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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2002-12-18, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2002. PAGE 5. Other Views i'm not one for name dropping, but...I just had breakfast with Jack Nicholson. Well, sorta. Down at the Red Rooster. You know it? Man, if you have to think about it for even a nanosecond, you've never been there. It's a small restaurant just off the Trans Canada highway. roughly halfway between the cities of Victoria and Nanaimo - or half-way between the towns of Duncan and Chemainus, if you want to get nit-picky. Doesn't look like much from the outside, but once you're through the door you're in a whole new world. Not so much a world as a chicken coop. Oh, the place is clean and bright, with your standard arborite tables and counters, but the decor...well, I don't know who owns the joint but whoever it is, they've got a serious case of Roosterphilia. The room is awash with embroidered roosters, sculptured roosters, painted, carved, crocheted and knitted roosters. There are rooster calendars, rooster salt and pepper shakers, the napkin , holders are cardboard rooster cutouts and the serviettes come embossed with, but of course, roosters. I can't speak for the women's facilities but iii the men's john I had to conduct my business under the stern beak of a walleyed rooster embroidered =on a cloth hanging behind the toilet. I manfully resisted the urge to ask my waitress the obvious question: why roosters? I figured I'd wait until she told me. She never did, but she let drop a few other chicken mcnuggets - such as the fact that the Red Rooster's been slinging hash at the same location since 1.956, plus the fact that' 'the rooster thing' has pretty much gotten out of Ernie Eves has led his troops in more retreats than any premier in memory, which is not much of a strategy for winning a war. The Progressive Conservative premier, who is due to fight an election next year, has spent most of his first eight months in office looking like Napoleon wending his way back from Moscow. Some of his reversals, to be fair, were pushed on him by his predecessor, Mike Harris. Harris had announced cuts in income- tax among his parting shots, but public demand to maintain services left Eves little option but to postpone them. Eves also will not be blamed for firing officers of a company Harris set up to manage and eventually privatize the province's electricity transmission network, who handed themselves salaries and perks that made oil princes look frugal. Nor will there be a public outcry over Eves abandoning Harris's plan to give $10 million tax relief to wealthy professional sports clubs, which he could not have justified while ordinary taxpayers had theirs deferred. But Eves did most of his retreating from policies that were his own work. He had enthusiastically embraced selling the transmission network, but, after protests, reduced this to offering to sell only a minority interest, which suggested priyate ir titrisiry was inadequate and discouraged potential buyers, who dislike uncertainty. Eves allowed an open market to set electricity prices, but when they soared and some in his own party rebelled, beat another retreat and froze them, further alienating private enterprise and particularly those considering building needed new generators. Eves announced a 15 per cent increase in nursing home fees, but after seniors protested, delayed its start and phased it in over three years. Eves brought in legislation that would have Arthur Black control. Customers have caught the disease too. They've brought in rooster memorabilia from pretty well every province and state in North America, not to mention Africa, Portugal, Britain, Holland, Norway, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, Guatemala and Chile. People have to drive a bit to get to the Red Rooster, but the parking lot always seems to be busy whenever I show up. And a lot of the customers are old-timers. In fact, three of the booths have permanent screwed-on signs on them. They read ELMER'S. SEAT, BERT'S SEAT and ERNIE'S SEAT. "They're all in their 90s," my waitress explains. "Been coming in here forever." I think I know why. Having breakfast or lunch at The Red Rooster is -the polar opposite of the eating experience you get at a McDonalds, a Harvey's or a Denny's. No antiseptic, one-size-fits-all atmosphere here. The place is folksy and homey and the rooster knickknacks and gewgaws cover the walls and every available space. - On your way out, you can buy hot loaves of home-made bread, jars of raspberry jam, or fresh apple and pumpkin pies. The coffee pot is 'bottomless' and they serve given companies easier access to surplus funds in pension plans they maintain with employees and withdrew it after objections by opposition parties and labor. Eves's government reassessed homes at sharply rising market values, a huge concern to average homeowners, but was found making extra checks to ensure those of prominent people were accurate and quickly dropped such favouritism. All premiers have retreated at times, even Harris, although he is often called a different politician who always did what he said he would do. Among many examples, was when Harris jettisoned policies not to close hospitals and to restrict gambling. New Democrat Bob Rae's proudest boast was he would bring in publicly-operated auto insurance, but when he discovered the cost, he reversed gears and kept the system that uses insurance companies. Tory John Robarts abandoned his notorious 'police state bill,' which would have given a government-appointed commission power to hold indefinitely anyone who refused to answer questions on organized crime, after protests led by news media. Tory William Davis's retreats included scrapping legislation to tax heating oil, after his caucus revolted, and to forbid teachers striking, after they descended on the legislature in thousands. He also stood firmly against full funds for Catholic high schools when he thought this would win an election, but granted them with his last breath in office. up old-fashioned ultra-creamy milkshakes stirred on a whiney old pea-green milkshake machine and served in those battered aluminum jars that I haven't seen since Stompin' Tom was a pup. You'll need a milkshake and a coffee to wash down the House Special, should you order it. The House Special? I was afraid you'd ask. It's Maryland Chicken (of course). The menu describes it as breast of chicken with fried banana, gravy, bacon and a corn fritter. For dessert you get a complimentary card with the Emergency Hotline number for the Duncan Hospital Cardiac Unit embossed on it. But The Red Rooster doesn't need me to sing its praises. It's already been discovered by Hollywood. Remember the movie Five Easy Pieces with Jack Nicholson? Remember the classic scene where he orders a chicken sandwich that isn't on the menu? And he goes mano a mano with the wolverine waitress - and wins? Well, guess what restaurant that happened at - The Red Rooster! I remember spotting the. restaurant sign a couple of decades ago when I first saw the movie. I asked my waitress if I could sit in the booth where Jack Nicholson sat. She smiled as she topped up my coffee. "Not in this restaurant, honey." "Whaddya mean" I said. "I saw the Red Rooster sign right up on the screen." "That's right" said the waitress. "The exterior of the restaurant was in the movie, but for the waitress scene, they used a Denny's down the street." Too bad for Jack. He doesn't know what he missed. But Davis was premier for 14 years, while Eves has established his record in only eight months. The public may welcome some of Eves's reversals and certainly he rose immediately in polls when he started abandoning Harris policies, although he has fallen since. Some may feel changed circumstances demand new policies and consistency is not always a virtue. But Eves with all his changes is in danger of appearing to bend at any sign of disagreement. Voters may feel he is indecisive, will do anything to please those who question him, lacks convictions and principles and rushes into policies without thinking them out. The Tories will thus find it more difficult to pin the label of flip-flopper on Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty, who has reversed himself almost as often. Eves also has wound up his first legislature session as premier looking like someone who-. is always ready to change his mind, which is not much of an image to carry into an election. Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and shoula include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter or) the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your letters brief and concise. Finding comfort Afew weeks ago, a high school friend of my daughter and son was tragically killed in a car accident. Obviously, I was saddened. What did surprise me a little was how overwhelming that sadness was, felt not just for the loss of this good, and taltinted young man to the world but because it happened at a time of year when such grief should have no place. Death and illness, mishap and misfortune are never welcome, but no more so than in the Christmas season. As families prepare to be together, a newly-empty place at the table is impossible to bear. As hearts fill with the joy. love and peace, disquiet, uncertainty, and hopelessness tax the spirit even more greatly. As I recalled the strengths of this particular young man, as I hurt for his family and loved ones, I thought how nice it would be if we could just for the holidays enjoy a world-wide moratorium on pain and suffering. What if for one month, there was no death, no fighting,-no turmoil? Everyone would be healthy and for a time enjoy a level of prosperity. People would be gentle and good. There would truly be peace on Earth. Of course, I knew it was an idyllic notion In the time since my little prayer, the world has continued as always with.more families losing loved ones. War threatens. Children in some homes will not, despite the efforts of devoted parents, enjoy the abundance that is taken for granted by so many others. There are people worrying about money, wondering about missing children, willfully battling for survival. No, I thought, there is too much suffering to expect a holiday from it, as lovely as the notion is. . But then l realized I couldn't let that thought be the way things were left. I am, after all. a romantic. And with all the suffering it is even more important to remember blesSings. Life is abundant with them, though sometimes we have them in such rich supply we forget what a worl.-1 would be like without them. Friedriche Nietzsche apparently once said that without music life would be a mistake. It has the power to move and inspire, to beautify, to gladden. Listen to Charlotte Church and Josh Groban sing The Prayer and tell me music is not one of our blessings. My annual rounds of school Christmas concerts as always was a reminder of the blessing of children. Faces of innocence, of hope, they don't have to be your own to bring you happiness. There are those gifted people who always know the right words to say and the right things to do. There is that special friend who complements and supports you, who understands you better than you do yourself. There is the kindness of a stranger, acts made more significant through anonymity. There is human goodness evident in so many places but often overshadowed by the bad. There is sunshine. dogs, books. There is a devoted spouse, lotting children, supportive parents, dear siblings. And there are memories. Grief, loneliness and despair will always be part of this world. But the joy, the love, the comfort which co-exists with the sadness are there to sustain us in difficult times. My wish for only good things this'Christmas season can't come true. But 1 do wish that those suffering will find that sustenance. At the si n of the red rooster Eves leads in number o retreats