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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1999-11-24, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1999. PAGE 5. Arthur Black Heard any good books lately1? Many years ago the media guru Marshall McLuhan said something typically cryptic that translated as “books are dead”. I laughed and laughed. The book? Dead? What an idiot. I had a garage sale last Saturday and now I'm wondering if McLuhan wasn't on to something. You see. I’ve had this set of Encyclopedia Americana that I’ve been lugging around for the past quarter of a century. Thirty-six volumes. I've moved house a half dozen times in those 25 years and each time I’ve lovingly packed up my encyclopedias and risked a hernia getting them to my next destination. There I would once again, lovingly unpack them and set them up in their own bookcase. I carried those books with me like a beloved pet. I dusted them. I displayed them proudly. What I didn't do is read them. Not for at least the past five years, anyway. I'm on the internet now, which is a whole lot faster and more in depth than my encyclopedias were. Besides, the fact that I'd had them for 25 years meant that - while they still contained a galaxy of knowledge - they weren't terribly current. So, with great reluctance I packed them into three cardboard boxes and consigned them to International Scene Driving in France In all the years that I have done this column, I have yet to have my wife do any of the writing for me. I thought it was time to remedy that, all the more because she has recently returned from a trip to France with a friend of hers and has, understandably, thoughts on the subject. For this reason this article will be the words of my wife Sue, without any help from me. There will be more in the near future. More than a year ago, when my B.C. friend Edna and I began making plans to go to Provence for a month’s holidays, she said she would do the driving if I did the talking. I agreed, thinking that it would be a lot easier to learn another language than to drive a car. I was right! The impression I had was everybody in France immediately becomes hostile upon getting into the driver’s seat of their car. No quarter is given to oncoming cars nor to pedestrians. There are speed limits in France; I know this to be true because I saw signs along the road. However, I think that the average French driver cannot read these signs because the speed limit is totally ignored ... everywhere. Dangerous passing on narrow roads is commonplace. Many times we expected to be involved in an accident due to someone pulling out to pass from behind us or coming toward us but the culprit always seemed to squeak by \ the garage sale. I wasn’t expecting to make a lot of money out of them even though I paid a bundle for those books when they were new. I just hoped they would go to a good home - somewhere that kids could paw through them and discover the delights of reading without having to go to a library. What the hell, I thought. It’s a garage sale. I’ll let them go for twenty-five bucks. Garage sales are a full-contact sport where I live. The early birds showed up at dawn and by 9 a.m. bargain hunters were swarming down the driveway and fingering the goods. In the first hour we had lots of folks and they bought all matter of gew gaws and junk that’s been cluttering up my house for too long. But nobody so much as glanced at the encyclopedias. It wasn't that they were illiterate - they gobbled up all the paperbacks I had on sale. Maybe - incredible as it seems - 25 bucks is too much to ask, I thought. I got out the magic marker and slashed the price to $10. “Ten dollars for 36 hard-cover volumes containing more knowledge than anyone could expect to accumulate in a lifetime” I muttered. “Somebody’s going to get a bargain.” Two hours later I slashed the price to $8. Then $5. By the end of the day all we had left for sale was one wonky floor lamp, an inflatable kid’s swimming pool that needed work; and a couple of shirts too ugly even for bargain hunters. And oh yes - 36 volumes of the Encyclopedia Americana - even though I had scrawled FREE - TO A GOOD HOME! - By Raymond Canon unscathed. My friend Edna is an excellent driver. She faced those French drivers with just the right amount of assertiveness and skill and soon was roaring around the roads just the same as the rest of them. It’s contagious! There are crosswalks in the communities in Provence but they might as well not be there because the drivers never stop for pedestrians. A person literally takes his life in his hands when trying to use a crosswalk. When we tried to do it, the drivers looked at us as if we were breaking the law, or else they studiously avoided looking at us. Edna would stop to let elderly people cross the street but the drivers beside us would not stop; the people would be trapped, while the cars behind us would set up a cacophony of blaring horns. Instead of four-way stops, there are traffic circles. Some of them were pretty, with flowers and/or statues. They could be quite confusing or helpful. Just think about missing the road you wanted ... you just kept driving around in a circle until the right road appeared and away you went. My sister and a friend tell of driving around and around in a town in Provence and not being able to get out of the place. That didn’t happen to us. Edna liked the traffic circles, even though she had to watch out for people trying to cut in ahead of her ... a constant hazard. The beautiful little mountain villages of Provence have the narrowest streets I have ever encountered. There is no place for a big where the price tag used to be. Nobody wanted my encyclopedias - even as a gift. I couldn't believe it. So I loaded them into the back of my car and took them down to the local thrift shop. Id just unloaded the second box when I spotted the sign by the shop door. It read: “Please note that we cannot accept ripped or tom clothing, broken furniture or sets of encyclopedias.” Grubby paperbacks by John Grisham or Danielle Steele they’ll take. Dog-eared copies of classic Greek or Roman poets they can use, but beautifully bound sets of encyclopedias? Sorry. Wasn’t long after that that I came across an item in the paper headlined: ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA GOES ON LINE FOR FREE. The story explained that the company, which has been producing the books since 1768, realized that it was becoming a dinosaur in the computer age. So they plopped all of their accumulated information - 44 million words, 33,000 pages - up on their website - free. They figure they'll make money by selling advertising and seeking sponsorship. “We have decided our value depends on the number of people we reach... With one click, we can reach the whole world. In book terms, we would have to print and distribute six billion copies.” Good news for our forests, I guess - but I still don’t think McLuhan was right. Books aren’t dead - dead things decay. And my 36 volume edition of Encyclopedia Americana show no signs of that. Unfortunately. car. Even our little Renault barely squeaked through but Edna didn’t even ding a fender in those impossibly tiny places. Parking the car was one of our biggest challenges. There were too many cars and too few places to put them. In Avignon we found an underground parking lot and took advantage of it the two times we were there. However, most places do not have that kind of parking. People park in the oddest places ... on the sidewalks or wherever they can fit the car. We found that the main highways were very good. There are toll roads and, although the speeds are sometimes frightening, traffic moves smoothly for the most part. One big advantage was that all the trucks drove in the right lane; the other lanes were only for cars. I fell a lot safer on those highways than on the 401,1 can tell you. I wonder if Edna is observing the speed limits now that she is back in British Columbia! A Final Thought The sun and the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago... had they happened to be within reach of predatory human hands. — Havelock Ellis Not a time to be hurried “Mom. I don’t know if you noticed, but it’s November. We’re wearing shirtsleeves.” Okay, so it’s November. So the American Thanksgiving isn’t here yet. So the weather feels more like September. And I’ve got my Christmas decorations up. Honestly, though I do get in the holiday spirit early, even I wouldn’t normally have decked my halls quite so soon. However, I hosted the family Christmas this past weekend, and really felt that considering all the points I have just made, a little seasonal sprucing was needed to set the tone. Yet, what really surprises me is the fact that I'm not the only one who has her house in its festive finery. Icicle lights, red bows and cedar roping are everywhere. I'm not certain what has happened in recent years for I am no longer the exception but the norm. As a matter of fact, I'm starting to feel like a late bloomer. As I mentioned earlier I enjoy getting an early start on Christmas. I like to have my shopping done (it is), my decorating finished (there’s just a tree left on my part; the warrior has some work to do) and my baking done (pretty much there) by the first week of December. The practice began with my first December baby 25 years ago. Knowing that her older brother had made a late arrival, I was concerned that if this one passed her due date getting prepared for Christmas could be a challenge. So by the first of December presents were bought, including those for the newborn, baking was frozen and the house was dressed for Saint Nick. I was relaxed and waiting. Good thing. Appearing 14 days later than anticipated, she and I enjoyed a homecoming one day before Christmas. Not really leaving a lot of time to accomplish anything was it? Then eight years later, 1 found myself in the same situation, only reinforcing my belief that there is merit in getting your Christmas tasks wrapped up. Is there a competition out there, to be the first on the block with your lights up? Traditionally, with the exception of special circumstances like this year, I have used the first weekend in December to decorate. Hard to believe, but once I was a rarity. In early November, when I told merchants that I was Christmas shopping years ago they looked at me in astonishment. Now, they say good for you and ask me if I need boxes. So is it a case of one-upmanship? I doubt it. Generally, I like to think that people have realized it’s an excellent way to extend and enjoy the holiday season. In a perfect world it would be nice if we could keep the spirit of Christmas going all year round, but for some sad reason it simply doesn’t happen. For me, walking down the street carrying a parcel that I know is going to bring a smile to a loved one’s face on Christmas morning, brings one to mine. Listening to Silent Night fills me with goodwill. I know that peace in our household at least is a lot easier to obtain when outdoor decorating is done in above freezing temperatures. And if we can start these feelings sooner why not? When Christmas gets here it should be a time to reflect on blessings, not to be harried and hurried.