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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Citizens News, 1969-12-18, Page 4PAGE FOUR ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS . THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1969 People are Funny! People are funny. You and I. We don't always make good sense. Take cyclamate. Some of us dieters do or did. We drink low calorie soda pop, eat cyclamate -sweetened food to save calories and help us pretend we have the same food as the other people do, only less fattening. So then what happens? The Food and Drug Adm- inistration of the United States discovers that cycl- amate, the chemical name for the base of most non -sugar sweeteners has been found to cause can- cer in some animals --namely rats. What happens then? the soft drink companies fall all over themselves in a mad rush to get their low calorie drinks off the market, lest these products be thought responsible for the onset of cancer in some consumer. Some cranberries grown in a sprayed New England marsh caused the same kind of panic some years ago. They were rumoured to contain some materials believed to be capable of causing cancer. The poor cranberry growers had to remove their products from the market that year and, if memory serves well, many a turkey went to the table bereft of its cranberry sauce. And yet when you think about it, with every medical report, evidence piles up --evidence of emphysema, chronic bronchitis, coronary disease and that dreaded old killer, cancer --all apparently caused or hastened by one product. But what cigarette firm has withdrawn its product from the market as a public-spirited gesture to save the lives of smokers. The presumptive case against tobacco is surely much stronger that that against cyclamate. It must be that you and I really want cigarettes to continue on sale. Of course we have the choice whether to buy them or not. But in the next month or two, diet or no diet, you'll be hard pressed to find any cycl- amate on sale --to buy or ignore. But the cheerful ranks of prettily packaged cigarettes will still beck- on the suicide -minded. (Milverton Sun) Symptons of Apathy! It looks as though there will be another accla- mation for the position of Warden of Huron County for 1970. Only one candidate, Roy Westcott, Us - borne Township, has entered the race. Two other possible contenders for the warden's chair are out of the running. A, D. Smith, Mulberry Township, had indicated his interest to make his bid for the wardenship but will not return to county council in 1970 because he decided to step down from the reeve's seat in his home municipality rather than face an election there. Elgin Thompson, reeve of Tuckersmith, has ac- cepted another position which he feels will take up too much of his time to permit him to accept a nomination for the wardenship. The 1969 warden, James Hayter was acclaimed last January and Ashfield Township's Don McKenzie was acclaimed to the wardenship in 1967. We think it is fair to assume there is a definite trend toward acclamations for the warden's chair in the County of Huron. What's more we suggest that reeves and deputy -reeves from "the good old days" would be appalled that such a situation is permitted to exist today. Warden James Hayter urged county council at the November session to give some consideration to making the warden's term of office for two years instead of one year. We wonder if this would help or hinder a seeming lack of sufficiently enthused men who will let their names stand for the highest position in the county. It could be another symptom of apathy which possibly can be blamed for the increasing decline in interest at the local level where fewer and fewer men and women want to serve on municipal coun- cils. Could it be that regional government is the only answer when just a handful are ready to accept municipal responsibilities? ZURICH Citizens NEWS PRINTED BY SOUTH HURON PUBLISHERS LIMITED, ZURICH HERB TURKHEIM, Publisher Second Class Mail Registration Number 1385 �u Member: Canadian Weekly Newspapers Association Outuunl,..; Ontario Weekly Newspapers Association 1. 11%, AVA Subscription Rates: $3.50 per year in advance in Canada; $4.50 in United States and Foreign; single copies 10 cents A. special Christmas gift Don't know how things are around your way, but there's little doubt that we're going to have a white Christmas around here. Winter cane in like a polar bear with a toothache, and I went off to work on December 1st as though it was mid-January. Prayerfully. That is, wade through six inches of fresh snow, pray fervently as I try to start the car, breathe another little one of thanks when it goes, close my eyes and bomb backward down the driveway, muttering another supplication that I'll make the road, and then send up another few words of grati- tude because I'd got my snow tires on the day before. One creature who despises the whole business as much as I is our cat. It was bad enough for her before the snow came. Huge tomcats, black, white and piebald, littered the yard, and she'd sit on the picnic table, spitting and snarling at them with an air of chastity and virtue that is seldom seen these clays. She was in command of that situation. But when I chucked her out into half a foot of snow, her first experience of it, she almost went out of her head. Skiers are delighted, of course, and that other insidi- ous new breed, the snow-mobi- lers, are beaming all cver their big, fat, red faces. It's not enough that we should have our summers ruined by half-wits in motor boats and on motor cycles, tearing around polluting the water and the air, destroying the peace and endangering not only their own lives (who cares?). hut those of every- body else within ramming dis- tance. Now we have their winter counter -parts. I can tolerate the snow -mobile as a handy tool for work, or for getting from one place to another un- der difficult conditions. But I haven't much time for those idiots who merely revel in the noise, the sense of power, and the stink, half -trained and of- ten half -stoned, a menace to everything in or out of sight. I'll bet poet Robert Frost is glad he's dead. Imagine trying to write a beautiful, haunting thing like Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, today. Some moron would come charging out of the woods on a snow -mobile, frighten the horse, and the poet would wind up in a snow -drift. I suppose I mustn't get churlish, with Christmas ap- proaching. But if any snow- mobile manufacturer think's he can bribe me into reversing my stand by sending me one of these infernal machines for Christmas, he's mistaken. I'd send it right back. In April. Hope you're in better shape with your Christmas prepara- tions than we are. Every year, at our place, the last week or so is about as organized as an Irish cattle sale, But I'll bet you despise, as much as I do, those aseptic souls who buy their presents in September, have their colored lights out in November, and mail their cards on the first of December. There's something about people like that that irks me. They're of the same species as those who work with a clean desk, never lose their rubbers, and smirk, "No thanks, I don't smoke," when you offer them a fag. Perhaps the reason I can't stand them is that I hate my- self. My desk looks like a bar- gain counter after a sale. I lose gloves, rubbers, hats, and im- portant papers. I forget impor- tant things and remember triv- ialities. One of these is buying clothes. I'd rather go into the jungle than a clothing shop. I have one suit, for all occasions, one two-year-old jacket, one pair of flannels with a hole in them. I have an old trench -coat about as warm as a silk nigh- tie, somebody else's rubber boots, a pair of gloves with holes in both thumbs, and a golf cap for winter headgear. So I shall leave this column lying about ostentatiously until Christmas. Maybe my family will rehabilitate me, at least outwardly. However, I'll have about the nicest Christmas present I can think of, and it won't be wrapped. I'll have my dearly loved daughter home for the holidays. 0 COST WAS HIGH When Christmas greetings cards first came into their own in the United States, about 1875, some of the more elegant cards were encrust- ed with blown glass frosting and sold for as much as three dollars each. They're Set To Throw Kisses, Grow Hair New talents of baby dolls are a special center of ex- citement this Christmas. The virtuosity of dolls has been a continuing source of amazement every Yuletide, since baby dolls who could drink were invented more than a generation ago. Now doll designers have produced new surprises in the action category, to make baby dolls seem "like real" — calculated to generate delight for the doll -mother contingent, when the pres- ents are opened. One new contender for nearly -human behaviour honors is Baby Kicks, who, when her arrn is squeezed, kicks her leg just like a hu- man baby — without the aid of batteries, too. Baby Throw -a -Kiss brings her hand up to her puckered lips and throws a kiss, com- plete with a realistic kissing sound, when a string in her back is pulled. Here again, the kiss is done without the aid of batteries. Then there's a new doll called Pitter Patty. When her' doll -mother presses her ear to this doll's breast, she can hear a heartbeat. Beamed to achieving man- ual dexterity is the Teach 'n Play doll. A Busy Baby series includes a doll that rides a velocipede and another that inflates a balloon, both with the aid of a C battery. There's a new walking doll who can be jiggled into talk- ing, giggling and moving her head from side to side. This one uses a D battery. Another talented baby waves her arms when a whis- tle is blown. Baby Know -It -All jumps with joy or shakes her head when pictures are shown on a magic slate. Business and Professional Directory OPTOMETRISTS J. E. longstaff OPTOMETRIST SEAFORTH MEDICAL CENTRE 527-1240 Tuesday, Tiiursday, Friday, Sat- urday a.m., Thursday evening CLINTON OFFICE 10 Issac Street 482-7010 Monday and Wednesday Call either office for appointment. Norman Martin OPTOMETRIST Office Hours: 9 - 12 A,M, — 1:30 - 6 P.M. Closed all day Wednesday Phone 235-2433 Exeter ACCOUNTANTS Roy N. Bentley PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT GODERICH P.O. Box 478 Dial 524-9521 HURON and ERIE DEBENTURES CANADA TRUST CERTIFICATES J. W. HABERER Authorized Representative 8a/a% for 3, 4 and 5 Years 8%% for 1 and 2 Years Minimum $100 DIAL 236-4346 — ZURICH FUNERAL DIRECTORS WESTLAKE Funeral Home AMBULANCE and PORTABLE OXYGEN SERVICE DIAL 236-4364 — ZURICH AUCTIONEERS ALVIN WALPER PROVINCIAL LICENSED AUCTIONEER For your sale, large or small, courteous and efficient service at all times. "Service That Satisfies" DIAL 237-3300 — DASHWOOD INSURANCE For Safety .. . EVERY FARMER NEEDS Liability Insurance For Information About All Insurance — Call BERT KLOPP DIAL 236.4988 -- ZURICH Representing CO-OPERATORS INSURANCE ASSOCIATION Robert F. Westlake Insurance "Specializing in General Insurance" Phone 236-4391 -- Zurich 1