Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1988-02-24, Page 4Page 4--Lucknow Sentinel, Wednesday, February 24, 1988 P.O. Box 400, Lucknow, Ontario NOG,. 2H0 528-2822 Established 1873 Thomas Thompson -Advertising Manager Subscription rates in advance: Rob Bundy -Editor Pat Livingston -General Manager $1700 Outside Canada $6000 $1400 Outside Canada $5800 Senior Citizen Second class mailing reg., no. 0847 A 'iertising is accepted on the condition that in the event of a typographical error, t. portion of the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisment will be paid at the applicable rates. There are no losers By looking at the news stories coming out of Calgary, you'd get the impression that Canadian athletes are doing their country a disservice by competing in the Olympic Games. On one page in the Toronto Star this week, the following headlines appeared: "Canada backed into a must -win corner"; "Percy loses slalom race by a thumb"; "Orser magnificent - but still a loser"; ''Orser takes a step backwards"; and "Has Canada missed its golden opportunity?". While the Olympic Games are a place for the very best in the world to come together in peaceful competition, is it so important that we, the viewing public, put so much pressure on winning? In sporting events such as the Olympics, where the winners are decid- ed not by seconds but rather by one-hundreths of a second, it is not fair for us to say, for example, that Karen Percy 'lost' by making it down Mount Allan one one-hundreth of a second behind the second place finisher. The pressure on the athletes who have trained for literally a lifetime just to make it to the Olympics is tremendous. That pressure must become unbearable when, through the media. the rest of the country cries "disappointment" when we don't place first. Canadian skater Brian Orser is a prime example. Immediately follow- ing his brilliant free -skate that earned him a silver medal, a television commentator stuck a microphone in his face and said, "You lost. You must be disappointed". Now is that anyway to treat a young man who has worked hard for years and years and came through with a performance that excited the crowd and should have made the rest of the world proud? It isn't. Canadian athletes may only win two or three medals in total at these Olympics, but we must be satisfied in knowing we did our best and have provided the world with an Olympics watched by more people the world over than any other. There have been no terrorist attacks, very little controversy and some stellar performances from Canadian athletes. Do we have the t, right to expect more than that? Canadian athletes are to be congratulated for their performances, not held up as losers. R.B. By Rob Bundy Being in the word business, and at the same time being a poor speller, your hum- ble scribe spends a great' deal of time within the pages of his dictonary. I have come to notice a few things about this great book. One is the fact that you can't check the spelling of a word in the dictonary until you know how to spell it, and the second is that dictonary definitions are sometimes misleading and don't always reflect what the word in question has truly come to mean. For example, take, if you will, the word 'drunk'. Webster's defines the word as, "an inebriated person". Now if you didn't know what the word meant to start with, that wouldn't help much. Bundy's Concise Dictonary would define 'drunk' as "a person who, while unable to walk on water, is often seen stag- gering on whiskey". Here are a few other definitions from the pages of the Bundy Dictonary, which is currently in the proof-reading stages. Brain - An apparatus with which we think we think. Marriage - The state or condition of a com- munity consisting of a master, a mistress and two slaves, making in all two. Patience - A minor form of despair, often disguised as a virtue. Body-builder - A person who is fit for nothing really. Hangover - The mourning after the night before. See 'drunk'. Horoscope - A tale told by an idiot and believed by a fool. Are you with me so far? If you want to test any of these definitions to see if, in fact, they make more sense and describe more accurately the word in question than the dictionary, look a few of these up in your own Webster's. The dictionary describes a hooker as "a person who devotes one's honor to base purposes". I'd describe a hooker as "a fisher of men". Jello - An edible substance best com- prehended as having the taste of a politi- cian's promises and the consistency of his spine. Sweet but nonexistent. O:N Lill E SIDE Stock Market Analyst - A prophet of doom who predicts the doom of profit. Where else but in the dictionary of a newspaper editor would you find 'libel' described as "a slip of the pen frequently precipitating a slip of the bank balance"? Divorce - The state of marriage at which sanity prevails. Race Course - A place where the rich get richer and the poor get excited. Here's one fine definition that I will direct at our Advertising Manager, Tom Thompson: Salesman - A contortionist who puts his foot in your door, his tongue in your ear and his hand in your pocket while peddling. My favorite definition is a little less scathing. 'How would you best describe a toy pistol? I'd call it a gun -of -a -son myself, but you might have a better definition. If any of our Sentinel readers have any daffy defini- tions such as the ones here, I'd be quite in- terested in hearing them. Just drop us a line here at the office. I'll be sure to give you full credit, but in the mean time.... ...have a good week! P.S. In response to some of the calls we received this week about last week's On the Side in which'I described a recent close call with a school bus, no, I didn't get the license plate number, and, yes, it did real- ly happen. While I'm sure not all school bus drivers are poor drivers - that wasn't the point of the comment - the one I almost ran into recently certainly had something on his or her mind other than safe driving, We're not pointing any fingers, just try- ing to stress caution when it comes to winter driving...for everyone, not just bus drivers. iN OLYMPIC ACTâ–ºot-1 TODAY, IN THE Ju PING TO SPOT CONCLUSIONS- EVENT.., 70 years ago February 24, 1918 Drug feind visits Lucknow - A strange piece of human driftwood was gathered in by Constable Cameron on Monday night. The man was eventually convictil l as a "dangerous vagrant". and that appears to describe him very well. His arrest was made late at night at the home of Mrs. D. Graham where he had ar- ranged for lodging on the pretense that he was about to commence work, though this seems to have been no part of his program. The arrest was not effected without ex- citement. Before putting his prisoner into cells for the night, Cameron was making "the usual search of the man's clothing. At this point the man made a break for ti berty. He ran out of the Town Hall and in scall- ing a high fence was making for a barn when he fell upon the ice. At this point he was recaptured and safely locked up. . Among his possessions were found a dozen morphine needles and a medical ex- amination proved he had freely used them on his arms, legs and other parts of his body. He is obviously a drug feind of an ex- treme type. SENTINEL MEMOIRS 50 years ago February 24, 1938 Positions filled by aeclaimatiou - Vacan- cies in' the Ashfield Council were filled by acclaimation at Monday's nominational meeting when Alex MacDonald of Lochalsh was elevated to the reeveship and Fred Anderson of Zion was elected as the new councillor by acclaimation as well. The nomination was required due to the death of Reeve Richard Johnston. Mr. MacDonald, serving his fourth term as councillor, resigned to qualify for the reeveship. Two ex -reeves, John MacKen- zie and Murdo Matheson, withdrew in favour of MacDonald. Wood tenders let - Eight tenders were received by the Village Council at a special meeting held Thursday, for 4 -foot wood and 18 -inch beech and maple. The lowest tenders were accepted in each case with Frank Todd the successful bidder for ten cords of 4 -foot at $4 per cord. Neil Mc- Callum's tender was accepted for 25 cords of 18 -inch at $3 per. 25 years ago February 22, 1963 MacKay to succeed father - Policyholders of the West Wawanosh Mutual Fire Insurance Company were "jammed like sardines" into the Parish HaII in Dungannon Friday for the 84th an- nual meeting of the company. The record attendance at the meeting was attributed to the fact that three men were contesting the position of director left vacant by the death of the Late Donald MacKay. All seats at the hall were filled and every available inch of standing room was used, making it one of the largest annual meetings ever held by the company. Donald MacKay Jr. of RR1 Ripley was elected director for a three year term to succeed his late father who had served as director for over thirty years. Steady stream of applications - Applica- tions numbering in the hundreds were recieved Saturday by officials of the firm which recently purchased the Beatty Lad- der Factory. Applications were received from noon hour until late afternoon and two offices were used to register the line-up of employees. 10 years ago February 22, 1978 Council prepares sewage design report - The Lucknow Village Council passed a resolution Tuesday that the village will pay for the cost of a report, including surveying, soil testing and mapping, for the village's sewage works system. Coun- cil passed the motion with the stipulation that the project be undertaken as a municipal project rather than in agree- ment with the Ministry of the Environment. Board stages lockout - The Huron County Board of Education has set the stage to lockout its secondary school teachers. The recent meeting held by the Board is a for- mality preceeding the official lockout. On- ly a special vote by the board members will stop such action now. If the lockout proceeds, classes will be cancelled until the strike issue is settled.