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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1983-11-23, Page 4Pogo 4 Times -Advocate, 'November 23, 1983 Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 dvocate Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited EORNF FIUY Publisher JIM BECK! FT Advertising Manager Bill BATITN tdrtor HARRY DFVRIES Composition tilanager ROSS H AUGH Assistant Editor DICK JONGKIND Business Manager Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 235-1331 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada $21.00 Per year; U.S.A. $56.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' and 'ABC' Can not becondoned SHDHS math teacher Joanne Young has clearly forced the Huron board of education to take some ac- tion regarding her absence from classes in direct de- fiance of an edict from school and administration personnel. While the vast majority of people in the community. support the teacher's stated aim of saving the world from a nuclear holocaust, that support does not follow for the manner in which she acts to accomplish that goal. We take recreation for granted. We don't know what small part we play in the massive economic impact that recreation has on to- day's economic giant. This past week news releases crossed the desk outlining the impact that recreation really plays. In fact, the Ministry of Tourism and Recreation claims that every dollar spent on recreation by the Ministry sparks nine dollars in private sector spending for a total impact of more than half a billion dollars. The report released "Recreation: a changing society's economic giant", notes that the typical On- tirio family spends $2,300 a year on recreation mak- ing it a $7.3 billion industry. An additional $400 million is invested in leisure facilities every year, two thirds by the private sector. Thirty-five percent of tourist trips have a recreational purpose. Taking into consideration that volunteers annual- ly dedicate 20 million hours to leisure activities in On- tario and the fact that study values of that time at the provincial average wage, stimulates $200 million worth of volunteer work each year. These massive recreation expenditures represent income for a host of Ontario businesses ranging from snack bars to manufacturers according to the Ministry. Ice skating generates more than half a billion dollars worth of income a year and stimulates a host of industries. Registered figure skaters alone sperd some $3 million'a year just to get skates sharper -ed, $17 million Ebb +CNA BLUE RIBBON AWARD .1980 BLUE RIBBON AVvARD 1981 Her cause, however worthwhile, is not the issue before the board; but rather her actions. The demonstration by a group of students who took time from their classes on Friday adds to the pressure on the board in view of the fact the students had been counselled against skipping classes for such a purpose. The teacher's example in defying her superiors can not be condoned and should be acted upon to the fullest extent of the board's authority. It's big business to purchase skates, a further $17 million on lessons and almost $8 million on costumes. Would you believe that's a total of $45 million in that field alone. Amateur hockey generates spending far in excess of $400 million a year on everything from boot laces to potato chips. Ice time accounts for almost $60 million and $64 million is spent on admission to hockey games and refreshments. Those are some fantastic numbers! The Ministry of Tourism and Recreation takes some of the credit for the economic boom for some of this spending. "Modest grants endowed these organiza- tions with the credibility needed to attract funding from other sources and to pursuade volunteers to lend their time and energies to the endeavours," claims the Minister Reuben Vaetz. • t To support the claim, a study made estimates that the ministry funding of about $300,000 to speed skating and ringette in 1982-83 had stimulated direct spending of more than $4 million for an economic impact ratio of 1:13. These figures are not to discourage anyone from participating in sporting events here -or elsewhere. They do point out that if we wish to enjoy recraetion as we see fit, the costs tend to mount into numbers that none of us can imagine. Amazing isn't it, how our small dollar grows along with other dollars to be part of the largest factor in On- tario spending. Ridgetown Dominion Who will take up the gauntlet Society has often been charged with dealing more harshly with the victims of crime than the perpetrators and certain- ly that must be the case in the news com- ing out of Edmonton this week. Graham Ilarle, Alberta's solicitor - general, no doubt bowing to public pressure, resigned his position and in so doing, has apparently left the citizens of the that province wideopen to the evils of prostitution. Here was a man who had devoted part of his leisure time for the past four years to a personal investigation into prostitu- tion and that effort and sacrifice has now been virtually wiped out for no other reason than public suspicion as to his motives. Seems that during one of his recent forays onto the streets to gain first-hand knowledge of the problems being created by the ladies of the night, Ilarle decided that his dedicated work could be aided by a face-to-face conversation with one of the participants in the world's oldest profession. The opportunity arose one night when he was driving through the streets in his government -issue executive Chrysler, a situation most easily understood from the standpoint that the super sleuth suffered from insomnia, an ailment arising from the pressures of his insatiable desire to halt the plague of prostitution against society. When it became public knowledge that the woman found in his car was a street- walker, Ilarle obviously realized that his cover had been blown and decided to resign. Such dedicated public servants are dif- ficult to find in the first place, and no doubt his loss will be a severe blow to the province, unless of course, some other government member decided to take up the gauntlet and follow in his fearless footsteps. On the topic of dedicated service. the writer had a rather sinking feeling last week in considering the ramifications of the latest trend in retirement gifts. A picture of the rec centre and com- BATT'N AROUND with the editor munity park no doubt will look great on the wall of the Willert household, but I'm not certain a photo of my cluttered office will really embellish the decor at 134 Sim- coe St. I sometimes wonder how the world functioned before the advent of photoco- pying machines. Some readers, no doubt, will recall a bygone era when people had to use car- bon paper when they wished to com- munite with more than one person. It was a little messy, but could be used over and over again 'with little cost or effort involved. It had limitations in the number of copies that could be effectivly reproduc- ed, but that was a hardship that only in that it was necessary to decide the priorities in the list of intended recipients. The photocopier has removed that deci- sion. Now everyone can get a copy, whether or not they require it or want it. It's been a great boon, although it would probably shock people if they stopped to consider the added cost involved in their mass circulation practices. The computer, of course, has brought forth even greater advantages. Now all those little pieces of communication can be addressed personally rather than the general salutation of "to whom it may concern" or "occupant". The next step, apparently, is to have all that information printed on a giant screen in your office or riving room. That may remove most of the clutter from desks, but will it really be any less waste of time in sorting out the interesting or important information from that now contained in the constant flow of wasted paper with which most of us are con- fronted daily? Don't bother answering that question. I think I already know the answer. • When' it comes to communication, there's nothing quite as good as those mid- term reports from your kids' teachers to back the contention that some informa- tion is virtually useless due to being too vague. A "can do better" or "needs to show im- provement" may provide some general information as to the progress of the stu- dent, but leaves the interpretation open to considerable debate as to the degree of improvement expected, desired or attainable. A glossary to explain the actual mean- ing of the descriptive phrases used would be some value of parents. It would help to prevent false impres- sions such as those created for one stu- dent's parents who were pleased to read on the initial report that "Johnny is trying". They were somewhat deflated upon receiving the second report to be told that "Johnny is very trying". "They're right. crime doesn't pay ... at least not as much as hcfore this recession!" Likes teaching career Friends of mine in all walks of life can't unders- tand how I can stand teaching as a vocation. With striking originality, they ask: "How can you stand it?" Perhaps we could start with elimination. It would take an act of God, or a change of sex, or something equally dramatic, to make me an engineer. I have just com- pleted the job of trying to change a typewriter rib- bon. It took me 39 minutes. I wound up with ink all over my fingers, my face, and a clean-shirLAnd guess what came out when I began typing? Red words. It was one of those half -red, half -black rib- bons, and I'd got it upside bassackwards. The .only reason you are reading this in black is that it is be- ing reproduced by so- meone else. My lack of engineering skillsrecludes my mak- ing a fatiliving where the real money is these days: as a repair man. If you have a son or daughter pondering a career, for the dear goodness' sake, steer it into fixing things - plumbing, electricity, TV, cars. Took . my lawnmower to a repair- man the other day. It wouldn't start. Picked it up three days later. The bill was $41.16 - one dollar and 16 cents more than half what I had paid for the new machine a few years ago. The bill for labor was $27. You could have a baby for that not so terribly long ago. I've never wanted to be a scientist. Can't see spen- ding my life in a lab trying to find a new additive that will make clothes whiter than white or a new chemical that will make deodorant dryer than ever. Medicine, since I have never had a secret desire to be God, held little ap- Sugar and Spice Dispensed By Smiley peal for me. It's a noble profession, and you can make a pile of money by peering into people's aper- tures, probing their flab, making their blood spurt, and writing prescriptions among other things. None of those things turn me on, though. Dentistry. ditto. I .can see no particular charm in standing at an angle most acrobats couldn't main- tain for 10 seconds, gawk- ing at gums and crumbl- ing renovations. One look- into ookinto my own mouth would give me nightmares for a week. To heck with the $50,000 a year. Then there's the law, of course. There's a great deal of poppycock about the majesty and the in- tegrity of the law. All of it stems from lawyers and judges. But I wouldn't care to be associated in a profession where there is, despite all disclaimers, one law for the rich and another for the poor. Shakespeare said it nice- ly: "Let them hang all the lawyers". Another field that brings in a mighty good buck is accounting. But where's the future in that for a fellow who can't even ac- count to his own wife for the way he behaved at the party on Saturday night? Quite a good career these days is "working for the government." Certain- ly you'll never be fired, unless you turn up drunk four days in a row and rape four different secretaries. Even then, you'd probably just be "transferred to a less sen- sitive area," or put out to pasture on a pension. When I was a student. we used to say scornfully that if you couldn't do anything else, you went in- to the ministry. This was a base canard, of course, but the delights of the par- sonage never really got me excited. I wouldn't have minded pounding the old pulpit a bit, but I couldn't have stood the old biddies and the back- stabbers and the constant mendicanting. What I thought I might be was a professor of English. Sit around in a book -filled study, dispense wisdom to awed students, and give the occasional brilliant lecture. Well I've since met some of my old friends who chose that path. They're more boring than the guy who comes to fix my furnace. • What I really and truly wanted to do when I was young and romatic was to become a foreign cor- espondent. Influenced by movies, I wanted the works: trench coat, snap brim felt hat bylines from Hong Kong and Nairobi. Nearest I got to that was editing the •country cor- respondence from con- tributors to a small-town weekly. That wasn't a bad vocation, except that you worked 60 -odd hours a week.. and never made any money. I guess my secret desire for years was to be writer. Preferably a pipe - smoking, enormously popular. immensely wealthy one. several times divorced, a world traveler, a lecturer in great demand, yet with a depth, a plus quality in my novels that would put me up there with Hardy, Con- rad, Hemingway. With , three or four of my novels. turned into smash hits on Broadway and in Hollywood. And all my own hair and teeth. Only trouble with than wish was that I. was too lazy. Oh, the talent was there. No question about that, as we novel -writers manque can assure anyone. So instead of becoming a Hemingway, I became Bill Smiley, a chronicler of the tribula- tionsand the trivia of the mid -20th century . And not a whit bitter or disillusion- ed about it. That wasn't quite enough to keep a body alive, so I became a teacher. Not only because most other professions fill me with nausea or loathing. But because I like young people, words, ideas. and two months holidays. Words do haunt them Most of us are 'blessed' with the gift of having some very strong opi- nions. Fortunately the rest of the world is not listening to us when we spout off so that if we really make a blooper it doesn't come back to embarrass us when it is proven to be totally incorrect. For famous people, the reverse is true. Their words are written down and recorded by a faithful press which is not always as quick to clear up things when it is shown to be wrong. Let me give you a few examples of some famous quotations by people who perhaps should have known better. "As for sinking a ship with a bomb, you just can't do it." (1940, not long before Pearl Harbour - said by Rear Admiral Woodward of the US navy). The atom bomb 'will impossibility, a develop- ment on which we need waste little time dream- ing". (1926 -Lee DeForest, Perspectives never go off, and 1 speak as an expert in ex- plosives', (1945 -Admiral William Leahy, speaking to President Truman). "The Americans have need of the telephone...but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys." (Chief Kngineet for the UK Post Office -1876). Television "is commer- cially,#nd technically...an By Syd Fletcher inventor of the radio tube). "They will never try to steal the phonograph; it has no commercial value" (Thomas Edison, the in- ventor of the phonograph). "The abdomen, the chest and the brain will be forever shut off from the wise and humane surgeon," (1875 -the great doctor, Sir John Erichsen) . The New York Times, in 1903, suggested that a Pro- fessor Langley should not continue 'to waste his time and money in further air- craft experiments. Life is short and he is capable of services to humanity in- commparably greater than can he expected to result from trying to fly." (one week later the Wright brothers successsfully took off at Kitty Hawk). "Space travel is utter bilge". (1956 -The Astronomer Royal, Sir Richard van der Riet Wooley) . Seems like a person is not too safe in predicting the future, especially if a nasty little reporter is lurking somewhere around with his every ready notepad.