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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1994-03-16, Page 51 Arthur Black Strike to give overworked brains a rest A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches isn't quite sure. I realize that you're in a hurry. You're trying to get through this newspaper so that you'll have time to plough through those half dozen news magazines left over from last week, that RRSP brochure you vowed you'd read today AND still have time to watch Prime Time News right? Still, do you think you could spare a couple of seconds to read about the latest disease? You'd better, because you've got it, pal. It’s called Info Angst. Symptoms: clammy palms, shortness of breath and emotional agitation, especially following abstention from news reports - printed, televised or heard over the Walkman. Simply put, InfoAngst is a terror of missing something — of being ill-informed. InfoAngst threatens to become the Bubonic Plague of the late 20th century, and that shouldn't be surprising. It would be physically impossible for you to read every newspaper, magazine, pamphlet and brochure that is printed in this province each day, much less in this country. And as for books - do you know how Looking Back Through the Years ‘Parade" at Regent 45 years ago From the files of the Brussels Post, Blyth Standard and The Citizen 45 YEARS AGO MARCH 16,1949 The Department of Lands and Forests issued a statement informing residents of Huron, Bruce and Grey Counties that muskrats may be trapped from March 20 to April 21. Anyone who wished to hunt groundhogs, crows and starlings would have to obtain a vermin license from their local issuer. A man was charged $50 and court costs for hunting deer out of season. Brussels Arcade Store offered a second pair of shoes for one cent when purchasing the first pair at the regular price. A Cambridge Clothes representative came to Brussels to take measurements and orders for made-to measure Easter clothes. Bob Johnson opened an electrical store in Brussels, a few doors north of the bank. The library was pleased to announce the increase in circulation, up 798 over the previous year. The Rangers defeated Boston at the Brussels arena, to win the Lions Trophy. Members of the team were R. Imeson, G. Cousins, F. Campbell, J. Cardiff, K. Grewar, A. Cameron, T. Bridge, K. Stephenson, D. Machan, S. Smith, Bob Mc-Cutcheon, C. McCutcheon and K. Alcock. Electric washers were available at Johnson Electric for $117.50 to $154.50. Brussels Council approved the monthly bill be paid for hydro which included the street lights and the Town Hall lights. The total was $96.86. The East Huron Agricultural Society held a dance at the Brussels Town Hall to raise money to repair the Fall Fair Pavilion. Fred Astaire and Judy Garland starred in The Easier Parade, showing at the Regent many new books were printed in English in 1993? One thousand, according to The Daily Telegraph. Ah...that's 1,000 per day, of course. The problem with InfoAngst is that it’s undiscriminating. Any old chaff will do for the mill. Just think about some of the "news" stories about which you already know more than you care. The Prince Charles/Di/Camilla triangle. Are the grubby goings-on among this trio of dreary Brits worth one second of your time? The Bobbit Cropping. Would the quality of your life have been significantly diminished if you'd never encountered the lurid details of Loreena versus John Wayne? The Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan kneecapping. A contretemps between two foreign competitors in the sport of figure skating. News just doesn't get much more trivial than that. And of course there's the on-going non­ saga of President Bill Clinton and whether he was or wasn’t involved in some shady land deals when he was or wasn't cavorting with nubile voters in the privacy of his government limousine. News? Not hardly. The problem with newspapers is the headline. Tradition has it that newspapers must feature that big, bold slash of type across the front page, whether or not there's anything to merit it. Thus, a front page headline can trumpet a warning about continental earthquakes o"e day and a local traffic jam the next. No newspaper has ever had the courage to Theatre in Seaforth. 25 YEARS AGO MARCH 19,1969 The first robin of the season as spotted by Don Ives, of RR 2 Blyth. Miss Hazel Collins and Mr. Bill Boussey of Central Hullett Secondary School were winners of the Blyth Lions Club Speaking Contest and at the competition in Wingham. The Blyth Lions Club celebrated as they burnt the artificial ice plant mortgage of $10,000. The Blyth PeeWees advanced to the semi­ finals in the Goderich Young Canada Hockey Tournament. They defeated Kettle Point 3-1 and Samia Indians, 8-3. Twin calves were born on the farm of Harold Cunningham of Hullett Twp. The white Durham calves were both heifers. Bruce Falconer joined the staff of Lawrence Knight Real Estate. The fire insurance premium for East Wawanosh through Howick Mutual fire Insurance was $13.50. East Wawanosh council accepted the gravel tender from Joe Kerr Limited of Wingham, at a price of 98 cents per cubic yard, for supplying, crushing and hauling 10,000 cubic yards of gravel. The Chev. army truck belonging to the township was sold for $100. Habkirk Transit Services in Seaforth, offered a two night stay in Nashville, Tennessee for $59. the price included hotel, tour, dinner and a Saturday night performance. Snell's Food Market advertised weekly specials. Five Roses floi ", seven lbs. was 59 cents; Allen's Apple Juice, 48 oz. tin, 39 cents; one lb. of Blue Ribbon Coffee, 89 cents; Pine River medium cheddar cheese, 69 cents per lb. and two rolls of paper towels for 49 cents. run a front page banner reading "Relax, Folks! Nothing Happened! The Irish genius George Bernard Shaw put it more pungently.-"A newspaper" said Shaw, "is a device unable to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization." The solution to all this? Don't ask me. As a scribbler for the papers, I'm obviously part of the problem, not the solution. However I will offer this letter from Annie Davidson, one of our many wonderful readers. Annie loathes the way our newsmakers smirkingly refer to the ill- informed as being 'off the planet' She writes: "Could we please trash the phrase 'off the planet?' Not only is it overused, it oozes all the smugness and self-importance of the media that spawned it. "I did not miss last summer's Teal/Homolka round-up by being 'off the planet'. On the contrary, I was very much on the planet, turning my front lawn into a rose garden. "The Conservative Leadership Convention? Sorry. I was having the love affair of the century. Did I miss anything? "We should be toasting people who manage to escape the ubiquity of popular culture now and again. Let us respectfully refer to them henceforth as the 'Media Immune' and welcome them back to the planet" Sounds good, Annie. A natural antidote to InfoAngst - a voluntary readership strike to give our overworked brains a rest. Er, not including readers of The Citizen of course. 5 YEARS AGO MARCH 15,1989 County taxes jumped 19.58 percent despite the objections from eight councillors, including Marie Hicknell of McKillop. The largest portion of the increase was due to capital expenditures for waste management and the construction of Huronview. A team from the Blyth and District Fire Department won the B Championship at the dart tournament for fire departments, held in Wingham. Members of the team were Vernon Bromley, Connie Bromley, Brad Montgomery and Maureen Montgomery. The Beirdo Bros, performed at the Brussels Library. The Brussels LCBO was broken into and $1,030 worth of liquor was stolen. The Bluevale No. 2, 4-H Club chose their executive. They are: president, Donna Johnston; secretary, Carla Johnston and press reporter, Sheri Huether. Blyth Novices earned the B Championship at the Teeswater tournament by defeating Lucknow, 7-0 and Howick, 6-0. West Wawanosh council approved the purchase of a tanker for Lucknow and District Fire Department. The township contributed $12,000. i KIDS I Enter the Easter Colouring Draw See details on Pages 8 and 9 of this issue of The Citizen THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 1994. PAGE 5. The Short of it By Bonnie Gropp Sorry, our mistake! It was all a mistake. I didn't mean to do it. How often have we heard those words. Human error is a fact of life, though not always an acceptable one. From the time our children are young we try to teach them that it's alright to make a mistake; that it is after all only natural. There was even a song on Sesame Street telling kids it's okay to mess up sometimes. Everyone makes mistakes so why can't you? Your sister and your brother and your dad and mother too. Unfortunately, while the words may be true there are always those who forgive but never forget and, worse yet, those who will do neither. The problem with making a mistake is that it can have serious negative repercussions attached to it. Just ask Joey Buttafuoco, who's recently serving time for his fatal attraction to the predatory, albeit underage, Amy Fischer. After an affair with Joey, the "Long Island Lolita" decided his wife was in the way. She went to Joey's home, knocked on the door and shot his wife in the face. Obviously mistakes come in different sizes, with the previous example being one of the bigger ones. Little ones come in the form of spilled milk and calling someone by the wrong name. A little more serious is throwing a baseball through a window while the next rung up the ladder could be something like cheating on an exam. Though the latter is definitely troublesome, it is still, when you really think about it, fairly small potatoes in this veritable garden of fallibility. That's what we tend to forget when we're victims of someone else's boo-boo; the fact that we often commit an error by over­ reacting to the situation. If I have tried to learn anything in this lifetime, it's to stand back and take a second to ask myself, "How bad is it? Will the sun still come up to tomorrow and the world still go on?" If you can answer yes to the last question, it should be easier to deal with the mistake on a more rational basis, I've found. If there's any gratification after a mistake it's that, for the most part, they are a fairly private matter, primarily among those directly affected. In some instances, however, a mistake can become public knowledge. Through the media the mistakes of politicians and criminals are brought to the attention of anyone listening and reading. Look again, at the Buttoffuocas — we learned more about that mistake than we ever wanted to. For what it's worth, however, the mistakes made by the media are also for public knowledge, printed in black and white or announced boldly over the airwaves. For that reason, the wronged party is also deserving of a public apology. It is with all these thoughts in mind, that I would like to say thank you to some individuals. Last week there were two inaccuracies in our paper and a photography gaffe that resulted in no coverage of an important event. The first two were brought to our attention without theatrics in a polite and understanding manner. The latter wasn't seen as a diabolical plot to ignore the event, rather it was acknowledged for what it was — a regrettable goof. "It's okay. These things happen," he said when I explained. That may be true, but not everyone is as willing to accept it. It's for that reason that I wanted to publicly thank these people.