking peace through a
body like the United nations.'
Then you conclude: "Any sane
person will know the answer." IS
the choice between just the United
Nations" or the other alternative
suggested?
Referring io the language
difficulties between French and
English speaking Canadians you
stress the need for seeking
understanding and conclude:
"Those who call themselves
Christians...may have a
particular responsibility."
HERE lies the answer to your
previous question: "Where are
our priorities?"
The founder of Christianity
instructed his followers to make
their priority the Kingdom of God.
And concerning that Kingdom the
inspired Scriptures say: "For
unto us a child is born, unto us a
gon is given; and the goveininent
—shaifbeilp'OnhiS shouldW.70nm
increase of his goliernrrielit'and
peace there shall be no end...The
zeal of Jehovah of hosts will
perform this." (Isaiah
9:6,7,A.S.V.) This version was
Copyrighted in 1929 by the
International Council of Religious
Education to insure the purity of
the text.
However, the same group of
"those who called themselves
Christians" endorsed first the
League of Nations as man's only
hope for peace, at the 'close of
World War I. Then, after the
League failed with the outbreak of
World War II and ceased to exist,
they endorsed the United Nations
as "man's last hope for peace,"
All the facts indicate that neither
are showing any signs of bringing
about "peace". (Jeremiah 6:14;
8:11)
It would seem that "those who
call themselves Christians" have
either entirely forgotten or
ignored the words recorded at
Daniel, chapter two, verse 44.
They may even call these words
"un-realistic". But bringing
about peace by spending "a
thousand times more on weapons
and other means of defense" is
far more "unrealistic".
This would indicate that, not
only is the billions of dollars
spent on defense costs, "an
indictment of national leaders"
but the whole situation is eqUally
an indictment of religious
leaders. Do you not think that the
time has come for us to face the
facts?
C. F. Barney