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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1992-01-15, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, January 15, 1992 Publisher: Jim Beckett News Editor: Adrian Herne Business Manager: Don Smith Composition Manager: Deb lora Nubllcet ons Melt Registret$on Number 0396 aUIHSCRIPT1DN RATE:_ CANADA Wlthln40'Moe (65 kit.) addlwrsd to non titer owlet addresses 430.00 44 42.10 4.5.1. Oolelds 40 miles (65 km.) or anyMlter oamlereddress 030.00 Ow *30.00 pontso (fetal 0) One $4.20 G.S.T. 0 The ,story of a 1.00nie his-is..the story of_ -a Ioonie. This patrticulat loonie was..in_ , the bank account of George. the proprietor of the local furniture store. Business for George was suffering its usual January blahs, so he decided he would have a sale on everything he had on his showroom floor. It would be one . of those "no -tax" promotions, in which the store would pay. the provincial tax and the goods and services tax on. be- half of the customer. So that everyone would know about the sale at the furniture store, George advertised his promotion in • the local newspaper, To pay for it George wrote a cheque, and the Ioonie moved from the furniture store's bank.. account to the newspaper's bank account. Now it just so happened that pay day for the newspaper's employees was that week, so the bank, automatically moved that Ioonie from the paper's bank ac- count to the one 'belonging to Betty, one of the newspaper's composers. Pay day was also grocery -shopping day in Betty's household, so that night she went to the supermarket in town to - buy two weeks worth of groceries for htsr-family. Sha -wrote a cheque,,and the Ioonie moved from Betty's _hank ac- :, count to the su i - • account. The loonie stayed there or a week, until it came time for the supermarket to pay its suppliers. One of the suppli- ers was Fred, a local farmer who sup- plied eggs to the supermarket. Fred picked up his cheque from the -supermarket and deposited it in his • bank account. When he -got home, he wrote a cheque to his 14 -year-old son Will). who helped hire around the farm. Willy got _ paid whenever Fred did. • Willy took the cheque to the bank and cashed it, and now the loonie was in his bear Editor. am wasting in response to a re- port in your newspaper dated Dec. 1 1 , 1991, "Entrepreneur takes crack new Autiker.-This article dis- cusses the mini dish or SkyPix as it is known in .the United •Slates, (Aladdin Group in Canada). which is unfortunately one-sided and de- mands some clarification. 'there are several obstacles to this whole concept, Wo .many to Inst in detail here but I feel, as a member of the Canadian satellite wnthwnl- t� ,' obligated to warn .this public aboutlhe operation. On the technical side, wiled. came pression, m - pression, the theory of placing eight channels on the space that unc clwnnel currently uses on a satellite .transponder has still to be proven and could be years from perfection. Dish size for our latitude in Canada will probably ,be at least six feet in Ontario and may noebe possible for residents' further north since this satellite does apt beam its signal or "Footprint" over this pert ofNorth America. It is known that Aladdin has.ordered 100 six toot diameter satellite •antennas from a company called York' Metal Spinning in, Richnwnd Hill, Ontario. The equip- ment (decoder and antenna) is not available.on the market, though you will find several rtalesincn wi11 lig to lake $1,195.00 from you with the promise that your. equipment and pr atnmins -will be available .within 11 month. It should be uot- ed tJhat•,. • • , n Group leas beer.. mar • n: this theory since AC Alexi g of 1992 with the -promise rend -programming . wool ,.iiia- Available 'November 1,. '11-aothing-hae-impeared ho paid In good faith hist fall • Another major prr'.ient foTAlatl- 4 pQcket__He_then_went_ over to the sponte shop,. which had .a hock soca_ ter-tn_its_ window that WMIy had coveted for some time. He paid cash for the sweater and, that night, the sports shop deposited the Ioonie into its bank account. Three days later Mary. who ran the sports shop with her husband Bill, took her weekly draw from the bank account, and the loonie went into her purse. Since the next day was Bill's birthday, she went to the local TV and stereo shop and bought her husband the compact disc player he had been talking about for months. She paid cash, and that night the Ioonie was deposited n the TV and stereo shop's bank account. The next day Jim, the owner of the TV and stereo shop, sat down to pay his bills. One of the bills was -from the furni- ture store,because Jim had bought some carpeting for his office. When George, who owned the furniture store, had a sale a few weeks back. The loonie re- turned to George's bank account. The next week, George wrote a cheque to pay for his phone bill and the loonie left tdwn for Toronto. It circulated there for awhile, and then mov • to another small town. We all know what.•[• ned to it then. i. * sr•* This is the story of another loonie. This Ioonie was in the bank. count of a local school teacher named Pz , who received it from the local board o edu- cation, which had collected the Ioonie when George, the owner of the furniture store, paid his property taxes. Now Patty loved to shop, so one day she hopped in her car and drove acros�� the border to Detroit. There she bought a lovely bracelet, which her loonie helped pay for. The loonie left the country, never to.be heard from again. Letter to kditu- din is the tact that several channels that may be available to U.S. resi- dents are not available to Canadi- ans since they have not been given approval by .the Canadi- an Radio - television and Telecommunic atiwis Commis- sion (CRTC). They - cline 200 movies per day but First Choice holds the rights to show movies in Canada. I've talked to several Aladdin representatives who could pot (elf. me what chan- nels would be shown if this system flies. Please note that SkyPix has not applied to the CRTC for a li- eencc which is mandatory. Janet Yale, a policy adviser at the CRTC says that they are watching SkyPix clotlely but know that SkyPix has a ='%redibility yip" and is, content to back for n9 and nee if they can -get the servi launched. I've asked Aladdin reprerenta- lives about the CRTC regulations and have been -told that "their peo- ple" have it waked out. Who we hey". aid how hays,they Chimp - vsnted the CRTC? It should also be mentioned that SkyPix itself is Laving serious problems. Funding is difficult as no major�'compeny has promised to bath: ilii' ajec oder. It would Seern SkyPix is markeing their product in st,ch a way as to obtain operating :apical '(nom their potential sub- scribers. It also puzzles the entire satellite community that neither• wholesalers nor retailers have been 1pruachedl to sell, install or.service their -proposed system. Why is Alad4is relying.oe a -pyramid style marketing scheme of ataexperi need people to pronate their product Frens the Tilbury Teases when a well established technical network already exists? Aladdin also boasts that their system is in- compatible with existing satellite systems-but—one-would-have-to wonder at the (rear -sightedness of a company developing a system that couldn't be added to the 2 million satellite systems in the U.S. and 350,000 systems in Canada. By contrast, the familiar 7' or 10' satellite system that youeee every - ,where is still flgtuishing. Our sys- tem works today.as it has for over a decade with plenty of-progratrr- ming available, CRTC approved and locally legal. Aladdin skips over the cost of programming.. Few channels will be available at a flat monthly gate and movies, aporiiug events and concerts etc, will be pay-per-view at - an undefined .amoant Thesousumer will have to deposit an undetermined a mount.of atony upfront with the service and will be debited every time ;they turnthe system on. The initial price of• $1,195.00 sounds aurae: five but that dues not include -in- stall, proarauuuing or travel to ac- tivate the system. Consumers thinking of investing in this system at this point in time woutd be ad- vised to wait and see if the previ- misty mentioned obstacles can fust be dvercome by both SkyPix and the Aladdin Group. Further infor- mation can be obtained by contact- ing myself or a representative at ow company. Sutcercly yciws Mike Gaudio, Allen Stubbs. -First in Entenaininalnt - "I?tedford, Ontario "Men are never so likely to settle . a question rightly as when they discuss it freely." ... Thomas M o tutey Published Each Wednesday Morning et 424 Mein St., Exeter, Ontario, NOM 156 by J.W. Eedy Publications ltd. Telephone 1-51S•23513S1 O.S T eR105210e26 "Archie's shovelling snow off the'roof, but he's on his way down now. When we had the attic fixed ` p. we had ping-pong in mind But after paying the carpenter. I had no money left over to,buy a ping-pong table. It had to wait. Last fall, when Canadian Tire advertised a regulation -size fold- ing table 'for:$99.99, 1 checked my bank balance and found that I could just swing it. Of course. 11 cost me an additional $15 m lax and $20 for delivery. As the dnver and I carried the tilt half of the table upstairs, a ternble thought entered my mind for the first time: what if Ping -Po ng came up with a horrendous amount. "I can't afford it." 1 tied. Then I had an idea. I went back to Canadian Tire Peter's Point • Peter Hessel we won't get it up the narrow al- and bought another ping-pong uc stairs? Of -course, 1 had never table. It was not on sale, -and It. thought of measuring. cost $30 more than table number You guessed it. there was no gone. The clerk eyed me with sus way. Alter trying for about 20 picion: "Are you going to ratan.. nunutes. 1 admitted defeat. this one like you did We last Sheepishly. The dam table had one?" to go back to the 'store. In our I had Jim pick at up with lus eager' ' to get it up •e stairs, half -ton, take it to his shop and we h retched theirface a cut it into four pieces. A res bi:. 'I i,. •ore deduct my credit. Between delivery charge, I- $40.00 for nothiti -penalty-teratot�e from days later, he delivered it. We d the carred the pans to .the attic. paid .where he joined everything to - It was my gether. 14e did a good job. 1 paid Mie_4A11.=L w 1_ -mac mg - very deflated. The kids were just pong table for the price of two. as disappointed. Not counting We .$40 1 had lost Time passed. Whenever I went earlier. up into the attic, 1 thought of But 1 don't regret the invest- ping-pong. There had to be a mens. It is already paying off way. 1 called Jim who bad built The kids have forgotten about us a marvellous outdoor garbage television. All they want to do. box as soon as they come home. is "Can you build -us a pang-pong play -8uig pong.-Preterab1y math tabic?" you tfir--.man. -1 -caws--believe "Why don't oy one at the therActually fight over who can Canadian Tire?" play.y+itlrtpenext. � rgiltam a very modest man. But 1 teres must ,admit that I play a mean uistcad of two." game of ping-poug. As a weu g - Jun did some figuring and er, I once won a local champion - "I need one made Were in the attic. In to • ship, and 1 even coached a team. for a short while. Many, many, many years ago. When I weighed 40% less and was in good physical condition. When my reaction time was still short. And long before 1 wore trifocals. In tact, long before trifocals were invented. But I can still im- press my kids. Especially Steph- anic and Duncan, who arc just on the verge of changing from bloody to ordinary, beginners. Alexander is another matter. Hes had sonic practice at school Although he is not yet 13. he is tall, with long arms. He has a good head on his shoul- ders. And 20-20 vision-. He's learned to spike and to spin. In other words, hls become an ag- gressive. tae dable opponent. So on the one hand, I'm proud of the b6} . But on the other hand. 1 hate to .admit it: he beat me for the first time yesterday. Mind you, it took three games to do it. and the final score was only 2 i 19. But he's done it. You should have seen his lace. And mine It has been 'quite art effort and. a -financial hardship to trans- form our atuc into a ping-pong noon). But I think it's one of the best things we vc -ever done for ,our kids And for ourselves yes. Elivabett plays too But' she wmft'deny n. attd she won't be Offended if • 1 say that she present.* whmuwhat less. of a G laiapyo Tui Alexander and rue Now 1 wonder how long it will be before Stepharuc whoa Uwhcan cart beat me' Judging by their present enthusiasm, I give tem six months at the most Skop locally?? Dear Sir, 1 wonder if otter people in Exet- er realize that they are being sµb- _to ted to (what seems to me) atcip- off by the ;able television tampo n ) The new basic fee of $15.13 provides us . with a total of l►evon- wen channels. yet in the town of Paris (near Brantford) they receive -thirtysix ehatmels for the new ba- sic fee of $18.52. Added to this, we often have poor picturc'.quality and some channels Are often not receivable. By paying extra for the "I3iacrdli4aaTy -Service". we can sull unly.get.24 Cl aids. lu vicW of die jack of competition, wheat 4 can we do about thus'' Unfortunatcy , this is- typical of high price's charged in -Ex- eter for most things. I gueifiLu shop than "chop across the Wider". Likewise, 1 prefer 10 shop Fleeter than go to London or Suet - ford. but like most' • 'le these .days, I have to look 'r best deal however if,tbe pric of an item is less than 5percent h' r in Iiaeter, then 1 wi1I'Piobably sup rt the tuwn. A bigger,dii'ference than 3 • that and I hesulatc to buy locally . since* sawing on ape ilcm .alone could ;pity fprjbe gas to ,.go else- where. WojiM 1Qwer- packs in- crease .salts volume and thereby kcep everybody happy? As a -cue • an point, a bag of • : food which 1 ;. buy, used to be $10I l ,ai my lucid ` grocer and $5 ,an 1.vblaws at Maautvillc. It ' now . pan .se- . duced to $6.99 • . • , this differ - awe Icon live w'. ,Apo will bu i rtcn Gxederys .luu�,tjs : tc :prise d g e-49 sAot 4pROW drasusaliy •Yoursittee Johnh i nucterson, y _ ,;. r r •