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Times-Advocate, 1984-03-07, Page 4POCK 4 Timor-Advocota, March 7, 1984 Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 dvocate Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by !. W. Eedy Publications limited LORNE EEDY Publisher JIM BECKETT Advertising Manager BILL BATTEN ROSS HAUGH Editor Assistant Editor • HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager DICK JONGKIND Business Manager Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario Second Class Mail Registratlon Number 0386. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $22.00 Per year; U.S.A. $60.00 C.W.N.A., O.C.N.A. CLASS 'A' and 'ABC' It's Red Cross week March is Red Cross Month across Canada. It is a time when Red Cross volunteers look back upon a year of achievements and look forward to the challenges of the future. Here in Ontario, the 102 Red Cross branches serv- ing the province have had an exceptionally busy year. Approximately 500,000 units of blood: were collected across Ontario last year. That means that several hun- dred thousand Ontario residents received the life- , giving blood transfusions and blood products that they needed to live. Students in Ontario classrooms continued to res- pond generously to the annual Red Cross appeal for funds through both the Spellathon and Youth Fund. Over $50,000 was raised by Ontario students to support international work and to support the health needs of our own children at home. The Red Cross Homemaker Service continued to grow at a remarkable pace. In 1983, more than 25,000 clients in Ontario were served by over 3,000 trained, uniformed and supervised Red Cross Homemakers. Trying to sto "Shrinkage" is an innocuous-soundingterm with serious connotations. It is an entry on the debit side of the businessman's ledger to account for inventory losses which often total thousands of dollars. Though some shrinkage can be accounted for by spoilage, ' damage, genuine loss and other legitimate and ex- pected costs of doing business, much more is the result of shoplifting and employee theft. Shoplifters and dishonest employees steal from fellow citizens as effectively as the pickpocket that lifts one's wallet, because the costs of illegal shrinkage and the means of countering it are passed on in the form of higher prices. Merchants don't want to turn their premises into armed camps, but they don't want to go bankrupt as a result of unsustainable losses, either. During the year the Homemakers delivered over 2.5 million hours of service. Thanks to the hard work of more than 1,000 dedicated volunteers in the Red Cross Assistance In- ternational and Domestic Programme over $50,000 was contributed to the International Assistance Fund. This money came from the sale of handicrafts. Tens of thousands of Ontario residents learned how to swim and how to be safe around the water by tak- ing Red Cross Water Safety Courses. The Red Cross First Aid courses trained thousands of other Qntarians to take care of themselves and others during emergencies. This is only a sampling of the programmes and services offered by local Red Cross branches. Each branch runs the services needed most in its community. To find out more about Red Cross programmes and services, or to join with your neighbours to become a Red Cross volunteer yourself, call your local Red Cross branch and Help Keep Red Cross Ready. p shoplifters A group of Exeter retailers determined to cut preventable losses have banded together and hired an agency to carry out random surveillance in their stores. They also plan to heighten staff awareness through the use of currently available video films showing employees what to look for in spotting a shoplifter, and what to do to apprehend a thief. Town police have promised their cooperation, and Said they are willing to talk to young people and any other interested group about the life-long ramifications of yielding to the impulse to take something; without paying for it. The merchants' efforts should be applauded and sup- ported by all honest citizens. They will be the beneficiaries of this program. Profit whatever the price Postal union members are pretty unhappy right now with shrinking staff levels. Under its new manage- ment Canada Post Corp. is trimming the total of those it employs, not by firings, but by attrition; simply cur- tailing the numbers of those hired as replacements for retirees. Michael Warren, president of Canada Post, is determined to reach a break-even point within a cou- ple of years, thus ending the need for government sub- sidies to carry his corporation. Reducing expenditures is not the only weapon in the postal arsenal. Canada Post is actively in competi- tion with the nation's newspapers as it sells direct mail services to advertisers, a source of revenue badly need- ed by some of the nation's, smaller publications. Most of us would agree that any reduction in government subsidy payments is desirable, but the Post Office is far from being alone in this regard. Many other services such as .the CBC, the National Film Board and the railways have long been maintained at some public expense — all part of the price we must payfor being a sparse population in a very big land. Wingham Advance Times A Rec Room Wreck The home renovations insert in this edi- tion of the paper brings back still painful memories of the time my husband and I built a rec room in our Ottawa home. Deferring to the weaker sex Don asked a male friend to help him install the 2x4 studs while I began reading every book I could find on carpentry. I quickly discovered most panelling is designed to be nailed on 16" centres. Knowing this in- formation would be appreciated, I grabb- ed my trusty tape measure and skipped downstairs. I pulled out about two feet of steel, plac- ed the metal tab in the centre of the first stud, reeled out the metal and took a reading in the centre of the second stud. "Sixteen and three-quarter inches," i announced. The tape flashed between the centres of studs two and three, "Fifteen and one- quarter", i exclaimed in dismay. Perhaps the master builders had not yet hit their stride, though the looks directed my way indicated they could cheerfully have hit me. Never mind. I'd give them one last chance. I checked the distance between studs three and four. "Seventeen inches", i gasped incredulously. My self-appointed job as building in- spector ended the next moment, as I beat a hasty retreat, pursued by two strong men with hammers gripped in upraised hands. We did have trouble hiding the nailholes when we installed the panelling. 1 refrain- ed from saying "I told you so." I felt I would have the opportunity of using that phrase with more devastating effect later. I was out the night Don and his friend strapped the ceiling and began stapling on 1 1' the -ceiling tiles. "Dear, I have bad news," Don said the next morning. "The walls in these old houses are all out of plumb. The next row of tiles will not line up, and will have'to be shifted over about four inches." As soon as he left for work, out came Reynolds' Rap by Yvonne Reynolds my trusty tape. I soon found that while the tiles on the row nearest the west wall were getting wider, the ones on the row nearest the east wall had been cut narrower and narrower. I acted very unwifely when Don came in that evening. Without waiting until he had eaten a good dinner and was in a relaxed, reasonable mood, I jumped right at him and said, "The walls aren't out of plumb. You are!" Reacting like any normal husband, he stomped downstairs, yelling over his shoulder that he wouldn't eat dinner if 1 served pheasant under glass, and began ripping off ceiling tiles and throwing them in every direction. After I pointed out the tiles should be removed carefully as they would havetobe used again, he ripped out one more, threw it on the floor, and told me to do the job myself. I did, but that's another story. We started to speak to each other again, out of necessity. We now became embroil- ed in inside and outside cuts as we work- ed with miter box and saw to cut the moulding and trim. "'Phis is an inside cut," I would say. "No, any idiot could see that's an out- sider," Don would argue. Each time, one of us was right. Too bad it wasn't always the one doing the cutting. One Saturday morning Don said we would hang doors, and launched into descriptive detail on how the job was to be accomplished. "But that's not how the American Han- dyman says it should be done", I protested. I won't repeat his reply in this family newspaper, but it sounded downright anti- American. I did not remind him of the time he took ;the hall door down to his workshop to take one-half inch off the bottom so it would glide smoothly over newly installed carpeting. I could hear him «'histling a's he measured and sawed. He soon reap- peared, manoeuvred the door into posi- tion, lifted it up to replace it on its hinges, and turned chalk white. He had taken the half-inch off the top! (For months after- wards our sons had only to say "Mr. Fix - it" to send each other into fits of uncon- trollable laughter.) Although building our basement rec room almost destroyed our marriage, we decided to stay together. The thought of the other partner being awarded one old house complete with a beautiful, modern recreation room in an unfair property set- tlement precluded all thought of divorce. Now Don is talking of a similar project in our home at R.R.2. But can the marital bond stand such a strain again? "Daddy just got a sharp pain from a tooth cavity — the bill from the dentist for filling it!" Some people grow benevolent and kindly as they get older. I just get more violent. I hope I turn out to be an Angry Old Man. And I know I will, if I can just hang on long enough to get old. It's a world to turn anyone, even a gentle, sweep chap like myself, a bit savage. Don't think that 1 m just getting crotchety. I've been crotchety for years. You hear people going around all over Canada saying, "My isn't that Smiley crotchety?" And others replying, "Yes, crotchety is the work. If there's a word for it, it's crotchety." Mind you, I love the world around me, and up to half a dozen people, and I laugh like a mental case at some of the thins I see. But there is a limit to the amount of garbage I can stand being thrown in my face day after day in the year 1984 A.D. That makes me just like the. Prime Minister. For instance. We have so much surplus wheat that we have a national hernia, trying to lift it from here to there. Politi- cians go white trying to. Why don't we give it away? I don't mean the farmer. I mean Canada. Pay the going rate to peo- ple who are starving. Up It's all garbage go the taxes. So what? They go up anyway. For instance. Our educational system caters to the medicore, to mass - they're free to lie. For instance. Television could be a tremendous force for spreading peace and love in the world. Sugar and Spice Dispensed By Smiley production of the mediocre, just like big in- dustry. The intellectual elite among our kids are starved to death, that is„ bored to death, and the kids who are below average are swept under the rug. This means our schools are full of fat, lazy kids who are there only because they don't want to face the lean, cold world. I'd turf out on his or her tail, at 16, every kid who wasn't interested. And I'd let him back in, with generous help, when he became interested. For instance. Daily newspapers lie daily. Not downright lies. They merely slant, distort and color the "news," depen- ding on their policy and politics. However, it's a free country, and I guess Opposing Lester R. Brown, head of the worldwatch In- stitute in Washington feels that we are entering an age of scarcity, that unless we employ drastic conser- vation measures we are all going to starve to death. Thus we should en- courage birth control, reduce maternity leaves, raise the age of marriage and abolish tax deductions for children. As well he would issue 'birth permits' and give people with small families better housing, schooling, and pensions. In short, there would be massive government regulation on family size in order to reduce the world population. An interesting reply to this comes from J.L. Simon of theUniversity of Illinois. His theory is just the What it does is spread jam on the cake, and violence on ignorance. With a few notable exceptions, it serves it patrons garbage in a fancy wrapper. . Its entertainment does not entertain. Its news seeks out the sensational or the silly. Its commer- cials are aimed at a world . of morons. Do you really believe, for example, that a certain brand of beer is making Canada famous throughout the world? Or that you can get clothes cleaner in cold water than in hot? Or that you'll never make it if your arm- pits sweat? And for all this obsceni- ty the three big U.S. net- works last year split over two billion dollars in pro- fits. The CBC, which gave us the same refuse, generaIIy, came up with its usual deficit. This shows the superiority of Canadian television. Somehow. For instance. There are two laws. One for the rich and one for the rest of us. And any lawyer and any policeman knows it. If you're a dumb kid from Newfie, or an Indian who got drunk, you can rot in jail for a month or two before your case is even heard. If you're a middle- class doctor • or businessman, and you have the money and the right connections, you're home free and everything is hushed up. For instance. Poverty. Twenty million people liv- ing in one of the biggest countries in the world, with enormous natural resources. And millions living in sordid, squalid poverty. For instance. The Church. Again with a few notable exceptions, it does not face life. It wrings it hands, or washes them, Pilate -fashion., You don't see many preachers charging into a finance company and brandishing a whip these days, do you? For instance. This col- umn is about garbage. And I just remembered this is garbage day and 1 forgot to put mine out. theories He feels that this is good, especially in developed countries, such as ours. Perspectives By Syd Fletcher reverse. He says that pro- duction of food has been growing enormously because of better crop techniques and improved machinery (this is ap- parent when you hear of the U.S. encouraging its farmers to not grow crops because of a glut on the market.) Population increases? 44,0 People are the ultimate resource. people who will use their skills to improve the lot of the rest of mankind. Depleting resources? He points out that copper for example, has steadily gone down in value (ad- justed to inflation) since 1800 and is now about ih of what it used to be. As de- mand for a substance goes up then either greater ef- fort is made to find more or an alternative is found. Just ask yourself how much copper pipe (as op- posed to plastic) is now us- ed in an ordinary home's plumbing: Oil is another example. As the price went up a great deal of money went into exploration and soon all kinds of oil reserves were found. There was a glut on the market and the price dropped con- siderably. Not only that, people switched to other types of fuel putting far less demand on oil. Much of that market will never be recovered. Two opposing theories. i tend to buy the second.