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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1991-05-15, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, May 15, 1991 Publisher: ilrr Beckett News Editor: Mrtan Harte Business Manager: Don Smith Composition Manager. Deb Lord Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386 SU SCRMh0N RATES: Within 40 hies (65 km.) addressed to non utter carrier acidness* $30.00 pew $2.10 0.111.T. Outiede 40 mils* (65 km.) or any fatter canto address $30.00 piss 530.00 postage (total 560.00) phis 54.20 O.s.T. Outside Canada 568.00 • • im ofl Anti -monarchy decision Whether or not Canadians feel that H,er Majesty Queen Eliza- beth II should play more than a symbolic role as Queen of Canada, there is no disputing the fact that she is legally and constitutionally' Canada's head of state. Ignoring tI15 historical precedent, our heritage, ;a, ,the legal and constitution- al place of the_ ttldnarchy in our nation, the recent move by the New Democrat Party to remove the name of the Queen from the traditional oath of allegiance for police officers, not only shows a to- tal disregard, for the feelings of loyal Canadians, but is quite dangerous in a number of ways. When a politician is elected to a legis- lature, he or she serves at the sufferance of .the Crown. When a police officer lays a charge against a criminal, it is done in the name of the Crown. All of the institutions that govern our country do so on behalf of the Crown. What is particularly infuriating is that the provincial cabinet met behind closed doors and issued this order to Ontario's police forces prior to informing the pub- lic or their representatives in the Provin- cial Legislature. There was , no debate, and no opportunity for the public to have input until the regulation was al- ready in place. The Queen is our most enduring sym- bol of national unity and identity. To eliminate her can only result in the nega- tive. Should Bob Rae get away with thumb- ing his nose at the proper role of the monarchy in our system of justice? or in our Canadian way of life in general? Huron Expositor Baseball cards Let me tell you first of all that I'm probably the world's least qualified person to write about baseball. The things I don't know about baseball (and don't ever want to know as long as 1 live) would fill a library. Nevertheless I respect Alexan- der's and Duncan's enthusiasm for the game. And I would de- fend their right to watch base- ball on TV or in a ball park, and to play ball themselves to their little heart's content. What I'm frustrated about is the sudden fad to collect base- ball cards. It's madness, isn't it? I know that collecting is fun. I've spent lots of time building up collections of my own. When I was a kid, I had peri- ods when I spent all my allow- ance on postage stamps. For every birthday and Christmas people would give me nothing but stamps and albums and cata- logues and other accessories. It took me 20 years- to discover that my prized collection was worthless. That no dealer or anyone else would give an amount of money for it that would come even close to what I paid. Well, at least I learned something about exotic coun- tries. But my investment in money and time was staggering. Later, I collected different stuff. Books and stamps and an- tiques and pictures and what have you. Some of these collec- tions tumed out to be more use- ful than others. All my collec- tions had one thing in common, though: they were more or less spontaneous. It was about six months ago that I first heard of baseball cards. I didn't pay too much at- tention in the beginning. Kids will pick up one habit or an- other. They'll skip rope for a few weeks, and then tum to shooting marbles. They'll flS a kite or make paper airplanes. These fads come and go, and they're all wholesome. But the baseball cards didn't go away. They began to show up on the kitchen counter, on the bathroom floor, on dresser tops, in lunch boxes and in the car. I first clued in that something was afoot when saw a store specializing in "Sports cards". Peter's Point • Peter Resod A whole store full of little packs and loose cards, some at outrageous prices. "What is it with baseball cards all of a sudden?" I asked the boys (Stephanie hasn't been bitten by the bug). Then one day, I heard these bldod-curdling screams in Dun - can's room. I raced up to the second floor, taking two steps at a time. I expected a broken ann or worse. But they turned out to be screams of joy. Duncan had found a baseball card that was worth "a lot of money", and he was still jump- ing up and down, making the chandelier in the dining mom below swing and rattle. I examined the card. No, it wasn't 50 years old. It had come straight out of a brand- new pack that he had bought for two bucks. It showed a pic- ture of a baseball player whose name I can't remember (the only name I can remember is Babe Ruth, and I think he's been dead for a long time). At the top of the picture it said "5 of 9". "What's the big deal?" I asked. "Don't you know anything?" Duncan shouted, too excited to explain. Alexander filjed me in: "This card is worth a for- tune, Dad!" "How do you know?" "Everybody knows. 1t says . right here: 5 of 9. It means that only nine cards like this were printed, and Duncan has one of them. He can get a lot of money for it, probably thousands of dollars." "I'm not so sure," I said. "'There must be a catch. They probably print millions of these, cards, an sell them to kids all over North America." I just knew that Duncan would be disappointed. Right now, he was angry with me be- cause I doubted his good for- tune. Next day I went to a smoke - shop in town where they sell about ten different kinds of baseball cards. I took the owner aside and said: "Tell me the secret of these cards. What goes?" "They're a big scam", he said. "But I've got to sell them. Eve- rybody does. There is good money in them. And the dealers use high pressure to get their products distributed. They even tell us to hold back some of the packs, to create artificial scarce- ty," "What would you pay for a card that says "5 of 9" on it?" and I showed'him Duncan's pre- cious find. He laughed: "Not even a pen- ny. They're printed in huge edi- tions." Well, I'm just a columnist, not an investigative reporter. But if I worked for a big-time paper or television network, I think I would do an indepth piece on the baseball card racket. I'd ask questions such as "Who is behind It? How are these cards marketed and pushed? Who profits? Are all the tactics perfectly legal? Ethi- cal?" But my friend in the smoke - shop wamed me: "Be careful! Don't cross these people!" Why not? I wonder what would happen if I did? Sugges- tions, anyone? HAVE AN OPINION? The Times Advocate welcomes letters to the editor. They must be signed and should be accompanied by a telephone number and address should we need to clarify any Information. The newspaper also reserves the right to edit letters. Letters can be dropped off at the Times Advocate Office or mailed to: Exeter Times Advocate Box 850, Exeter, Ontario NOM 1S8 "Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely." .. , Thomas Macauley pvbm,d Musk Wsdau.4 yME at 424 Niels ft., EiTel, i s ir61s $FN f 3$1, PribilssMoss Ltd. OAT. IRLOiasosss IT .r I WLCOME BACK, KErrH! -So MU ME WHAT Do CAt4ADIANS REALLY waNr. fv, 0 30b .11 .. �. may �. .�..: ,rk: .):: •.v: c`•: Jas NM:00VA 2Qf ak& bis 1 r.. sm 4E It An apple for teacher I was invited to Precious Blood School last Wednesday to be a part of their writer's work- shop. Although I do indeed int my living as a writer, I w immediately aware that I was quite different from the oth- er guests of the workshop: I do not live with the fascinating world of fiction and am usually constrained to the more serious world of journalism, at least as it applies to community newspa- pers. Still, I relished the idea of be- ing able to offer three class- rooms of students a glimpse of the workings of the news media. Instead of telling how we write our articles, I decided to explain what makes those articles what they are and why they appear on these pages. That's not as obvi- ous as it sounds - in fact, it's something we debate nearly eve- ry week. What is news and where doa'it go? The grade seven -eight class began to regard me with some suspicion when they realized I tricked them into choosing a nearly worthless story for front page. I had presented them with two fictional, but plausible news items and asked them to select the most newsworthy. Through the use of sensationalized word- ing and carefully chosen quota- tions, I had made a non -story look like front page news. The other article was of more impor- tance, but I had deliberately made it dull and uninteresting through lackluster sentences and overbearing statistics. When I showed the class the same sto- ries written in more appropriate styles, they saw my deception, but I hope my point was made. The grade five -six class seemed intrigued by the way a newspaper can alter the percep- tion of an article's importance just by changing heading sizes and column width, even thought' the copy remains the same. And the grade three-four class came up with more kinds of news they expected to find in a paper than the other two classes put togeth- Hold that thought... By Adrian Harte er. But still, I found it comfort- ing to see nine and ten year olds, in this video -based age, showing a good understanding of the print media. One of the other interesting points of the day was that I had the chance to speak with some of the other speakers - one of . which told me that he thought it possible that schools actually spent too much time teaching writing skills. The gentleman explained that he considered the emphasis on writing in schools tot? high for the percentage of people required to do little if any writing in the workplace. Wow, this had never occurred to me, I thought. Could it be possible we should be teaching our children something other than the basic skills of commu- nication? No, I doubt it very much. With reading and writing be- ing both sides of the same coin, I see them as the first and last items on the education agenda, with all other subjects in be- tween. People who can clearly express their ideas on a sheet of paper always have an advantage in the business 'world over those who can't. Brilliant people who have poor writing skills will not survive three months at universi- ty; that's just the way it is. Letter to Editor And even if one does land a good job where reading and writing are superfluous skills, there is still the point made by Robin Williams- in Dead Poets Society, that even after we know enough to make a living, we must also know how to enjoy that life. Communication skills lead to an understanding of culture. They let us see that Amadeus is a better movie than Delta Force 2, despite a lower body count; that there are more powerful struggles of good and evil in Macbeth than in WWF wres- tling. I know it's a little naive, but I honestly believe that if more people came out of school able to grasp as little as ten percent of Shakespeare's brilliance, sym- pathize with the troubled, self - deprecating characters of John LeCarrt, or realize that there is more to poetry than rhyming - couplet doggerel, then the world would be a better place. In fact, I'd even settle for more people who are able to better in- terpret what they see and read in the news media - to see through unbiased articles to who is right and who is full of it. No it won't save the environ- ment, or make the third world prosperous, but I'm sure that a higher awareness of Canadian culture and values would go a long way to soothing our nation- al unrest: Too many of us can't understand why Canada isn't as it is portrayed on the American sitcoms we watch - log cabins snowed -in in the forest. The Precious Blood students presented me with a marble ap- ple paperweight for being a guest speaker. It looks great sit- ting on the desk here, but I hope 1 was able to leave something valuable behind, even if 1 could only be teacher for a day. Quallty entertainment Dear Sir. I truly feel that thisear's S.H.D.H.S. production of "Fame" deserves special recognition for the superb and polished manner in which it was performed. The fact that my daughter was in the cast does perhaps make me a little biased - (well, a iott) but I enjoyed it tremendously all went! Very seldom can one experi- ence such a high calibre of entertainment for $5.00. The quality of the acting, sing - three times I ing, &Icing, and the coordination of the entire show, was most im- pressive. We have some very tal- ented teachers and student at South Huron. "Bravo" to ali of you! You should be really proud of your- selves. Sincerely. Angela