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The Brussels Post, 1978-01-18, Page 2IIICTAM.1041110 'I" Brussels Post IBRUSSES ONTARIO WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1978 Serving Brussels and the surrounding community, Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario by McLean Bros.Publishers Limited. Evelyn Kennedy Editor Dave Robb - Advertising Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario Weekly Newspaper,Association Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $9.00 a Year. Others $17.00 a Year. Single Copies 20 cents each. AplAN cOMm uivi,rinc. le CNA n4= Alf L., r, nrSPAPiRS *CNA, At the Maitland Be safe, stay put MAN AND TREES "NO MUCH TO EACN OTHER THINK ABOUT IT ti It takes a storm like the one that virtually closed down Brussels and area last week to remind us how dependent we have become on being able to get out of town, or if we're rural residents, on Oiling into town. It takes a storm like laSt week's to remind us that it's just not worth risking life and limb to travel snow clogged roads. Missing school, or being docked a day or two's pay exacts a smaller price than a car accident or freezing in a stalled car. • No matter how much it may bother those of us who live in small villages or the country to give up a day's work, a shopping trip or an evening with friends, we owe it to our families, our employees, the police, snow plow operators and other emergency workers to just stay put at home when the weather is really bad. Log cabin fever, or the storm: stayed blues tend to get to us quickly after the novelty of being snowed in wears off. It's all too easy to say" HeCk, it's not that bad ,out", and take off into the swirling snow. If you really must drive in a winter storm , check with MTC on road conditions first and carefully weigh what they tell you. If your chances of getting to your destination are dim anyway, why not avoid Russian roulette driving and stay at home? And if your trip isn't essential, don't even bother tying up the road conditions' telephone line. Listen to the weather reports on radio and TV and plan'your trips. accordingly. Better' yet, look out your own front window and do what common sense dictates, A storm like last Tuesdays, 'that means stay home. Of all the activities of modern life in Canada, probably none mirrors our nation's personality as much as sports. All that is good and bad about this country is reflected in a page of the sports section of a daily newspaper. International hockey in the past five years has shown that Canadians can be both poor losers and warm, open hosts, although usually the former is —the one that gets the most attention. While the press in the Soviet Union grips about how "dirty" our palyers are, I have yet to see a crowd at a hockey game there give the kind of welcome to a Canadian team that fans in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver have given to Europeans in the past few years. Internationalhockey has also shown that Canadians can be as arrogant as anyone else. We were all so sure that we were better than anyone else back in 1972 that we set ourselves up for a'big fall when the Russians were better than we thought. On ' the other hand, international hockey has also shown the much greater propensity of Canadians to belittle themselves. Ever since that historic 1972 series there have been .those who have claimed that the Europeans played far better hockey, that they were smarter and that they had better skills. The evidence has yet to prove that because when a first rate Canadian team and a firit rate European team have met, the Canadian • team has nearly always won. But international hockey has also shown how slow Canadians are to change. Our hockey development had stagnated to the point where the rest of the world was able to catch up. Even today many of the leaders of the hockey community are using the same tactics as before, not learning from• our past mistakes. But I think our national neuroses are best personified by the coverage given sports hi Canada. Canadian sports writers exhibit all the faults of Canadian journalism in general. For instance, there's the "Iet's ignore it and maybe it will go away" phenonehon. If an event happens in Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver, it is important, but if it happens anywhere else, ircan't be worth much There fore the Vancouver Canucks, an abysmal hockey team, are instantly better than the Quebec Nordiques or Winnipeg Jets who are exeilting: hockey teams but have the unfortunate failing of playing in Quebec and Winnipeg, not to mentionbeing in the World Hockey Association which is automatically judged inferior even by those who have never see an WHA game. Then there's the "Anything, we can do-they can do better" philosophy which Means that if a Canadian and an American play the same sport, the AineriCan is automatically better (In everything &tit hockey). Therefore we have the general agreement among. sports writers: in Canada that the Canadian players in the Canadian Football League, can't carry the shoes of the American players. Russ Jackson may have been the greatest quarterback in the CFL, but he must have secretly been born an American. Tony Gabriel may have led the league in pass receptions year after year, but it must be an optical illusion. When a Canadian beats an American in any game, its automatically an .upset., Thus we have when the Canadian and U.S. college all ,star football teams met recently it was called "moral victory" when the Canadians didn't get beaten soundly. Yet if the sports writers had actually watched some Canadian college football games • with open eyes, they'd realize that if quarterbacks Jamie Bone and Bob Cameron had played up to par, they'd have beaten the Americans. But sportswriters know that theAmericans must have been better than 14-point winners so they point out that the wet playing conditions must have helped the anadians(was it only wet for the Americans but not the Canadians?) and that the game was played under Canadian rules(but wouldn't the Americans be more at home playing in their own country?) And finally in the "anything we can do they can do better" category we have all the hoopla over the un-super . Super Bowl this past weekend. To listen to the sportscast's it would seem that the future of every Canadian would be shaped by whether Dallas or 'Denver won the game. Frankly, I'd like to see the television ratings because I don't think the average Canadian gives a darn about the Super Bowl. -I'd bet more people watch the very ordinary Saturday night hockey game that the much promoted football game, and in many who did watch did so only because Walt Disney was- cancelled and there was nothing else on the local channel. There are those who argue that U.,S. professional football is better than Canadian football; afterall aren't they the greatest football players in the, world? But Jimmy Conners and Bjorne Borg may be great tennis players too but if they had to play on a ping pong table they wouldn't look so 'hot. The American football rules and tiny field make it a boring, boring, boring game to watch, even if the players are good, Once the Super Bowl might haVe excited people here because of the very fact that more than. 70,000 -people crowded in to watch it. Today we have that kind bf crowds in Canada so even that isn't exciting. About the only thing super about the super Bowl was those Dallas cheerleaders, Now there is one place where the Super Bowl was 'more exciting than the Grey Cup, If they'd spend More time televising the cheerleaders and less of the football game, maybe I wouldn't have fallen asleep three- times during the game, ehind the scenes By Keith Roulston Canadian teams slow to change.