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Home My WebLink AboutTimes Advocate, 1992-07-08, Page 4Pape 4 Tines -Advocate, July 8; 1992 iti : fisr: J1m9eekett itarrelladiblie: Athan Harte Bush sMNssatigsr, Don Smith Ca011,p0sit$on-Manager: Deb Lord Publication Mall Registration Number 0386 SIJBSC111P_71fN RA ESQ dal ADA Vilitioln40, Is. (65 kin.) adrlrasasd to ire l tter .arils aderosipoo .30.00 glia *2.10 Q.S.T. Oohed* 40 miles (65 km.) or any letter corder address .30.00 $u. *2000 (total 50.00) + 3:60 Q.S.T. Outside Canada :68.00 • • gni Bylaw of benefit to smokers too Exeter town council takes one look at an all-encompassing bylaw to regulate smoking ar- eas in the town and goes weak at the knees. What about the rights of smokers, they wonder? Do businesses really want to be told where their customers can and cannot smoke? According to the Huron County Health Unit, the statistics are over- whelmingly in favour of tighter restric- tions on smoking. The public wants them, especially in restaurants, and businesses would rather live with a by- law than a company policy on the mat- ter. It is hard to recall that this is the same council that approved dropping the speed limit on Huron Street to 30 km/h beside Victoria Park in response to one letter of concern. This council did not bother to survey motorists who will now have to use that part of road at walking speed. The concern was first and foremost for the safety of children who might find themselves endanger- ing their health by ending up on a road- way where they should not be in the first place. Motorists still constitute a larger per- centage of the population than smokers. Motorists know they are a hazard to pe- destrians. Smokers also (begrudgingly) know their habit is unhealthy. They know that lighting up in crowded rooms of non-smokers is just no longer accept- able. So why not set out, in bylaw form, where smoking is and is not allowed? Smokers will no doubt adjust to the re- strictions. They will have the right to light up with dignity in designated areas. They will no longer have to agonize over asking that dreaded question "mind if I smoke?" when there is a non- smoking sign present. As pointed out to council, a bylaw is more of a means of compliance than en- forcement. We're with mayor Bruce Shaw on this one. Don't dream up fascinating and confusing scenarios that might appear with a bylaw. Just get it done. It's about time Exeter caught up to the 1980s. A.D.H. Worth repeating This year, Canada Day in Exet- er was not a symphony of si- lence. The events planned for the nation's birthday were so readily ac- cepted by those who attended that it was hard to believe this was not a long- standing annual event. Those who elected to travel elsewhere on the mid -week holiday missed an in- teresting and uplifting day. Unlike the hustle anti bustle of a fair or even the recent Stephen Sesquicentennial home- coming, Canada Day in Exeter was a much more relaxed affair. • People am- bled around the recreation centre, met friends, took .in the entertainment and spectacles of the balloon rides and fire- works. The whole town owes a round of ap- plause to the sponsoring Legion and to the organizers themselves. While Canada's 125th year was as good a reason to revive a Canada Day celebration in Exeter, obviously this kind of experience is too valuable not to bring back for next year. A.D.H. Let!sdesign a better plunger! A couple of years ago I com- plained in this column about toi- lets. I wrote" "While we can fly from North America to Europe in three hours and send text or pictures • to the other side of the globe in a couple of minutes, we are still struggling with an anti- quated tangle of levers and floating balls in our toilet tank. Every time l flush, I pray it'll do what it's supposed to do instead of overflowing..." Two years have passed since two brand-new state-of-the-art toilets were installed in our house. They weren't cheap bar- gain -basement, Taiwanese flush -me -downs, but respectable made -in -Canada water closets which together cost more than my fist automobile. Terror in the powder room Well, let me give you my evaluation. One of these porce- lain plumbing appliances was in our "powder room". As every- one knows, guests go to the powder roonr for more than just powdering their noses. After two or three 'particularly embar- rassing episodes involving "im- portant guests", we called for a second opinion. Plumber No. 2 said that plumber No. 1 had in- stalled a sub -standard A - Standard toilet, and that the thing to do was to .replace it with a C kind of fixture. He did, at considerable ex- pense, but t'm afraid tate dam C thing isn't working any ,better than the A thing was. Theis that in addition to my patience wearing thin, I've wore out Iwo plungers since the new toilet was installed. In the meantime, I've noted that the other brand- new toilet upstairs flushes prop- erly every time when then: is a total lunar eclipse on Friday the 13th. Peter's Point • Peter Hessel I have now given up on toilets. I may as well realize it. They just can't be made to work prop- erly. They obviously present a challenge which is baffling or even insurmountable for plumb- ing engineers and designers. Efficient plungers So I have a better idea. Instead of wasting any more time in try- ing to improve toilets, let's have a better plunger. A toilet plun- ger so efficient that it will be a cinch to unplug plugged toilets. A plunger so well engineered that even Elizabeth could handle it without having to call upon me to perform the delicate task. A plunger so innovative and technically sophisticated that it won't matter any more what kind of a dinosaur toliet we have. Perhaps a microprocessor- oontrolledplunger with a so- phisticated meatory. ' Pliett s And another thing. While we're, redesigning plunger, we may as well make them aestheti - cally pleasing. At the moment, it really isn't a pretty sight to have one of these basic -looking emer- gency tools standing in a dish on the floor next to every toilet. All we have, at present, is a wooden stick and a rubber suction cup. Come on, now. Surely we can do better than that. Canadian plungers Plungers: there's a plumb of an opportunity out there to be plucked. How many plungers do you think are out there, all told" There must be ten million of them in Canada and at last a hundred million in the US. The time has come to put Canadian design in the bathrooms not only of this nation but in the bath- rooms of the world. Designer plungers could take us out of the recession. Canadian plungers could become an inter- national household word like Egglish muffins or Swedish massage or Turkish delight. I envisage plunger inodels such as the Superior with its hand-crafted hickory handle that terminates in a precision -tooled, fully -automatic, 16-apeed suc- tion system. Or the Niagara with a stainless steel handle, a vinyl power grip in rainbow colours and its pre- programmed rotary "Maid of the Mist" agitator for deep, medium and shallow action. Or the James Bay, the world's biggost and most powerful toilet plunger .Which may aventualIy replace toilets altogether. • • "Men ere never so likely to settle a question rightly es when they discuss it freely." ... Thomas Macaulay Published Eaeh Wednesday Morning at 424 Mini at., Exeter, Creole, NOM !Miry J.W. E.dy MNehtlons Ltd. ?ulspben.14i0 235-1.331 ass. sitiossittb6 Letter to Editor Event one of sheer pleasure Dear Editor. I have just returned from the 50th Anniversary Reunion of the RCAF Station C 'ralia, No. 9 SFTS. Needless the event was one of sheer 1, _.sure, nostw - gia and the fulfillment of a long- awaited return to track down many old comrades with whom we had lost touch. For all the many years since ear- ly 1943 when I first went to Cen- tralia as a flying instructor until I left in 1945,1 among so many oth- ers who spent some war years in Exeter have joked forward to111) lust such a gather- ing. Most of us who have read of so many other reun- ions in other RCAF Stations had preuy well given up on the hope that one would ever be staged at old number 9 S.F.T.S. Thanks to the special interest of your area's' special 'Reunion Com- mittec formed to undertake this huge event, the fantastic response of so many from far and wide speaks for itself of the gratitude that we all would like to extend to all those in your region, Commit- tee and individuals who made it possible, as well as a resounding success. Yours sincerely, 'Dennis Stone, F/L 120977 RCAF Huntsville, Ontario Congratulations on a job well done Dear Editor: It is with the greatest pleasure that 1 am writing this note to the Times Advocate. I attended the 50th reunion of RCAF Centralia June 5 and 6 and after 40 years, things had changed, but the spirit of the attendees, familiar faces, nostalgia, memories, etc., made me feel as though 1 had never left in 1952. . The organizers of this function are to be com- mended on the ex- I ceUent efforts and execution of such a monumental task. A wonderful reunion with mem- bers of my graduation class, Course 043, and particularly, John Gibson, our Course Director, and Mr. Sam Aquiline, our Mess Steward, was an experience which will long be remembered by my wife and my- self. Congratulations on a job well done! Act .now -don't waft Dear Editor•: I am writing this letter in re- sponse to the/sticks in the June 3, 1992 edition of the 8xeter Tulles Advocate. Namely the pfd cross walk for the many yowtg children who uso titis,areaa to get to the public school. I am speaking from livwg .the horrifying ever ence aspe f, In February of • s ylwr,.my five (5) year old son was its ick by a cm near [flat very spot. Ia sn,mire.ifwt is an aptperienpe any.nwnnalpppent would and does fair may bgpen to their yaws child for Moose a gran deal of small children who cut through „ that spot in order. to roach the public school. As a concerned parent who wishes to see that no t or child has to go ;the eamuc tingly ,pais W 1boe0 moalaststry An sad f bad $oo tht049h. I Moms* *I slot itIs high time that ecgaething ,be .done to protect X11 children And thalrparents from anY further t- 1a1...and,pby . W+ry 1 int hope Respectfully George Hansen 31 Hoshlega Drive Scarboro, Ontario MIG 2X4 that town council docs not wan un- til a child is killed, or maimed for life before they decide to act. So I urge all parents to either write a letter to your council mem- ber or approach them on the street and tell them that it is time to act and not wait until another tragedy Mika. This is a good time for our eloctod officials to show sonic civ - k responsibility to our town and ow country's future... namely ourchildren. Sigpodtaconccrnod parent Kelly1 Exeter