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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1993-05-12, Page 4T nes-Adveame, May 12,1993 rM$,er:.nm Beckett "urs Ressler. Ad+Ien Neale ' ,.ue at er: Don Smith ,ftepoeltionintoe tgsr: Deb Lord 11erNAeeelite tteeroee6 (4411113111111141"e8 A7.j.S....1d •80.O0'1es $2.1e O.S.T. (BS tem) or anyeAtereervierstlr!•es 11410.00-psue $3O.00 (Wts 410.00) + 4.204.S.T. estates canted• *WAo No red carpet s there a more miserable ex- •cuse for a stretch of highway than what is found connecting Lucan to Clinton? We would like to ask our readers if they have. managed to come across a thighway anywhere else in the province =that can boast more bumps, cracks, :patoltes,riand ripples than what we en- AluremiiiHighway 4 in this area. Please •send your letters to the Times Advo- cate, Box 850 iixeter, NOM 1S6, and we will .not onlybe glad to publish :them, but well send them on to the Ministtrof Transportation for you. There has been much noise of late about the. fatesof"Highways 83 and 84, -which' may be turned over to the county for :all future maintenance, .should the "disentanglement" ipteposal survive. One .fact is clear, ;that both .those .fstretches+of toadarearsfar betteri nape :.titan .Highway 4. in .fact, we would vven.:go •out :on a limb to proclaim our .local stretch :of Highway 4iin far worse condition than Highway'B3vwas before it was xe-surfaced in 1991. Highways, :under - our -automobile- centred •.society, :are the very connec- ttions :between life here and :elsewhere. 'Reaching north..frurn London,iHighway •4,provides a'vital link for residents -and -.businesses amf i north Middlesex -and South Huron with the.city. ; It is.also the preferred route forJall those :city resi- dents heading for the lakeshores :and cottagesron weekends. IfHighw,ay 4 were to have been aban= donee :tin ::the 1950s, and returned to farmland, one can be quite certain that probably a full quarter of the people liv- ing in this region now would not be here. Half the businesses and industries might also be gone. There is no question Highway 4 is the lifeblood of this region, but'Yhere don't seem to be any answers=aon`why it has been allowed to deteriorate into its present condition. The present provincial government has -ballyhooed its plan to upgrade Ontario's infrastructure. Such spending will not !only create: jobs (sorry, person years of employment), but also enable the prov- iince's industries better able -to compete with markets where infrastructure and -transportation routes -are so much better *than ours. -Well, "jobs s • 'o Capital" has so far built us anew OMAF office (but they're :closing the :college), and the Children's Aid Society :are getting a new building :tin 1Ooderich (how -much empty office apace is therein Gioderich:anyway?), but we -still bave .a poor excuse for a provin- :oial highway connecting this -region to the -world. There :are township tar and chip con- cession -roads more enjoyable to .drive than -Highway-4 or., O,..,* Let its: know .alo> i nest& sessment of our most important -road- way. Are we lucky to have a highway at , or do we .deserve something better for ourprovincial.tax dollars? Send us those letters. A.D.H. "Men are never go likely • to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely." ... Themes Macauley Mach Wednesday et 424 Main :I :., ti'ksler, teres, NttM 136 ay J W. E Publications Ltd. Ts►pihone 1.411 -2Sbi2 1 O.e.Y. otioa214en z11 (m5.93, 141 Another good blackfly season? Maybe there aren't any black- flies where you live. Count yourself lucky. Where we arc, blackfly season will start any day now. I don't know whether it's go- ing to be a good season or not. It could be good for the blackflies or good for mc. We'll soon find out. I'm not very knowledgeable When it) comes to entomology. My contact with the world of in- sects is on an emotional rather than scientific level. There are bugs I can tolerate (like butter- flies), and there are bugs that drive me crazy. 1 have learned to cope with cluster flies. Wasps and hornets can create a minor nuisance sometimes. My opinion of mos- quitos is also fairly low. But blackflies, so help mc, are the absolutely worst. Why God created them, I fail to under- stand. You could easily per-..° suade me to sign a petition for their total eradication. Swat the lot of them and wipe them out forever. Let the insectivores among the birds be satisfied with what else is on the menu. Maybe they'd swallow more mosquitoes if blackflies became extinct. I've been told that there are 37 different blackfly species in our area alone. Plus a few additional species that come visiting from next door. While they all look alike to me, they differ in their methods of warfare. Strategically and tac- tically, they use different ap- proaches. I'm not going to compete with the leamed naturalists who make a living studying black- flies. They have their own ex- planations. Agriculture Canada has published a booklet on the subject. No, I'm going to tell.the Peter's Point • Peter Hemel story from the victim's point of view. I'm the one that gets eat- en, and I'm entitled to have my say. 37 species! One flies into my hair, twirls around till it finds my scalp, and - wham! - in goes the proboscis tthc organ they sting and suck with). If I rub, this only stimulates them into further action. Another species goes behind the ears. It doesn't sting right away, but waits till I have both hands full and can't defend myself. Then it slowly and deliberately sinks its stinger into my skin which happens to be very thin in that region. Another species crawls be- tween my wrists and sleeves un- til it reaches the area juicy pas- ture. Yet another type specializes in the lower extremi- ties, entering between the shirt and the trousers, no matter how tight my belt is. There is one species for the hair -line and one for behind my glasses, one for the neck and one for the facial cavities. I firmly believe - + although 1 couldn't prove it iPcourt - that there is a blackfly species that attacks only women over forty, and another that feeds exclusive- ly on the tender skin of infants. One thing all blackflies have in common: they love swiftly flow- ing water. Most of the year we enjoy living close to the creek. Not in blackfly season. I know nothing about this insect's life cycle, but between early May and early June, billions of them come floating down the creek. One - a scout - spots our house, sounds the bugle, and it's D -Day. The blackfly invasion begins. Black clouds rise up fort the water. Our resident groundhog is the first to get hit, but the flies leave it alone as soon as they spy or smell human flesh. They love us more dearly than any other warm-blooded creatures. We're just delicious to them. Peaches and cream. What can I do? I have thought of moving the family into a city penthouse for a month, or build- ing an air -tight plastic bubble over our property. I've even asked the municipal council to divert the creek. They turned me down. Perhaps wc could wear diving suits, complete with hel- met and visor. Only such desper- ate measures could keep the blackflies away from our skin. But nothing drastic is ever done. We just suffer and scratch, wc scratch and complain. Until blackfly season is over. Until the Changing of the Insect Guard. Until the coming of the majestic mosquito. rro Wtusi�ai I drop . the cassette into the deck and press play. The soft voice of the jazz singer fills the room. This is what it's all about, I muse. Canadian content from an artist I didn't even know ex- isted a few weeks ago, but now I 'don't think I can get her voice .outef my mind. Canada's perceived inferiority in the artistic and cultural world has been erased in the past few years by a popular music indus- try that has made its mark around the world. Even the Ju - nos are named after Pierre Ju- neau in recognition of his Cana- dian Content CRTC regulation. Certainly it was controversial, and I still meet those who feel Canadian artists should either sink or swim "on a level playing field" (where have we heard that before?) with the world's best. There are those who would do very well in any country, and there are those who need that ex- tra boost from having radio sta- tions eager to fill that 30 percent Canadian time slot. I know my record collection has benefitted greatly from Ca- nadian artists. Or has it? Deter- mined to prove I do indeed reach out to this nation's artists, I rearranged my CD collection on the shelf by country of ori- gin. To be, truthful, .tbe°iesults Hold that ought ... BY Adrian Harte shocked me - even dismayed me. I had five, maybe six, popu- lar Canadian artists represented on the shelf. A handful more were American, one was Swed- ish, one Australian, three Irish, but the rest, the lion's share were all from England. Evidently, I am some kind of musical bigot. I can wax poetic about the glories of seeing our Canadian culture reflected in our popular music, but when it comes to putting my money where my mouth is, I end up buying British. If I ,watt .titter to Editor nt through my tapes and old al- bums I know I'd find a few more Canadian artists, but I also know they would still be overpowered by the rest. The only category under which 1 ,could say CanCon held its own was in my pittance of classical music CDs. Two are Qanadian, which isn't bad going. In my defense I suppose I can argue I have eccentric tastes in .musicanyway, and my CD col- lection is in no way typical of anyone else I've ever met. In fact, I can proudly say I've pe- rused the music collections of ,my English - relatives and found ilite.likes of Bryan Adams, Rob- tbie Robertson, and the Cowbdy :Junkies in the mix. When talked, they didn't even realize they were Canadian - which is possibly good or bad, depending on your point of view. As for the jazz singer's demo tape I must ,unfortunately return, I don't know if there will ever be a CD to add to the collection. If a simple Canadian Content clause can make it possible, then I'm all for it. After all, there's room on the shelf. In defence of Grand send Dear faidtor: As a result of your May 5, 1993 edition, I find myself in a some- what ambivalent. position towards the village of Grand Bend. First of all I must come to its defence. I to- tally disagree with your assess- ment of its Main Street: "... the vil- lage continues to find ways to stop sand ... from blowing up unto their Main Street and other undesirable areas." Even though I agree that some of its storefronts arc less than aesthetically pleas- ing, I feel that you arc entirely unfair in declar- ing Grand111) Bend's main street an undesirable area. On the other hand, I am most per- turbed by the Grand Bend Council decision that this summer' illegal drinking and use of drugs wille strictly enforced." Now wc all know that these two activities arc very popular with many people, younger as well as older. Neverthe- less, I feel that to force all visitors to Grand Bend to drink and do drugs is a serious infringement on their individual rights. On behalf of the A.A.A. (Associ- ation Against Ambiguity), I thank you fur your time and space. Sinwely and cheek -bulgingly, LC.de Haus Speak out! The Times Advocate continues to welcome letters to Mcg editor as a forum for open discussion of beet lr, sues, concerns, complaints, and kudos. The Times Advocate reserves the right to edit letters for brevity. Please send your letters to P.O. Box 860 Exeter, Ontario, NOM 156 Sign your letter with both nerve and eddreas. Anonymous letters will not be published. 4