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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1993-03-17, Page 4iftwieenWeecate, Match 17,1993 0 11141111161oalvirviessimitt > lioompoliNowtiNeinglialsoillOOrkeopiasO.ZWIPO.S.T. �wwlea<�ewss 4.4A04O4.T. e 111111111111111111111111 Making ideas reality t seems a little disappointing t*he Community Futures meeting in Ex- .eter should have attracted only half the people who attended a meeting on teen .sexuality at the -High School the same :might. One meeting sought visions on ttthow be'.hluron:[k my economy might be jumpstarted; tete other debated if condom machines should be placed in .the high school. Neither is an issue to be ignored, 'bits .one would have expected our economic tfuture to haveattracted a little more ,at- tention. Local municipalities were well represented by their politicians,.and the Iiensall Economic Development Com- ttee was out in full force. Organizers i_thad hoped a few more local "business t'owners and entrepreneurs might have ded some aggressive ideas on creat- idng new jobs and -business opportuni- tdies. The: best pmtahnutthese brainstorm- ingsessions: istithattthey needn't -remain s. 7liteititiotal.cgovernment ise- to tolfenitmds.ao thelp.!etthe ide- as off the ground. Perhaps that isianswer to why the busi- ness communityvvasn't fully represent- ed; governmentgrants can be seen as too closely associated with taxation and the deficit, although it can be argued .some good does come out of govern- ment partnerships with industry. The oblational Research Council is greatly ad- mired by American companies that con- tinually bemoan a lack of a counterpart south iof *he border. One big question about Community Futures remains. Will it merely find a way to spend federal -funds on fanciful projects? Or.oan it be -directed to plans that will produce. a -real and measurable economic growth .and new job opportu- unities? Of .all the ideas presented at the Exeter meeting, seeking new ways to develop the agricultural economy beyond the grain elevatortappears most promising. We hope this:avenue:tismiven serious rlhnught by the committee. A.D.H. Tansiirtices too many oomedeto failures istt ite>taeiy .way to describe -:the plan nor ut Y 1O - uarate proposals before -Huron :•qty municipalities to .choose which way they want to restructure county.:council. -Ten different options was t.just too rinany to expect any kind of real consen- taus on the issue. What really happened was the larger tmnunicipalities seeking a fair ,way of Betting representation on the :.council vwltore -bewildered and divided on wheth- rxr_the new arrangement should_be orga- nnized by population, electors, or assess- rtitnent. Smaller municipalities naturally favoured those options that put them on Jan equal footing with the big towns. Consequently, the executive commit- tiee came up with the idea that all mu- nnicipalities would get one vote each, .except for-Goderich, which would have ,lone representative with two votes. To rput thatin perspective, the towns, with tmearly lief the county's population, </would he .continually outnumbered by tine votes of the villages and townships. This division of voting power along ur- ban :and rural lines has been seen before at the council. The new arrangement would have only made it worse. Fortunately, county council has recog- nized the inequities of this proposal and has ended up with a "no decision" for the time being. A better system needs to be found to rmatch the voting power of the various rnnunicipalities to their relative ,sizes. Or as Stephen Township reeve .and county warden Tom Tomes suggests, leave things as they are. A.D.H. Speak out! $ , 1 'lt' e(lttu The Times Advocate continues to welcome letters to the editor as a forum for open discussion of local is sues, concerns, compieints,aid kudos. The Times Advocate reserves the right to edit letters for brevity. Please send your letters to P.O. Box 850 Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S6. Sign your letter with both name and address. Anonymous letters will not be published. ""*len are never so likely to Settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely." ... Themes iVlaoaaIoy •exch Wsenrr. y •t42s �.t cos: w. �rar •a S.ri1111M1+s Groundhogs, meet Silly Season Do you remember as far back as February 2 when wean wait- ed with bated breath to.see ifihe groundhog would see his :ilhad- •ow? Six weeks later cananyone _=give me one good reason ,.for why we do this year after year? You know how the legend ..:goes. If the groundhog sees his -shadow and goes back into his •,hole, we get stuck with six more weeks of winter. No shadow, ':then spring is just around the corner. What kind of suckers are we? The Americans must be .behind all this. There's no chance that those of us living this far north are going to get away with any less than six more weeks of win- ter. Eight or nine is more like it, or more if this winter keeps on the way it's been going. Superstitions can be fun, now and then, but we really ought to make sure they mean something. Let's face it, from a February 2 perspective, only six more weeks would mean spring was just around the corner. That's right, we'd be enjoying spring right now. Groundhog Day would make a lot more sense if we could celebrate it on Mt h 2. And `why not? If we can I- ebrate Thanksgiving earlier than the, Americans, then we should be allowed to give our Wiaron Willie an extra month's rest. But I`ve grown tired of watch- ing out my •window for the first signs of spring. As of early Sun- day morning there was no long - Hold that thought ... B Adrian Harte er any reason to believe spring was on its way. What use is spring when it's now officially Silly Season? The Silly Season used to refer to that time of year when all the Formula One racing drivers and teams would be deep in negotia- tions to sec `who would be driv- ing for whom the next year. Since that now takes up nearly the whole racing year, Formula One fans can now welcome the first races in March as the begin- ning of Silly Season. There's a lot about Formula One that deserves to be called silly. Even its year runs back- warda The first races in South Africa and Brazil are below the equator, where it's now autumn. The cars and drivers come north into Europe (and Canada) for summer, and eventually finish up in November in Australia, ,where it is late spring. With no small stretch of the imagination, it's not hard to see the globe as one wann sunny place littered with jet -set playboys driving ab- surdly fast cars for astonishing amounts of money. Just how silly is Formula One? Well, in Sunday's race, for ex- ample, 26 cars started on the grid, each one representing many millions of dollars in engi- neering, testing, and research. Only five were actually on the track less than two hours later to cross the finish line. It does take a deliciously warped kind of mind to appre- ciate the wretched excess of For- mula One. There is absolutely nothing like it awl/where else in the world. Deep inside, I know that a sat- ellite broadcast from the far side of the globe isn't a real substitute for spring. But given the alter- native to what's blowing around in the streets right now, I'll take it. Maybe when the sixteenth and final race is over I'll write that letter to my MP to get Ground- hog Day moved to where it can do some good. We 're what dairy farmers' dreams are made of The dairy industry should love our family. The older our kids get, the more milk we consume. In fact, our household is what every dairy farmers' whitest dreams are made of. I am convinced that on a per capita basis we are the world's largest milk consumers. In fact, I ram going to complain to the\ Guinness Book of Records. There isn't even category .for milk guzzlers. 1 understand—that t down more beer, the F en- joy more wine, and the British sip more tea than anybody a sc. Well, what about nature's most perfect drink? I bet that Canadi- ans in general drink more milk than any other nation on earth, and I bet that this particular fam- ily demolishes more milk in a day than the world's average family does in a month. Any- body to challenge us? It all starts at 7 a.m. when the kids and 1 finish one liter of 2 percent and Elizabeth has a large serving of skim. It's all poured over our breakfast ce- real, of course. And I also use it to eool down my coffee. ;rWe,,ep three categories of milk ,;n our house: 2 percent, skim milk and buttermilk. I'm tlx: only one who drinks butter- milk - at least two or three tall glasses a day. In spite of it's name, buttermilk has only 1 per- cent fat. You should try it some day. It tastes like liquid natural yogurt. Delicious! Elizabeth is the skim milk lady. Nobody else in our house likes the pale, watered-down look of skim. And you've got to be a Spartan type of person to y its taste. but she won't bNn! ag else. I tried to in - Peter's Point • Peter Helsel ;crest her in buttermilk, but it turns her off. She thinks it is made, strictly for baking purpos- es. For buttermilk pancakes and muffins. Is there anybody but me who ,likes to drink butter- milk? Please, let me know! As soon as the kids come home from school, they demol- ish another liter of 2 percent. For supper - between the three different varieties - we usually get rid of another liter and a half of milk. And in the course of the evening, another liter or so dis- appears. So that's an average of four li- ters a day just for direct liquid consumption. That's just what runs down;Abe;Aruat,iowernch the thirst. At least antler liter a day is used in cooking and baking - anything from hurried scram- bled eggs to curried seafood casserole, from pedestrian ria pudding to hoity-toity tea bis - wits. 1 estimate that we use about five liters a day on average, which totals up to one thousand, eight hundred and twenty-five li- ters of milk a year. That's enough liquid to fill the gas tank of our van 40 times. Our annual pe (capita milk consumption is 365 liters. And that is just liquid milk. It doesn't include the other milk products this family buys and eats at llpme in the form of but- ter, cheese, cottage cheese (la- sagna!), ice cream, and yogurt, and other dairysnacks. It doesn't include all the. milk spilled (not only by the kids, but increasing- ly by adults wearing bifoe ahs and trifocals). It doesn't include such absolutely frivolous (but wonderful) extras like .whipped cream or sour cream. It also doesn't include all the chocolate milk and milkshakes and other milk products bought and con- sumed in restaurants, fast locid outlets, snack bars. etc. • I guess you could say that we're a bunch of milk gluttons. My own (Always scientific) eiiti- mate is that at least 25 percent of our nourishment comes from dairy products. Ah, milk! The gift offetyd 10 the human race by our faithful bovine friends (1 salute them with a friendly "Moo"). The gift brought to us by our hard- working dairy farmers and the dairy industry (I offer than a warm handshake). What would we do without milk?