Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1996-04-24, Page 44—THE HURON EXPOSITOR, April 24, 1996 Your Community Newspaper Since 1860 PAVE SCOTT.- Editor GREGOR CAMPBELL • Reporter JOAN MELLEN • typesetter, proolreader BARB STOREY • distribution TERRI-LYNN DALE - General Manager & Advertising Manager MARY MELLOR - Soles PAT ARMES • Office Manager DIANNE McGRATH - Subscriptions & Classifieds A Bowes Publishers Community Newspaper. • SUBSCRIPTION RATES: LOCAL - 32.50 a year; in advance, plus 2.28 G.S.T. SENIORS; - 30.00-a year, in advance, plus 2.10 G.S.T. • USA & Foreign: 32.50 a year in odvonce, plus 578.00 postoge, G.S.T. exempt SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Published weekly by Signal -Star Publishing at .100 Main St., Seaforth. Publication mail registration No 0696 held of Seaforth, Ontario. Advertising is accepted on condition that in the event of a typographical error, the advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signoture, will not be charged, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for of the applicable • rate In the event ola typographical error, advertising goods or services at a. wrong price, goods. or services may not be sold. Advertising is merely an offer to sell and may be withdrawn at any time. The Iiuron Enpositor is not responsible for the loss or domoge of unsolicited monuscripts, photos or other materials used for - reproduction purposes Changes of oddress, orders for subscriptions and undeliv- erable copies are to be sent to The Huron Expositor. Wednesday, April 24, 1996 Editorial and Business Offices - 100 Main Street.,Seaforth Telephone (519) 527-0240 Fax (519) 527-2858 Moiling Address - P.O. Box 69, Seaforth. Ontario, t4OK IWO Member of the Canadian Community Newspaper • . - -Association, Ontario Community Newspapers Association and the Ontario Press Council • Letters to the Editor Is Seaforth birthplace of Yomp? While spending the past few weeks in a (non-existent) Kippen jail cell, I thought it would be a good time to expand my vocabulary - something every Balderdash player and maybe even editor should devote some time to. (Besides, I didn't bring a ball and glove to the cooler like • Steve McQueen did in The Great Escape - I just brought a dictionary). I. was surprised by the straightforward meaning of leftmost which means furthest to the left, the exact opposite of where Mike Harris usually stands on a crowded bus (or sits in his limousine). A condition I usually suffer from on late Monday nights at the office is neuralgia, intense intermittent pain in nerves, especially of the face and head. But in my case, it only occurs when I'm writing columns like this and usually just strikes my brain. Phut is exactly what it sounds like, a dull sound of impact, collapse of inflated , object. So the next time someone is overbearing with .Scott's Thoughts by Dave Scott their inflated ego, you can tell them to "go phut your- self." Even though gastropod sounds like something you wouldn't want to release in public, it actually means a mollusc that moves by means of ventral organ - or just a plain old snail. Even though we used to use the word yomp in Seaforth high school dialect as both a noun and verb as in the sen- tence: "The yomp liked to yomp and stomp" or "what a yomp" or just "yomp, yomp, yomp," it actually is a word with an entirely different meaning. Yomp is a verb, meaning: march with heavy equipment over difficult terrain. So sol- diers do a lot of yomping. I suppose mountain climbers or even farmers could do a lot of yomping too. The ori- gin of the word is unknown so maybe we really did invent it in Seaforth. Something I hope most yomping farmers don't suffer from is mysophobia, a mor- bid dread of dirt. - Remuda means the saddle horses collectively from which are chosen those to be used for the day, as in Hoss says to Little Joe, "Hey. Joe, can you saddle up them remuda, we're ridin' into town." No, umgang doesn't refer to a roomful of politicians. Nope, it means "a going round, circuit." So the cars at the Indy 500 do a whole pile of umgangs. And two -year- olds can have you running umgangs all over your house. Initially, I didn't think the definition of wild ass belonged in a family newspa- per but it only means: any of several plain -coloured or nearly plain-colouredanimals of Asia and.northeast Africa which in form closely resem- ble the domesticated ass (which I think i'll leave alone before I get myself into trou- ble).. Wild gas has nothing to do with snails or the atmosphere over Zurich after the fourth Saturday in August or the previously defined word. It refers to any gasoline which is too volatile for commercial use, So some of those Indy drivers .have wild gas when they're doin' umgangs. Sackbut isn't a :condition from entering too many sack races at picnics or even -wear- ing a sack on your butt. But it is an early form of the slide trombone. I gotta go goad a goanna. (You look it up!) Scrapie in sheep Mad Cow disease ofexplored Seaforth students petition MPP Dear Editor, over fundingcuts to education As in r report' the Huron As report on scrapie in sheep has raised many ques- tions in your readers' minds. I hope the following informa- tion will answer some of their concerns. To introduce myself I am including extracts from a "To Whom It May Concern" let- ter from my veterinarian. "In my opinion her man- agement skills and motiva- tion are next to no one else's operations in this area. Productivity and. health of the \herd has been very respectable and enviable." My vet continued, "I have been involved with the scrapie case since its diagno- sis in the initial phase. I -have been very disappointed in the scrapie policy of Canada as -exemplified in the Baker case, . i.e. 'how can meat slaughtered from scrapie - infected •animals be used for human consumption? Our policy regarding scrapie•has been inconsistent to say the least." Readers will recall Dr. T. Wilson, Animal Health, Toronto, stating emphatically "there is no danger because the nervous system of the animal is removed." He added that there has never been a case of a human being affected by eating the meat of Dear. Editor, The government keeps Throwing financial figures and statistics at students, say- ing that the education system will save so much money if school boards tighten their belts. The government says - the quality of classroom edu- cation will be maintained. Even though our teachers have job security now due to their new contract, there are other counties that have not been as -fortunate. Teacher job security. is one item the students of Huron County do -not have to worry about for three years, however; most retiring teachers will not be. replaced and class sizes will increase dramatically. Still, there are othcrissues that continue to threaten our edu= cational future such as cuts to transportation and tuition increases. The government is notlooking at how these cut- backs will affect students, they are only seeing dollar signs. We, the students, know and understand that some cuts need to be made, where they are- made is the real issue. .. Therefore, we felt that we must do what we could to ensure our concerns were heard: On April 19, the stu- dents of Scaforth District High School signed a petition that is being sent along with a - letter to the Huron County MPP Helen Johns. The peti- - tion and letter were drafted by the SDHS Students' Council and distributed to the other four public high schools around the county for their input. The petition . states: "As the students of Ontario _ Secondary Schools, we would like to express our concern over the funding cuts made by. the Progressive Conservative Government to the Education System. We feel our level of education is in jeopardy due to the finan- cial restraints placed on local school boards. Therefore, we are signing this -petition in the hope that you, the govern- ment, will realize that stu- dents are the first priority in education and our- opinions must be taken into considera- tion." -We encourage parents/ guardians and any interested community members to join. us in the fight towards a fair- er education system where the well-being of the students is always -the first priority. Join us in writing Helen Johns and let her know where you stand on this issue. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated. On behalf of the students of Seaforth District High School, Erin Jamieson Students' Council President County should look to future for solution to -landfill problem Dear Editor, At the April 25 Huron Council meeting, council members will receive a report by thc two consulting firms the county has paid to advise them as to what to do• a'qout thc proposed A3 Ashfield landfill site. I would like to remind Huron councillors and all Huron citizens that we stand at the door of the 21st century. This is not the time to look backward to yesterday's ideas but forward to the future. Recycling is thc way of the future whereas landfills .are part of yesterday's technolo- gy. There arc many reasons to recycle rather than to landfill; i'li only mention three rea- sons. 1. As the world's resources deplete, it is crucial that we preserve the materials in existence. 2. The more a resource depletes, the cost of the mate- rial will increase dramatical- ly. If that,happens, the cost of future products will skyrock- et. 3. In the process of convert- ing a raw material to a prod- uct (trees to paper, oil to plas- tics), chemicals are used that cause pollution to an already fragile and compromised, polluted world. The less products that we must con- vert from a raw state the less we will have to pollute while enjoying the fruits of sensible technology. These are the realities of our times and we must think about these things; we must apply this knowledge..This reality must guide us in all our decisions. whether it be the public's small choices to recycle more at curbside or the Targe decisions council is to make. We hope that they will be progressive and turn to recycling rather than revisit the mistakes of the past that we will someday have to pay for. Sincerely yours, Rob McQueen Please, . more `exclusive interviews' • Dear Editor, Many thanks for that delightful 'exclusive inter- view' (Militia group forms in Kippen, April 3). Mote of the same, please. Paul Copeland Seaforth, ON a sheep with scrapie. Same would dispute this. Residents of New Guinea, who have. practiced cannibalism, have developed Creutzfeldt-Jakob . disease, of concern in Great Britain and only last week in, France. In May 1991, Eugene Whelan, Minister of Agriculture and W.S. Bulmer, Disease Control,- Animal Health, Agriculture Canada, Ottawa, issued Bulletin Canadex 430-660 on "Scrapie, A Dementing Disease of Sheep." Extracts include: "History - Scrapie is a slowly degenerative disease of the brain which occurs -nat- urally in'sheep and goats and can be induced experimental- ly in a - wide number of species. Recognized for over 200 years and first diagnosed in Canada in 1939, scrapie is endemic in most countries of the world except Australia and New Zealand who claim . to have eradicated it." To leave Whelan's Canadex for a moment, Dr. S. Prusiner, Dept. of Neurology and Biochemistry and Biophysics at the School of Medicine, University of California, commented in medical journals in the 1980s that the extraordinary resis- tance of the scrapie agent to Formalin was responsible for the inadvertent inoculation of sheep in Scotland. "Eighteen - thousand animals were vacci- nated...against louping ill virus with a formalin -treated suspension of ovine brain and spleen that was subsequently shown as having been conta- minated with the scrapie agent. Two years later, 1500 sheep developed scrapie. The transmission of kuru to chimpanzees in _1965 by researchers Gajdusek, Gibbs and Alpers forced a major reconsideration of the etiolo- gy of all degenerative disor- ders and made scrapie a sub- ject of intense medical inter- est. Subsequently, Creutzfeldt-Jakob dementia was shown by Gibbs, Gajdusek and co-workers to be caused by a transmissible agent." When I first contacted Dr. Prusiner for counsel, he was shocked the the Canadian government was permitting meat from scrapie -infested flocks to go on the Canadian market for consumers, and possibly USA consumers. He was about to take a plane to Ottawa at once; however, I told him from my experience he would be wasting his valuable time. Whelan and Tom Wilson, Animal Health Vet, had made up their minds there was no danger to con- sumers. To get back to Whelan's Canadex, it read: "Scrapic is caused by an infectious agent. that has many of the proper- ties of a virus which has not been visualized microscopi- cally nor been cultivated on. artificial media or cell cul- tures. The infectious agent is unusually -resistant to many disinfectants and probably to the environment. It is unusual to see more than one affected animal in an infected flock at any given time. -Scrapie can be transmitted artificially by injecting tissues from infect- ed animals. Nearly all tissue in the body appear to contain the infectious agent (excep- tions - testes, semen, fetus)." Under Epidemiology, Canadex continued, "Most North American cases appear to have originated -from British stock imported into Canada and the USA. Because of the insidious nature of the disease, investi- gation of cases usually reveals that infection has been spread through sales of sheep to other flocks, before being detected, There are 15 to 20 different strains of the infectious agent that have been identified to date." Canadex continues: "Economics In 1981 Canadian sheep industry mar- kets, meat was valued at $23 million per year, wool at $1.8 CONTINUED on page 5 Vandalism causes post office to lock doors in '71 FROM THE PAGES OF THE HURON EXPOSITOR (Sorry, there's no copy of -the May 1, 1896 Huron Expositor on microfilm) APRIL 29, 1921 BANK TABLET UNVEILED - An impressive ceremony took place at the Bank of*Commerce, of which. Mr. J. G. Mullen. is manager, on Friday afternoon at 4:30; when the handsome bronze memorial tablet donated by the directors of the hank hearing the names of the local staff who enlisted from Scaforth for military duty during the war, was unveiled. Mr. F. Holmstead presided. Mr. G. Williams, manager of the Goderich branch of thc Bank of Commerce, was pre- sent. The tablet was'unveiled by Mrs. F. Holmstead, presi- dent of the Red Cross Society. The names upon the tablet arc Gunner J. McMillan, Second Lieut. L.B. Sifton, Gunner J. Stevenson, M.M., and Sergt: W. Leslie Watson. *** TUCKERSMITH NOTES - Mr. James Rivers will not be engaged in the Kippen beef ring this season, as he has resumed his job of butchering at his old stand in Hibbert. - Mr. John Dobie, who has been attending the Agricultural College at Guelph, left on Wednesday In the Years Agone for Moose Jaw, where he will take the position of butter maker in a large factory for the summer. * * * LOCAL BRIEFS - Mr. Thomas Beattie, of McKillop, met with a serious accident -while in town on Tuesday afternoon. He was driving down Main Street when his horse became frightened at a tractor and thrcw him out of the buggy. In the fall he sustained sever- al fractured ribs. - . Mrs. Archibald , of Egmondvillc, had the misfortune to fall in her home one evening last week and fracture her hip. As she is well up in years the accident is a serious one but many friends hope that she will make a good recovery. MAY 3, 1946 Scaforth Public School won the County of Huron Shield for public school choirs, senior grade, at the Wednesday evening session of the Fifth Huron County Music Festival, held in Goderich, with 86 marks. The test piece was "Vesper Hymn," by Bortnyanski. The choir was under the direction of Mabel Turnbull and the piece was accompanied by Mrs. J. A. Stewart. The Seaforth Agricultural Society, as a part of its pro- gram to raise funds for the renovation of the buildings and grounds, has arranged for the presentation of the Blyth minstrel show in Cardno's Hall on Thursday. Blyth Lions Club has already played to more than 2,000 people in four appearances, and the program it will pre- sent here will, in the opinion of the directors, justify a filled hall. The society is holding a new and old-time dance. in Cardno's Hall on Friday evening of next week. Music for the evening will be by Murdoch's orchestra. * * * A meeting to discuss the formation of a school area cmbracing Sections 1, 2, 3, 9 and 10, of the Township of Tuckersmith, was held in S.S. No. 2 Schoolhouse on Friday, at which ratepayers of the sections concerned were pre- sent. Mr. S.H. Whitmore and E.P. Chesney were appointed chairman and secretary, respectively, of the meeting. MAY 6, 1971 Orville Oke was acclaimed district deputy governor of Lions clubs in region 3 at the annual spring rally in Brussels Wednesday night. He succeeds George Mutter of Brussels. Louis Willert of Zurich was elected zone chairman, for region thrcc south and Charles Shaw is zone chairman for region 3 north. - More than 130 memhers of the 13 clubs in region 3 attended the rally including 26 members from the Seaforth Lions Club. Mr. Oke. who is secretary of the Seaforth Club, is a past president and a former zone chairman. * * * Continued vandalism which has occurred over recent weekends has made it neces- sary to close the lobby of Seaforth Post Office from Saturday until Monday morn- ing. As a convenience to box holders, the post office department some time ago arranged to have lobbies open to the public on a 24 hour a day, seven days a week basis. Thomas Wiibee, custodian of the building said damage included littered floors and scratched and smeared walls covered with obscene mes- sages. •