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Times -Advocate, May 6, 1987
1.
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limes tstablished 1873
Advocate Established 1881
Amalgama ed 1924
imes
Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM ISO
Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386.
Phone 519-235.1331
LORNf [WY 'Mil BATTEN
CCIMA
ROSS HAUGH
Publisher Editor • Assistant Editor
JIM BECKETT HARIN DEj/RIE DICK JONGKIND
Advertising Manager Composition Mana er • Business Manager
SUBSCRIPTION R/ TES:
Canada: $25.00 Per yelar; Ii S.A. $65.00
C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' ,i
Provides
While members of Exeter council
were unanimous and enthusiastic in their
recent decision to spend $180,000 on in-
dustrial land, it is a little disconcerting
that the proposal was handled in sueh a
different manner than one considered
two years ago.
Council gave ratepayers ample
notice of their consideration of a land
purchase in 1985 to provide for feedback
from any citizens and developers, while
the recent purchase was undertaken
without that consideration and was ap-
proved minutes after the public was
made aware it was even contemplated.
Ironically, some of the most
strenuous criticism over the town plan
two years ago came from local developer
Len Veri, who told council that land
speculation by the town was not in the
taxpayers' interest and he was critical of
the possibility the town would become a
competitor to him, although he did favor
that acquisition then if the town had a
waiting client.
Nothing has changed in principle
with the recent purchase, although Veri's
attitude may be tempered somewhat by
the fact he sold the land to the town with
which they will now be his competitor for
industrial users,
Why were the two proposals handl-
ed so differently by council?
This newspaper contended that the
plan being considered in 1985 would have
to be backed' by some very convincing
incentive \,r
arguments to set course on 'uch an ex-
pensive and speculativeplan that involv-
ed 50 acres of property; and\servicing
costs that would represent, an iivestment
to the town over the year's of $750,000.
$180,000
servic-
or the
Obviously, an expenditure o
for land that will be more cheapl;
ed is a more realistic gamble
town, although any gamble is 1 ques--
tionable when it is being made, with
public funds.
However, it must be acknowlec ed
that for some strange reason, private`4n-
dustries appear more anxious to deal for
public land than with private developer
and more municipalities are getting in-
to the business on that basis.
There is little doubt that council
members are totally satisfied with the
necessity and validity of the purchase,
and while they erred in not providing any
opportunity for questions from
ratepayers or land owners with whom
they will be competing, there may be one
positive aspect to counter -balance the
latter.
They now face the challenge of pro-
ving the necessity and validity through
action, rather than merely words, by pro-
moting the land to attract buyers.
Comments made in support of the
venture indicate some success is close at
hand and that is indeed encouraging,
although it is obvious that council must
be extended a reasonable time to prove
their point and that, of course, is not short
term.
Make it yours
Many people share the forest
physically. Hikers, campers, loggers,
outfitters, trappers, hunters, naturalists,
teachers, students, and skiers are to be
found out -there. Many share in other
ways. The newspaper publisher, the
house builder, the forest land owner and
the officer secretary have an interest -
whether they recongize it or not - in
green, healthy, productive forests and
the products we get from them.
And that is not likely to change.
Despite all the new inventions we still
have a great dependence • upon our
forests. Our dependence is likely to grow.
We are lucky in Ontario to have such
a rich forest heritage. It has changed
through the years. We have used our
forests a lot and not always wisely. As the
demands upon the forests grow we need
to pay more attention to their care and
wise use. Tomorrow's forests and today's
challenge.
That is what National Forest Week
from May 3-9 is all about. The Ontario
Forestry Association sees it as a time to
think about forests. To be sure our plans
for tomorrow's forests are appropriate.
Forests ... a shared resource... by all
of us. Everyone's responsibility. Make it
yours.
Different rules
The biggest losers, besides the tobac-
co companies, in the federal govern-
ment's ban on tobacco advertising will be
the Canadian magazine industry.
Canadian magazines, never the
healthiest in the best of times, will lose
a major part of their advertising'with the
ban. Ironically, Canadian newstands,
long dominated with imported American
magazines will continue to have ads like
the ones that show "liberated" modern
Has
Sometimes it pays to suffer
from anosmia.
What's that you say? Well, if
you have this strange problem it
basically means that S'ou lack one
of your five sensory organs, the
sense of smell to be more exact.
Most of us take this fifth sense
for granted except when we get
.a bad cold and can't smell
anything but the strongest of
odours.
One lady i know quite well
though has not had any sense of
smell since early childhood.
Going down the road she
misses the smell of new -mown
hay and the fresh scent of lilacs
in the spring. Sending her flowers
has only half the value that it has
for people who can see their beau-
ty and smell their lovely
fragrance as. well,
However she is also a little bit
women smoking cigarettes headlined,
"You've come a long way baby."
The magazines, like farmers who
have to grow crops here without the use
of chemicals that are allowed in the U.S.
or. other competing countries, are the vic-
tims of government that say "you have
to compete", then sets different rules for
us than our foreign competitors.
Blyth Citizen
some benefits
lucky at other times. Going down
the same road as above she
misses the odour of that freshly -
spread manure that is a familiar
By the.
Way
by
Syd
Fletcher
part of the rural landscape. She
doesn't have to worry about the
bad industrial smells that fill
some of our cities. She does have
to he careful though when she's
painting as she doesn't get the
warning signals about the fumes
which are spreading all around
her until she gets a headache; a
little late then.
One day many years ago
anosmia was a real benefit for
her though.
A skunk got in.under the front
porch and decided to take up
residence there. Finally the
lady's husband had to shoot it.
Unfortunately the skunk had a
very nasty epitaph which he left
behind. Somebody had to go in
and remove the carcass.
The lady was elected. in she
went and did the job, much to
everyone else's satisfaction.
"I can't see what all the fuss is
about", She remarked later.
"That poor skunk didn't mean
anyone any harm."
Strangely enough no one con -
'tested her place at the living
room couch that night either. '
Serving South Huron, North Middlesex
& North Lambton Since 1873
Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited
Some more comparison
Last week -the writer noted the
generation gap that has been
crted by the increase in real
,,estate over the past years and
that it becomes a little shocking
for some because it is not an item
with which they keep in tune.
More poignant, perhaps, are
purchases that are made only4wo
to three times in a person's entire
lifetime. The surprise that is fac-
ed is certainly more pronounced
than items which are included in
a weekly or monthly shopping
trip.
However, the rate of increase
probably works out in com-
parable terms over the same
period of time and many of those
frequent purchases have increas-
ed in cost to the same extent as
property.
A case in point is food prices
and this was visibly pointed out
when Howard Holtzmann drop-
ped off a copy of his grand open-
ing advertisement when he
brought in the copy for his 30th
anniversary at A&H last week.
Relaying some of the com-
parisons, unfortunately, is not as
easy for the writer as some would
expect. The problem is that many
of the current items on the food
shelves at area stores are in
metric measures and it must be
candidly admitted that I have not
mastered that system as yet and
have little compunction to do so
now that the push in that direc-
tion has waned considerably.
To an extent, it could be said
that there is considerable salva-
tion in that ignorance._Those.of us
who remember when gasoline
was 49 cents a gallon are pro-
bably less susceptible to
traumatic encounters when we
fill up at a pump that now pro-
claims that needed ingredient for
the car at 47.5 cents per litre.
It is recalled that teenagers us-
. ed to scrape together two bucks
for a weekend of gravel runs and
now they need a twenty spot for
similar forays.
* * * *
Drawing comparisons in food
prices is also made difficul
the weekly specials that are
y
Batt'n
Around
...with
The Editor
available at most food outlets.
The price of 30 years ago may be
half of that in some stores today
or it may be five or six times
lower, depending on the
manufacturer, quality and
whether it is being featured as a
loss leader.
It is necessary for readers to
consider all the factors that limit
comparisons to generalities only.
Thiry years ago, the price of
bologna was listed at 23¢ pound
and wieners were at 33¢. Check-
ing through various flyers and
newspaper advertisements, it is
noted that bologna may he as
much as $3.18 pound now or as
low as half that. Wieners have
_gone up the range of five -fold.
A special on toilet tissue was
listed at 10 large rolls for $1, and
while there is no indication of
whether that is single or two-ply
•
• you're probably lucky to get two
rolls for a buck today.
Butter at 61¢ pound and
margarine at four pounds for $1
have basically quadrupled. Peo-
ple who enjoy peanut butter in
their celery stalks (try it!) got
two of the latter for 15¢ and three
16 ounce jars of peanut butter for
$1.
One of the interesting aspects
of shopping 30 years ago was that
specials on canned goods were in
rather sizeable lots. There was,
for instance, eight 15 -ounce cans
of peas for $1, seven 20 -ounce
cans of tomato juice for $1 and six
tins of chicken soup for the same
buck. Today's specials tend to be
in single lots primarily and
seldom climb over three.
Perhaps an equally noticeable
change is that while the vast ma-
jority of customers pulled out
cash to pay for. their goodies
decades ago, there's a good
chance that the person ahead of
you in the lineup today delays you
slightly by having to fill out and
sign a cheque.
It is obvious that if prices con-
tinue to escalate at the same rate
over the next 30 years, that will
become even more necessary
unless wheelbarrows become af-
fordable enough for people to
haul around the piles of cash that
will be needed for everyday
purchases.
Of course, people lining up at
the banks to cash their pay che-
ques or make withdrawals will be
getting their funds in denomina-
tions of 50 -and IT11I "dollar bills
rather than the fives, tens and
twenties that are now used.
The only thing that won't
change is the gap between the
generations.
Symbols are worse
I guess I'm a word -oriented
person. i knew that when I flunk-
ed math in grade ten. I can still
recite long passages of poems I
had to learn in high school, but I
have trouble remembering my
own telephone number.
If numbers are painful to me,
symbols are even worse. They
kill me. if it were up to me I'd
abolish symbols altogether.
It takes me a long time to catch
on to the meaning of symbols.
Take the common pictogram for
a railway station, for example. I
used to drive down that same
highway for years, wondering
what the sign with the funny
shape was trying to tell me until
one day I figured it out: it was the
stylized front part of a diesel
engine. It took me another two
'years before I realized that this
"symbol" stood for "railway sta-
tion". I just couldn't make the
connection.
Elizabeth is frustrated with me
because after all those years i
still don't know how to run the
dishwasher. It's all because of the
symbols. They don't make sense
to me. I still have no idea why
there is a bowl over two wavy
lines on one side and a cup over
a dish over two wavy lines on the
other. Aren't you supposed to
stick everything in together? And
what is that sun doing? Drying
the dishes or heating the water?
What are the three vertical wavy
lines Supposed to tell me? They
look like three question marks
without dots under them. They
appear again on the far right of
the control panel.in combination
with two horizontal wavy lines.
"Don't get me wrong," I tell
Elizabeth, "i know the difference
between vertical and hortizontal
wavy lines, i just don't unders-
tand what they're supposed to
signify."
She'll tell me, and I remember
for a clay or so. But the next time
I use the dishwasher, I'm as
dumbfounded as before.
Or take the stove. I don't pre-
tend to be a professional cook, but
I can create some meals. Boiled
eggs, for example. i don't know
how often I have put the water on
the wrong element because i
can't figure out the perspective of
the symbols. Does a black square
in the northeast quarter of the
tapered window mean the top
right or the bottom right ele-
ment? it depends of haw you'read
it. 1 try hard, but I seem to pick
the wrong one fifty percent of the
time.
Our stove has two lights: one
under the hood to illuminate the
top, so you can find the symbols
for the elements, and one inside
the oven so you know when the
roast has burned. The switches
for these lights have symbols too:
one shaped like the sun, one like
•
a light bulb. A logical choice? Not
to me.
Even a relatively un-
complicated device like a -room
thermostat causes me trouble.
Elizabeth will ask me a simple
question: "What's the thermostat
at?" All I can tell her is: "Half-
way between the middle and the
first line to the left of the mid-
dle." To my great surprise she is
usually able to figureour that this
means 17.5 degrees Celsius .
"Would you please shove it up to
22", she'll say. That calls for
somecomplicatedmeasuring ac-
tivity on my part. Now instead of
lines; why can't they put numbers
- or better yet, words - on ther-
mostats? Like:'freezing, cold, un-
comfortable, regular, cozy, toas-
ty, roasty, and fire hazard.
Elizabeth can't understand
how I can operate a computer
and be a total failure with a
washer and dryer. It is because
my Macintosh uses words instead
of hieroglyphics. i can learn the
meaning of File, Edit, Search,
Character, Paragraph and Docu-
ment. The only symbol I have to
knpW"is an apple with a big bite
taken out of it.
You may be like me - puzzled
by symbols. On the other hand,"
you may use the opposite side of
your brain and lap up things that
look liket or §. In which case
would you please write a letter to
the editor and tell us word -
oriented simpletons what three
vertical wavy lines are supposed
to mean? But don't bombard us
with symbols in your explana-
tion, or 111 use expletives in my
next column.
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