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Times-Advocate, 1986-02-26, Page 4ti. Pogo 4 Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 150 Second Class Mail Registration- Number 0386. Phone 519-235.1331 LOME EERY Publisher JIM,SECKETT Advertising Manager RILL• BATTEN Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager ROSS HAUGH , Assistant Editor DICK IONGKIND Business Managei SUBSCRIPTION RATES: • • Canada: $25.00 Per year,U.S.A. $65.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' The verdict is in While the Supreme Court of Canada will undoubtedly be asked to make the final decision, for now the Ontario government has been backed in its plan to extend full funding to the Roman Catholic school system. That baking came in the narrowest of margins, however, with the Ontario court of appeal voting 3-2 to declare the funding to be constitutionally valid. The issue of separate school funding has been highly volatile in some areas and rekindled the sectarian struggle that has periodically erupted in this province over the past 100 years. Although opponents of the plan have already announced plans to carry the fight to the top court in the land, hopeful- ca 'Serving South Huron, North North t.ambton litoeeY' Published by ).W. Eedy Publicetioils *liked KNOW HOW t RESTORED CONFIDENCE • IN THE DOLLAR? STARTED A BuMouR You (iESI&NSD? 4' ly the decision of last week will'atleast defuse the situation for the time being so' officials involved in the educational system can turn their efforts back to pro- viding the best possible education for their students, regardless in which system those students choose to be taught. There may be some •questionable aspects to school boards spending money on advertising the respective systems in an attempt to lure students, but the general principle involved in being put in-, to a competitive situation where the best, system will attract students certainly has some beneficial side effects that will keep all those involved in education on their toes. Morally mandatory Area pet owners will be remiss in their responsibility to their animals, their own families and the community at large . if they fail to take advantage of a special offerbeing made by veterinarian clinics in the area this week. Several clinics in Exeter, St. Marys,..: Kirktbn, S a rth •and Mitchell will be of ferinig reditcetrittes for rabies Sit pets this Saturday. The savings range from $3 to $10 per animal. The high incidence of rabies in this area over the past year probably should have persuaded every pet owner of the need for the protection, but the generous Now he's a believer The Easter Bunny is easy enough to believe in. After all, where else would the chocolate Easter eggs come from? My kids • have no problem accepting the offer of the veterinarians now eases the notions that a mystical rabbit to cost, and to some extent, should highlight= morningsneakinto hidthe he stuff under the ouse on Easter the necessity. ' sofa. And Virginia knows there is The veterinarians, of course, know: a Santa Claus because every December the old fellow appears full well the ramifications of the dread-'^ in person. ed disease and the need to hep it under As for me, I firmly believe in control as far as bw$ anly possible, Ce , the existence of creatures like inly,, fairies, obl d sprites, goblins an spri , vam- ey ark ;'I;omn' 'hoed It pires and ghosts. How else would ng the attae1 athone expe • they have crept into our to themselves. literature, our music, our movies and our videos? I acknowledge them all. . But until recently I had trouble with the patron saint of lovers, good old Valentine. ,Him I found hard to believe in. I had never seen him in the flesh. And I had trouble picturing him in my mind. Reading about this saint in an encyclopedia is highly unsatisfac- tory. My doubts were confirmed when I discovered that there were (or may have been) actual- ly two saints of that name. But neither, had anything whatever to do with Saint Valentine's Day. Confusing? You bet. Britannica claims that our tradition of sen- ding Valentine cards may be con- nected with the Roman fertility festival called Lupercalia which was held on February 15, or (and I like this one better) with the mating season,of birds. The whole things sounded highly Suspicious to me, and I decided to put the matter to rest and out of my {Hind. Saint Valen- tine? Bah, humbug! But just a few nights ago I woke up from a strange sound. I got out of bed and looked out of the win- dow. There was a half-moon in the sky, and the trees cast long shadows in the snow. A flickering Light danced- up and down the While rabies shots for pets are volun- tary, there is good reason to suggest that they should be mandatory, and pet owners should consider their respon- sibility in that context.. Strange indeed Flabbergasted to read a Canadian Press report about Canada Post, and their employees in the large mail -sorting buildings. Absenteeism is so great at these large central plants that Canada Post is asking its managers to praise those employees who actually make it to work, especially to those who show up on time. Now isn't that ridiculous? Imagine.now, if you will,.what would happen if those plant employees actual- ly did their job. Now you are imagining. Petrolia Advertiser -Topic Can you top th6se? Some once remarked that "slang is language that spits on its hands and gets down to work". There are times when a great deal of dull writing could be im- proved by the addition of a few of the lesser known, ribald and spectacular words of the vernacular. The American South is rich in picturesque language, and a re- cent paperback, You All Spoken Here, by Ray Wilder is a rich and wonderful mine of vivid talk, a welcome relief for those of us who may feel ourselves drowning in a sea of jargon and computerese. Civil servants are particularly adept at confusing most issues by their verbosity and, of course, the legal profession have long been the masters at confounding other- wise simple situations. Wilder has collected a number of ways to suggest that your adversary is less than handsome or intelligent, although none mat- ches the writer's favorite put- down of "I'd have a battle of wits with you, but I never fight an unarmed man". It is easy to use such worn cliches as "ugly as sin" to describe another's appearance, but it is much more colorful and equally effective to point out that "Ile's so ugly his mother had to borrow a baby to take to church" or the suggestion that "when he was a child they had to tie a pork chop around his neck so the dog would play with him" doesn't leave much room for misunderstanding. Reflections on the intelligence of an adversary are becoming t, more acceptable modes of at- tack, although they are best not directed in person. To say of a neighbor that he couldn't teach a settin' hen to cluck, that he couldn't hit the ground with his hat in three tries, or that he couldn't organize a one -car Batt'n . Around ...with The Editor funeral procession convey your meaning with clarity. You don't leave room for error • when you describe a , fussy woman by saying, "When she gets to heaven she'll ask to see upstairs"; you know a man is contrary when somebody points out "If you throwed him in the river he'd float upstream'; just as you would recognize someone vain if you were told, "He wouldn't go to a funeral unless he could be the corpse." The list can be expanded to any length, but people who enjoy good, no -holds -barred debates and relish in having an ace in the hole to play when they're losing or want one to drop as the final blow should always be equipped with one good put-down. "His lights are on but nobody's home" is one which is frequently tossed out, along with the old .. standbys of "His elevator doesn't go all the way to the top" or "He's a few bricks short of a load". The game can be extended to use occupational references, and a favorite down at the garage might be "He sounds like a guy who needs -plugs and points" or reference could be made to a per- son having "one wheel in the sand." If readers have some other favorites, pass them along. It's an exercise that can help bring forth some chuckles and help diminish those late winter blues. Not only that, but it helps fill this space which some times is difficult, particularly when one is experiencing those late winter. blues. • ► Some people don't allow themselves to be swallowed up by those blues, but that may have been one explanation for a recent item in a Toledo newspaper. An exotic dancer didn't know whether to feel pleased or in- sulted when she was acquitted on a charge of presenting an obscene performance. The ar- resting officer testified in court that he was not sexually aroused while watching her do her act. The chief of police told reporters that he intends to con- tinue his crusade against such performances, but hopes to find some more impressionable policemen to assign to the job. Despite all the frightening news by which we are greeted every day, it is refreshing to know that there are some lighter moments. driveway near the house. And there was that sound again: a' knock on the door. I rushed downstairs and peek- ed out. There, on the steps, stood a tall, bearded man in an outlan- dish costume. I haven't met too many bishops in my life, but I knew in a flash that this man was one. He wore a peaked cap and a long, richly ornamented cloak. He held a tall crook with which he - �'�� ' y- .... •:tis:. , .:;� The Peter Hessel Column kept knocking against the door. I don't know what made me unlock it. But I'm glad I did. "How do you do," he said in English with a Turkish (or was it Greek?) accent. "I want to straighten you out in terms of my existence. I've come all the way from Asia Minor. I am Saint Valentine." You can imagine my surprise. -"Why me?" I asked, "why do you honor me with your ap- pearance?" "Because you have doubts," he said. "I want you to tell your readers about me and about love." And then he told me of his job, his mission. It seems that a few hundred years ago almost everybody believed in him. Only when people learned to read and write, his image bean to fade. He was having a difficult time getting through to those whom the authorities had placed in his special care: the lovers of this world. While love was still fairly popular, lovers were becoming increasingly materialistic. In- stead of serenading the objects of their affection, they rushed out to W. H. Smith's to buy a precom- posed greeting card. Saint Valen- tine said he shudders every time somebody signs "Love, George" under a message that reads "To my sweetheart." And he cringes with every Valentine box of chocolates purchased, wrapped and presented. What he wants lovers to do instead is to love. I told him how revolutionary his ideas were , How ludierQu$, Did he not realiie that he had stepped into the late 20th ' cen- tury? Our way is to let the media speak for us. And we're North Americans, not Sicilians. We don't live in narrow streets where the houses have ornamental balconies. We don't warble like • thrushes. We don't fight -duels. We're used to letting our fingers do the walking. Why, I had just called Sears, for example, to order my wife's'Valentirie's pre- sent: a new mat for the bathroom. And tomorrow I would shop around for.a bargain. Perhapsa dozen carnations or a• half-dozen roses. That's how things are done these days, old man, I said. "Love!" he said, "don't read or write about it. Don't substitute it. Don't buy things in lieu of it or as a token for it. You must love, on Saint Valentine's Day and always." And he vanished. My own molecules were transposed, and I found myself back in bed. Next day I cancelled my order with Sears. And I have bad news for Hallmarks and the local ' florist. I'm going to follow the man's advice Tor a year. If nothing changes, I'll line up at the card counter next February, aloe with everybody else. But Virginia, I truly believe there is a Saint Valentine. Good luck does come Every once in a while during a person's life it seems that a piece of good luck can come his/her way. Such has been'the case for me during the last year as I have become the principal in a school which is the centre for mentally handicapped students. Never having worked with such children I found myself at the beginning of the year to be somewhat apprehensive. I remembered visiting a similar school once before on a Profes- sional Activity day and being ner- vous when a child approached me, grabbed my arm and mut-. tered some strange unintelligible words before wandering off down the hall. I wondered what value there was in even trying to teach him and others like him. When the child could not even talk at eight or nine years of age what could he possilby learn? Before I came to my new school I had never understood the term Developmentally Handicap- ped before. I discovered that there were children who had even more severe problems that the child who had approached me in By the Way by Fletcher the hall, children who for some reason or the other had such severe disabilitiesthat they were not toilet -trained or could not even feed themselves. Before Bill 82 was passed by the Ministry of Education, not that many years ago, these children were either placed full- time in specialized institutions like the Southwestern Regional Centre at Cedar Springs or were sent on a daily basis to special schools sponsored by the local Mental Retardation Associations and the Ministry of Community Social Services. With the passage of Bill 82 a new idea was presented, that all children, (unless they were violent or in need of full-time hospital care) had to be provid- ed for in a regular school setting. Obviously all could not be put in- to regular classes but at least they should be integrated into or- dinary schools. This has meant that places like the Cede Springs school have gone from populations of two to three hundred children down to thirty or forty and new classrooms have sprung up all over the province. Next week I'll tell you about the impact of this new regulation.