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Times-Advocate, 1978-09-28, Page 4NEWS ITEM: Ford owners warned over gear risksPage 4 Times-Advocate, September 28, 1978 Nature abounds Other than that, how's your Ford? BATT’N AROUND with the editor Bargains off beaten track Coming from a land which offers easy access to a rich variety of natural settings, Canadians in particular tend to take the wonders of nature for granted. For example, the most common tree of the Canadian Shield, the black spruce, is a marvel of endurance in the struggle for survival in the wilds. Everything around this unimposing tree seems to conspire towards its ex­ tinction. Squirrels clip off its cones; spruce grouse eat the seeds it scatters; matted caribou moss prevents the seeds it does manage to spread from penetrating the soil. High winds often blow it up from its shallow roots; yet it will grow on practically bare rock and on the fringes of the tundra. If a black spruce can propagate itself no other way, its life force is transmitted through its lower branches. When an old tree falls over, the branches send roots into the soil to become new trees in their own right. As familiar an animal as a por­ cupine is a truly intriguing phenomenon. The porcupine is a typically tropical rodent from South America which has somehow managed to adapt itself to conditions as far north as the Arctic tree line. Perhaps its foreign origin is what makes it so formidable. A grQwn por­ cupine carries up to 30,000 quills with which to repel its predators. The pain­ ful shock of receiving a dose of these quills causes an animal that touches it to recoil, allowing the porcupine time to waddle safely away. Unlikely as it seems, the porcupine is a killer. The quills can spell slow death to the most powerful timber wolf or the cleverest fox by dooming it to die of starvation because it is unable to eat, or by working their way into its brain. It is said that only one Canadian animal can kill a porcupine with im­ punity. This is the big member of the weasel family called the fisher, which has developed the knack of flipping por­ cupines over on their backs and at­ tacking the unprotected underside. Why one creature alone should be able to do this, no one knows — but such mysteries are part of the endless fascination of nature. It is impossible for an intelligent person not to stand in awe of its mysterious logic, which goes far beyond human ken. A flight of wild geese is a study in aerodynamics. The leader of the “V” formation breaks trail through the air, and each bird thereafter gains “lift” from the updraft created by the wing action of the one in front of it. Being the leader is not easy, and that is why you will see the birds change the lead position periodically, as if by pre­ arrangement. It all works so smoothly that spectators rarely stop to ponder what a remarkable system it is. Nature is full of secrets to tantalize the inquiring mind. Many creatures specialize in deception. The beautiful copper-coloured butterfly may be what is known as a monarch — but then again it may not. The caterpillars of the monarch feed on milkweed plants. As adults they contain a poison from the milkweed which kills predators such as birds, frogs and bats. Most predators have learned not to touch a monarch. So nonpoisonous butterflies like the viceroy “mimic” its appearance to frighten their own predators away. Buyers beware Buying a used car will be tricky in several years, reports Canadian Con­ sumer in its August issue. The reason: metric odometers. Since September 1977, the federal government has required that all odometers and trip recorders in new cars must be calibrated in metric un­ its. Since the kilometre is only about % of a mile, the odometer on a late-model car will reach the 100,000 turn-over point more quickly (at 62,137 miles). This means that a three or four- year old car with 80,000 miles on it (about 130.000 km) would only show 30,- 000 km on the odometer. Depending on the cosmetic appearance of the car, it might be difficult to judge if it were a low-mileage find or a high-mileage car about to need a major engine overhaul. The simple solution would be the installation of six-digit odometers, which would register to one million kilometres. Strangely enough, only a few cars such as Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Peugeot, BMW, Saab and Porshe offer six-digit odometers. The North American and the economy-minded import manufac­ turers have simply fallen asleep at the wheel. mi ♦ 11 hink small Geneva Non-Conventional SYD FLETCHER ac- Perspectives With the devaluation of Canada’s dollar, many visitors to Europe have been returning home with tales of woe about extremely high accommodation and meal costs. Bill Smiley alluded to that situation in one of his recent columns, noting that it cost up to $100 per night in some hotels and that provided accommoda­ tion not entirely in keeping with what the price tag would suggest a weary traveller should receive. That column, plus some other infor­ mation received by the better half about lodging costs in Germany, had her scurrying about arranging loans, knowing full well that the writer hadn’t taken that amount of money with him and would probably be sleeping on some park bench in Lahr ... or worse yet, being forced to seek lodging with some kind, young fraulein. Ironically, the writer was living high on the hog, finding that accommoda­ tion costs weren’t even as high as the conservative estimate we had been given by officials who had helped arrange our trip to visit Canadian Forces Europe. Prices for our rooms ranged from $12 to $15 per night, and while that in itself is a bargain, the price tag also in­ cluded a sumptuous breakfast that in most' cases could be considered a brunch. However, we should advise would-be travellers that it is necessary to shop around for such reasonable rates, and it may be necessary to head out into the smaller towns because the hotels there are much cheaper than the plush accommodation provided in major European cities. But it is certainly worth the effort. The first thing to which you must become accustomed, is sharing the bathroom down the hall with your fellow travellers. However, the mor­ ning lineup isn’t held up by females powdering their noses, because most rooms are equipped with a sink and often a shower so your external cleanliness can be completed in the privacy of your own facility. While the rooms are generally stark in comparison with hotels to which we have become accustomed in this coun­ try, they are always neat and tidy. The one aspect that is difficult to comprehend on first entering your room is the pile of bed clothes neatly piled in the centre of the bed. Suffering from a mild dose of jet-lag, we fumbled through the pile looking for the loose ends and soon determined there were none. The next step was to figure out how one climbs into this European sleeping bag. Finally, we tired of the whole exer­ cise and merely spread it out and crawled under, “That’s exactly what you’re sup­ posed to do.” advised our veteran travelling companion on hearing our problem the following morning. The pile, of course, was a feather tick, ap­ parently a household item in Germany. Another unpleasant experience in Germany, is getting locked out of your hotel. We hadn’t noticed any curfew hours when we left to “hit the town” and so were rather chagrined to con­ template a night under the stars when we couldn’t get back in. Fortunately, the problem was rec­ tified when we were advised that our room key was also the key to the front door. One of the advantages of staying in small towns, is that you are in general, living with the natives, as opposed to the large city hotels where one finds the place brimming with English speaking travellers. With the benefit of having some in­ terpreters in our group, we spent many enjoyable evenings chatting with the local residents. It was, for instance, a memorable experience chatting for almost three hours one night with Hugo and Sep, a couple of bridge inspectors. They too were overwhelmed with the evening, and there were hugs and good wishes all around when we departed. The most overwhelming aspect of the situation was the fact they delayed their morning departure until we had arrived for breakfast so they could once again extend their joy at the fun night we had enjoyed. * * * We ran into a similar situation at a small hotel where we had stopped for dinner on our first day in Germany, and at that point we were without the benefit of our interpreters, although we found a smattering of French help­ ful because we were close to the French border. The hotel owner attempted to explain his menu, and when we asked for a description of the house special which he was obviously extolling, he excused himself and headed for the kitchen. Minutes later he came back with a heaping plate and six spoons, so each member of the group could have a sam­ ple. Due to his warm hospitality, one of our group bestowed on him a Canadian flag lapel pin. Well, that initiated a chain-reaction that was almost un­ believable. He immediately pulled out his bottle of favorite cognac and insisted we each have a drink on him. That prompted further exchanges of mementos, in­ cluding a Canadian dollar bill from one of our group. Th'e hotel keeper was overjoyed (ob- visouly not realizing how worthless it was) and each of us had to sign it and it was immediately pinned up in a promi­ nent spot above the bar. He advised that if we ever returned, we must visit him and he guaranteed that the dollar bill would still be there. We really didn’t need the cognac to have a warm feeling when we left! Geneva, by all accounts, is a magnificent city, blessed with a breath-taking natural setting and outstanding arch­ itecture (not to mention some of the world’s priciest hotels). Most Canadians would dearly love to vacation in Geneva. But most Cana­ dians can’t afford the trip. Government officials, of course, are not most Cana­ dians. And they most assur­ edly can afford the trip. Wit­ ness the Canadian contingent which has been residing in the Swiss wonderland for the better part of 1978, keeping their hands in the interna­ tional trade negotiations commonly known as GATT. We don’t really mind (al­ right, we mind - but just a little bit) the idea of our hard­ working government folks living it up in exotic locales at public expense. What irks us more is the futility of their venture. GATT is designed to plunder the lesser trading na­ tions like Canada rather than establishing a world-wide equality in trade terms. The GATT negotiations are a form of economic black­ mail. The big three trading nations — the United States, Japan and West Germany — gang up to impose a univer­ sal set of tariffs on the lesser nations. The lesser nations are not allowed to enter into side deals concerning exports and imports. Suppose, for instance, Ca­ nada found that there was an advantage in shipping our leather to Taiwan, using Tai­ wanese manufacturers to turn our leather into shoes, and reimporting the shoes at very low tariff rates. Accord­ ing to GATT regulations, Ca­ nada would be required to allow shoes from all other countries into Canada at the same low tariff rate — even though those countries might not be using Canadian leath­ er or helping the Canadian economy. This sort of all-for-one philosophy works reasonably well for the powerful coun­ tries (GATT assures that their products can get into all the countries whicl^ are members of GATT), better for large, sophisticated high-technolo­ gy corporations (which pro­ duce unique goods that are unavailable from other coun­ tries) and alright for some developing nations with arm­ ies of workers willing to ac­ cept pennies an hour (since these nations have a massive cost advantage that allows them to compete no matter what the GATT regulations stipulate). But, for the lesser nations like Canada, GATT steals jobs from Canadians. The world’s philosophy about trade agreements must change, John Bulloch told an international small business convention in Spain this month. Bulloch, President of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, argued that countries must start ne­ gotiating international trade treaties in one-on-one discus­ sions. Group talks, Bulloch stressed, will always benefit the most powerful trading nations at the expense of the less powerful traders. GATT is an international confidence game. Unfortun­ ately, we have no realistic al­ ternative to participating in a new GATT agreement at this time. But let’s recognize GATT for the fraud that it is, realizing that neither Canada nor any of the other nations signing the agreement will be able to live up to the condi­ tions. Meanwhile, let’s bring some of our negotiators home from Geneva; we can’t afford the hotel bills. "Think small" is an editorial message from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business^ memory lane I’ve seen all types of cidents in schools. They’re bound to happen I guess. Children being what they are they tend to push themselves to their limits with the result sometimes that somebody gets hurt. If there’s a tree to climb it gets climbed, a stone to be thrown gets whipped-just to see how far it’ll go. Schoolyards are no ex­ ceptions. A teacher with first aid training is con­ stantly busy with the ban­ dages and the ointment. Occasionally the accidents are more serious than the scraped arm, ranging from dislocated knees and elbows to the student that lost her eye in a snowball mishap not too long ago. Despite all the precautions you take these things still happen. I remember very vividly the little girl who was in my grade 4 class a number of years ago. She was a quiet dark-haired child, af­ fectionate in her ways, who worked hard but seemed to find all of her work difficult to handle. Two years later I had left the school but my wife stayed there as a primary teacher. She came out to our car one day in a state of near shock. The afternoon recess bell had rung and several children ran up to the fountain to get a drink, this girl among them. Her drink finished, she straightened up and then crumpled to the ground. The closest teacher was only a few feet away and help in the form of mouth-to- mouth rescue breathing was quickly given. An ambulance was called but took twenty minutes to ’ get there because the school was fifteen miles out in the country. Artificial breathing was carried on for all of that time to the unconscious girl whose face was almost blue by now. Although I’m not sure of the technical reasons, she had suffered from an attack of rheumatic fever causing her heart to speed up to over two hundred beats per minute just before she collapsed. At the hospital she was pronounced dead upon arrival, apparently having died right at that water fountain. Nothing whatso ever could have saved her. Even so, a pretty sad day for that community, that school, for her parents who had no inkling whatsoever. can be exhausting. ouring Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 si#imes - Advocate i HtwA, North M*4*ese« J Mw* Mt?) Amalgamated 1924 Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 SERVING CANADA'S BEST FARMLAND C.W.N.A., O.W.N.A. CLASS 'A' and ABC Published by J. W. Eedy Publications Limited LORNE EEDY, PUBLISHER Editor — Bill Batten Assistant Editor — Ross Haugh Advertising Manager — Jim Beckett Composition Manager — Harry DeVries Business Manager — Dick Jongkind _ Phone 235-1331 (♦CNA SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $11.00 Per Year; USA $22.00 Absolutely my last column about trips to Europe, cross my heart and spit. Just a few final impressions and some tips to those who haven’t done it before. Travel to Europe, that is. Holland is flat and flower-filled: flowers everywhere. We visited a local cheese factory and I was suckered into buying a real cheese knife with a Delft handle, and a two-pound cheese which my wife maligned bitterly every time she had to restore the peace. Went up into a working windmill, of which there are only a few left. An awesome experience, with the great stones grinding and the vast sails whirling; like something out of the middle ages. Saw the biggest flower market in the world, where the lots of flowers are wheeled in, prices flash on a computerized board, and buyers, sitting in a sort of amphitheatre, make g their bids by pressing a button which identifies them. Holland was also a sort of memory trip for me. Went within a few miles of Gorinchem, where I was shot down, and passed the city of Utrecht, where I spent several days and made the Great Escape (seven minutes duration). Same in Germany, We spent a night at Frankfurt, where I had passed three days and nights way back then, in solitary, at an interrogation centre, waiting rather anxiously for the whips and the thumbscrews. When I was finally brought in for questioning, there weren’t any, but there were subtle threats: “You know ve haf vays of making you talk.” They shook me a bit by showing me a huge loose-leaf folder with the numbers of most Air Force squadrons, including my own, con- jtaining a pretty good list of the per- ?isonhel. Don’t worry; I didn’t talk. Didn’t know anything except how to get a Typhoon off the ground and on again. Innsbruck in Austria worth visiting. Up, up through the Tyrolean Alps,then down, down through them, everyone a bit tense on the curves, to the beautiful old city nestled like a jewel in a valley, mountains all around, Olympic .ski jump just up there. Take in an evening of local entertainment, yodelling, dancing, singing. Robust good fun. There were about eighteen different nationalities in the audience the night we were there. Don’t let your wife loose with a credit card in Florence, where gold and leather are beautifully worked and just half the price of back home. Venice stinks. Or so they tell me. With my bashed-up beak I didn’t notice a thing. The waterways are controlled by the gondoliers mafia. There are so many tourists in St. Mark’s square that even the famous pigeons have barely room to forage. Rome is remarkable, a bit frightening if you get off the beaten track and the English-speaking guide. After you’ve seen the Pantheon, St. Peter’s, the Colosseum and the Vatican City, relax. It would take two months to do the city justice. A good bet for some of that relaxation is travel by express train from Rome to Genoa, where Chris Columbus was born. Train is fast, and the to that you get great looks at Mediterranean all the way up. By bus along the famous Cote d’Azur to tiny Monaco, rigidly ruled by a benevolent dictator, Prince Rainier. Took a look at the royal palace. Not too impressed. Rather annoyed that Princess Grace didn’t pop out to say hello, but she was probably sulking over her daughter’s marriage old French guy, when momma wanted Prince Charles of Britian for her. Nice was nice, though men in party all woke up with stiff necks from craning to see topless bathers of the international set. Very, very expensif. Off to Switzerland, throughGrenoble in France, another Olympics site. Through the French Alps (not quite so scary) to Geneva and the calm, peace, cleanliness and beauty that Charac­ terize that country. ’Twasn’t always so. Saw the huge statues of Calvin, John Knox and Zwingli, protestant early birds, who got their kicks from burning Catholics at the stake. Then to Berne, the capital, whose symbol i.s the bear; a fine, ancient city. And so to Lucerne, a small, lovely lakeside resort city, where you once again have to put a leash on your‘wife, because it’s famous for gold, silver, and watches, the best in the world. It’s up early for a long, long ride to Paris. It’s all that is claimed for it. We saw it from four vantage points: by bus on the way through; blazing with light at night on our way home from a party; by bus and on foot next morning; and from a cruise on the Seine in the af­ ternoon. And barely touched the highlights. I could live there for a year, and still have things to see. This is beginning to sound like a dull travelogue. Its main purpose is to suggest that when you do Europe by coach, whatever the length of your trip, you are really on the move. If you want a relaxing holiday, stay home, or rent a cottage. If you want the experience of a 55 Years Ago The Ford travelling caravan with power farming machinery visited Exeter on Monday and held a demonstration on the farm of Mr. Russell Hedden. In the evening, moving pictures were given in front of the Ford garage. Mr. William Andrew had the misfortune to have both bones of the right arm fractured near the wrist when the engine he was cranking backfired. One of the plate glass windows in Jones and May was broken on Sunday by a passing automobile. The post office site south of the Bank of Commerce, which is being fitted up for a playground was levelled up and seeded to grass last week. The floral exhibits and .the cooking surpassed all former years at the Kirkton Fair this year. 30 Years Ago The official opening of William H. Sweitzer’s new bowling alleys was held Wednesday evening. A reception was held on Friday evening in Caven Church for their recently married minister, Rev. D. R. Sinclair and his bride. An urgent appeal to the hydro users of Exeter for the conservation of hydro power is being made. Grand Bend WI decided to buy and donate a piano as the Institute’s contribution to the new town hall. Red Cross packing day will be held in the Canadian Legion rooms October 8. Keith M. McLean, editor of the Huron Expositor, died suddenly Wednesday of last week. 20 Years Ago Eight Exeter Lions Club members with a total of 104 years perfect attendance were honored at the meeting Thursday night. Dr. H. H. Cowen, a past president, has the longest record, 19 years. Rev. Alex Rapson con­ cluded his pastorate on the Main St., Crediton and Shipka charge on Sunday. Sparked by the en­ thusiastic support of Exeter Legion a town committee was organized Tuesday night to investigate construction of a swimming pool for the community. William Abbott, Victoria St., reports he has been enjoying strawberries from his garden for several weeks. 15 Years Ago Exeter’s population has increased 117, or almost four percent, over the past year, assessor E. H. Carscadden reported to council this week. Grand Bend PUC is being assisted by the Exeter Rural Hydro gang in the task of moving hydro poles on High­ way 21 to make room for the wider pavement which is being laid next spring. Chiselhurst UCW was host to the second regional meeting of the Huron Presbyterial United Church Women Monday at Hensall United Church. Three Exeter youths, Neil Hamilton, Allan Thompson and Mark Hinton have been declared champions of the SHDHS track and field meet at the school Friday. The CGIT group of Caven PresbyterianChurch held its mother and daughter banquet recently with president Nancy Strang as chairman. lifetime, take a coach tour. Don’t listen to well-meaning friends. You’don’t need six rolls of toilet paper, you don’t need clothes hangers (we took naif a dozen and lugged them all over the continent). Choose clothing with care: something for cold, something for hot, something for wet, something for smart. You don’t, even the women, need a new outfit every day. Take a perma­ nent press stuff. ‘ 1 Arrange your tour through a reliable travel agency. It „?esP J any more and could save you many a headache. We aian t nave a single hitch, including fourteen hotels, five boat trips, two buses, one train, one hovercraft and two limousines. So. Just arrange that second mortgage on your house, and • away you go,foreign dictionaries in hand. Don’t blame me if co,n Pse?n.9°l°^e a°d have to be shipped back in a box. there II probably be an air strike, and you can raise a real stink, even after death.