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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 2009-09-16, Page 7Goderich Signal -Star, Wednesday, September 16, 2009 - Page 7 (Vim' on Bluesfestcommittee sends thanks to community 7'o the Editor; West Coast Blues Inc. is a non- profit organization designed to pro- mote local, national, and international musicians as a fundraising event for our local arts and culture centre, The Livery. This year's festival offered two free concerts, a Walk -A -Bout Blues Night and a Big Event, showcasing Canada's best new blues acts. This format af- forded an opportunity for all to enjoy a taste of the blues. The free concerts were sponsored by the Goderich and District Cham- ber of Commerce and the Downtown Goderich Business Improvement Area (BIA). On behalf of the West Coast Blues committee, I would like to thank ev- eryone who participated and made the fourth annual blues festival an enor- mous success. To the residents, and the many weekend visitors, who at- tended this annual event: Thank you. Your tremendous support has made the fifth annual festival a reality. A special thank you to the festival sponsors, without your financial and in-kind support, there would be no blues festival. Special thanks to the 16 volunteers who sold wristbands at the six par- ticipating venues that were involved Letters opinion in the successful Walk -A -Bout around The Square. Thanks to the six partici- pating venues for taking a chance on something new and different and mak- ing it work. Well done. Many people were involved in the setup and tear down of equipment and others volunteered their time and tal- ent to work the Big Event Saturday evening or promote the blues festival. Thanks to the committee members who did a great job and made things happen. I look forward to working with each of you again on the prepa- rations for the fifth annual West Coast Bluesfest. The Friday night Walk -A -Bout at- tracted over 500 patrons to the six participating downtown venues. The warm night and full moon created the perfect ambience for our first, but not last, Walk -A -Bout. This large group happily strolled around the heritage district and thor- oughly enjoyed the entire experience. The Saturday night Big Event at- tracted over 300 enthusiastic fans opening with home boy Memphis Tim Woodcock followed by David Rotun- do and Steve Strongman. These per- formers left it all on the stage to the delight of an appreciative crowd! The garden I still love that creepy cartoon, the one in which the praying mantis with the disap- pointing look on his face says to the pray- ing mantis with no head: "You slept with her didn't you?" As a gardener you are officially a mem- ber of the largest recreational group in North America. You're also a bit of a pimp. Unfortunately, you ,probably have no idea what kind of perverse sexual behavior you have been cultivating in your garden. Right now, as you look out your back window there is more unconventional sex going on in your garden than there is in Paris Hilton's boudoir or even the waiting room for that matter. According to scientists who deny being aroused by such things, your garden is brimming with horny little arthropods that would get kicked out of a brothel in Reno, Nevada for some of the things they do. Butterflies are beautiful, butterflies are free. Butterflies believe in free love. Butterflies are famous for using their per- fumed scent solely for seduction purposes in much the same way Elizabeth Taylor exploited Christian Dior to attract eight husbands into her tangled web. (Nobody knov4s what musky smell Larry King is giving off to attract all those wives but the sailor on the Old Spice label is starting to look like him.) Cicadas offer up romantic serenades reminiscent of Sinatra and fireflies are throwing out flames of love that have click beetles coming from miles around to burn We look forward to hosting the next Bluesfest on Labour Day weekend at The Livery. Send your photos of this year's event to westcoastblues@live. ca to have them posted on our website photo gallery. Check the web site at www.west- coastblues.ca for future highlights and West Coast Blues events. John Harrison West Coast Bluesfest DDT not as bad as some suggest To the Editor; In response to "Technology must be safe before it can be widely used" Goderich Signal -Star editorial Sept. 9, 2009. Even when technology is safe, it may not be widely used (politics ya' know). As you say, "how many studies do we need ? " And again as you say, "look no fur- ther than pesticides such as DDT and its impact on wildlife, such as bald eagles." Perhaps we need to look a little further. What about the impact of DDT, not on bald eagles, but on .people — children in the mil- lions — lives saved from malaria. Discovered in 1939 DDT reduced malaria from about 75 million cases to about five million cases annually — deaths on a par with WWII. In 1943, Venezuela had about eight mil- lion malaria cases. After DDT was intro- duced, cases were dramatically reduced to almost disappearance. In 1935 India reported 10 million malaria cases. After DDT was introduced, by 1969 malaria cases reduced to about 300,000. In 1962 Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring, cited DDT caused thinner bird egg shells, resulting in the ban 1969. Since 1969, 87 million people mostly chil- dren have died from malaria. But worse the book has since been debunked by the National Cancer Institute and 13 studies, and 9,000 pages of other evidence found no cor- relation between DDT and risk to humans or wildlife ("egg shell thinning" etc.) It's also been acknowledged that DDT is the only feasible way to control /fight malar- ia throughout Africa's sub -Sahara areas. In view of these statistics, in September 2006, the World Health Organization reversed its 30 -year ban of DDT. But, such efforts may yet be stopped again by political enviros. It sums the gauge of an occasional egg- shell (even if true) is more important than the lives of millions of children. Sincerely, Richard P. Robarts Goderich a brothel for bugs and plants to death in the throes of killer sex. I don't mean to be crude but if the fructification that's going on right now beyond your back door was taking place inside your house, those people would be asked to leave. And it's all your fault. You planted the garden. That's where the male spider offers food to the female spider so as to get her into web. Goliath beetles embrace for days on end displaying the kind of stamina only Sting has bragged about. Some insects dance in elaborate foreplay, others eat their partner once the act is over. And as if taking their cue from the bugs, your plants are now entering the backyard orgy. It starts out pretty innocent: a few seeds sown here, a couple of cuttings over there, some fertilizer, a warm shower, a burning sun and pretty soon the tomato stakes look like phallic symbols and the beans are waxing their bikini lines. Pretty soon the asparagus plants are bragging about the size of their spears and you're using old, wire -reinforced brassieres to cover up your cantaloupes. Pretty soon even the sweet peppers are hot! (If you know what I mean.) Plants particularly, are great sexual pre- tenders. In order to get fertilized, plants have been known to deceptively alter parts of themselves to look like the private parts All the World's A Circus... of certain insects and other creatures. (Do not even try to imagine what's going on in Richard Simmons' shorts when he's "sweatin' to the oldies.") Take the bee flower for instance. For hundreds of years, the bee orchid couldn't get even a blind date so she made herself over to look like a seductive, voluptuous female bee. (This caused other homely orchids to flap their petals together and yell: "You go girl!") After a hard day of raiding hummingbird feeders, the male bee stops on his way home for a few beers and then with a bit of a buzz, starts cruising for chicks. Eager to reprise his role in the. "birds and the bees" talk you've probably had with your kids, our horny little hopped -up pol- linator (family name: Apodia) is cruising around when he spots what he believes to be a real fox of a female bee. Zoom! Like Clinton with an intern, the bee is on the orchid. Tricked by the plant's warm, furry soft- ness, the bee attempts to mate with the orchid for several minutes thus equaling the average lovemaking duration for a Canadian male married more than seven years. But something is wrong. The bee can't get no satisfaction and although this frus- trates the fructose out of him, it does leave the door open to the possibilities that Keith Richards once made it with a much young- er coconut tree. Although the male bee is denied fulfill- ment of his endeavors, his prized pollen mass is spreading through the orchids like the clap in an army video on venereal dis- ease. Some would call this cross-pollina- tion; I would suggest it is nothing less than unrequited bee boinking. This goes on for twelve maybe twenty orchids until the bee is in such a frenzied state he flies into your can of beer to drown his sorrows. Essentially, this is how your average bee — hard working, hard drinking, bored and slightly balding — becomes a "killer bee" It's not his fault. One sip and you've died for the sins of the orchid which would make a great title for a six - hour Japanese movie directed by Ichikawa in which nothing much happens. And when asked by the queen bee what's he been doing when he shows up at his hive, disheveled 1 late again for dinner, his answer is alv 's the same: nut'n honey. A bee in denial has no conscience. And what does this make you? That's right, a voyeur with a green thumb. So as you put the roto -tiller to that garden this fall, think of yourself as a captain of the vegetable vice squad closing down a plot of ill -repute and burying a bunch of out- door profligates in the process. Bury that garden for the sake of the children, espe- cially the curious ones with microscopes and too much time on their hands.