The Citizen, 2002-11-20, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2002. PAGE 5.
Other Views
Give me spots on apples
There are some things I never expect to
figure out. Such as: why does the
coffee in Prairie restaurants always
taste so bad'? How come we have a Prime
Minister who can't speak either official
language'?
And how come the Delicious isn't'?
Deliciobs, I mean. The apple. You know
the one I'm talking about. The bright red
hand grenade with the little boobies on the
bottom.
Red as Madonna's lipstick; shiny as a
Mountie's boot.
And tasteless as a mouthful of pages from
the telephone book.
Believe it or not, they actually planned it that
way.
There was a time when the Delicious apple
really was deliciouk. You have to go back 130
years - to 1872, when a farmer in Iowa crossed
a couple of apple types and came up with a
fire-engine-red, slightly elongated apple that
no one had seen before.
At a tau;: l'if that year. the judge took one
`—. that bite and bestowed a name on the new nu...._.
would stick for good. "MMMmmmm," said
the judge. "Delicious!" And it stayed that way
for the next eight decades or so, until
somebody decided they could make the Red
Delicious even better. The supermarket chains
were demanding an apple with more eye
appeal, better packing qualities and a longer
shelf life.
The apple growers experimented and came
up with a thicker-skinned, shinier, more
conical fruit.
The new product resisted bruising, could be
stored for up to a year and was cosmetically
perfect - just what the supermarkets ordered.
Unfortunately. it was also next to tasteless.
The issue o
0 ntario's Progressive Conservatives are
reluctant to get between a man and his
car — or even his bike.
The moment he stepped into office the
former Tory premier Mike Harris, as one of
many examples of Tories being soft on
motorists, abolished photo radar, which caught
motorists breaking the law speeding, on the
bizarre excuse it violated their freedoms and
was Big Brother watching them.
The Tories under Harris and his successor.
Premier Ernie Eves. have kept the brakes 'on
installing cameras at busy intersections, which
catches motorists driving through red lights, so
they still are used only in scattered pilot
projects.
The Tories, according to one suspicion,
would not want someone who may vote for
them snapped -driving in the wrong part of
town with someone else's wife.
An earlier Tory premier, William Davis, said
in the 1970s he would make fastening seatbelts
compulsory after tests elsewhere showed they
save lives, but hurriedly reversed when car-
owners insisted they had a right to choose.
Davis made buckling up compulsory only
after he lost his majority and the opposition
parties forced him to. One more example was
when the Tories in opposition under Harris in
the early 1990s,pushed to force all cyclists to
wear helmets to reduce head injuries, the most
devastating form of injury for cyclists.
But when the Tories became government,
theyback-pedalled and compelled only those
under 18 to wear them and exempted older
cyclists who can vote. •
This issue is now being re-opened, because
research by a hospital and university has
shown that since it became mandatory for
young cyclists to wear helmets, head injuries
among them have been reduced by 45 per cent.
"Nobouy should feel sorry for us," says
Doyle Fleming, an orchard owner in
Washington. "For almost 50 years we've been
cramming down the consumer's throat...a
product that was bred for colour and size and
not for taste,"
The sad truth is, we've been 'dumbing
down' apples for longer than most of us have
been alive.
We all know Delicious, McIntosh, Spys and
Spartans - but how about White Astrachan,
Hightop Sweet, Maiden's Blush, Red Cheek
Pippin, Yellow Transparent and Western
Beauty'? All varieties of apple that a hundred
years ago you could buy by the barrel at the
corner store. They're not extinct. but they're
definitely on the c-z-1_71zered species list - and
you'll never find them in the produce seen °.
of Loblaw's or IGA.
There are something like 8,000 varieties of
apple that we could be cultivating, buying and
chomping into - but it would be inconvenient
and cost-ineffective for the grocery tycoons, so
we are left with five, maybe 10 varieties to
choose from.
There was once a fella from Brampton ,
Ontario by the name of Bill Davis.
He was the dullest, most uncharismatic
homo sapien ever to strap on a necktie. He was
also premier of the province for approximately
two ice ages.
The Ontario Ministry of Transportation also
has found that in the last year for which
statistics are available nine cyclists were killed
in Ontario and none was under 18.
This should nudge the Tories to re-appraise
the idea of having all cyclists wear helmets,
which they once championed.
Tory MPP Dianne Cunningham, who had
run for leader against Harris and now is a
minister, began introducing private member's
bills to force all cyclists to wear helmets in
1991, when the New Democrats were in
government, after a son suffered severe head
injuries while cycling.
Those who supported her included parents
who said their children would have lived if
they had worn helmets and doctors drawing on
personal knowledge of cyclist injuries and
deaths but without much statistical evidence of
how helmets prevent them.
Opponents retorted that helmets are big,
ugly and uncomfortable, cyclists love to feel
the wind in their hair and wearing helmets
would give cyclists a false sense of security, so
they would take more risks.
Others scoffed it would be just as logical to
force cyclists to wear full body armour or
pedestrians to wear helmets, because they
might slip on ice.
There were arguments police do not have the
resources to catch all ' who cycle without
When a reporter asked him the secret of his
success, Davis almost broke into a smile and
murmured "Bland works."
Unfortunately, it also works for apples, it
seems, which is why you and I will likely
never know the thrill of having the juice from
a Hubbardson Nonsuch run down our chins.
Not to mention a Roxbury Russet, a Newtown
Spitzenburg or the magnificently monikercd
Westfield Seek-No-Further.
Or maybe I'm being unduly pessimistic.
Some apple farmers are bucking the trend.
They're going back to the old ways and the old
days when producers didn't take their
marching orders from some supermarket
executive geek with a clip board and a fistful of
flow charts.
In Wisconsin, 300 growers currently bypass
the big American chains, selling directly to
consumers.
They're selling antique varieties and whole
new strains of apples. Apples bred for - gasp! -
good taste.
The same thing is happening in New York's
Hudson Valley, where growers are marketing
apples some of which don't even look like
apples. They're putting out fruit that's striped
Ames that come in odd, or multi-coloureu.tr
non-standardized sizes. Some even droop ou
the trees like pears.
There's a guy on the B.C. island I live on
named Harry Burton.
He grows 180 different varieties of apple on
his farm and he does it without the use of
herbicides, fungicides or pesticides.
Is it profitable for him? You bet your Sweet
Winesap it is.
Oh, I'm not sure if he's making a good
living. But he looks to be making one helluva
good life.
helmets, people were tired of special interest
groups dictating to them and, yes, this would
be another case of individuals losing a right to
control their own destinies.
Cunningham's legislation nevertheless was
approved in a rare non-partisan vote and a date
set for it to come into effect, but meanwhile
Harris defeated the NDP and became premier.
Harris first said he would implement the law
as planned, because it was the will of the
people, but then caved in and said it would
apply only to under-18s.
More than half of adult cyclists still do not
wear helmets, according to a recent survey,
claiming they are uncomfortable or make them
look geeky.
Eves now has valid reasons to force them,
but the issue never went away and the Liberals
already had their own bill that would require
all cyclists to wear helmets waiting to be
debated, and their scrappy chief whip, Rick
Bartolucci, says they will force a vote on it.
Either way the move to compel adult cyclists
to wear helmets seems back on the road.
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Bonnie
Gropp
The short of it
The elusive gift
S he was lovely. Her soft, curly dark
auburn hair shone. Her bright azure eyes
sparkled. Her attire was c5isp and
colourful.
- It was a Christmas morning over four
decades ago, a time when fun was
imagination. As I walked into the living room
and saw her under the tree I was delighted. It
was the first year for walking dolls, and while
being just taller than my new friend made it
almost impossible for me to stroll with her I
could not have been happier. The family took
turns demonstrating — hang on to her hand,
tip her back and she takes her first awkward
step. Lean her back and repeat. It was a stilted
effort, yet seen through a child's wonder, was
enchantment.
I don't know what it took for Morn and Dad
to get me that doll. What I do know is that in
my Christmas shopping expeditions since I
have come to discover the challenges, the
" agony of trying to fulfill a child's angst u„- ..,,
,,,,r of stock wish list. From picked-over sung,- .
to desperate parents out of humoui I have
witnessed firsthand the ugliness of the harried,
hassled holiday shopper.
When it comes to ticking off my Christmas
list I've always believed in getting the job done
early. Yet even that is not insurance against
disappointment. Sometimes demand or price
are just too high.
It's usually difficult for parents when they
realize, for one reason or another they are
going to be unable to fulfill that special
request. What may be surprising to some,
however, is that this is something which
doesn't go away, even when those kids are all
grown up.
There are, for anyone not counting, only five
weeks until Christmas. That may seen like
plenty of time, but for this Mrs. Santa it's
getting scary. While 1 have the majority) of my
wcrk done, there are, as there seems to be
every year, a few special things which I am
having difficulty finding. It's not that my kids
have asked specifically; it's that I have a
feeling these would be things they would
really, really like.
My search began two weeks ago and with
each negative response to my inquiries, with
each dead end I become a little more anxious.
What do I do it' I can't get it? How long should
I wait before I get something else'?
All of this fretting over things that aren't
even hearts' desires. Christmas is supposed to
be a time of peace and joy, not frustration and
worry, I remind myself. Shopping for family
shouldn't be stressful, because any gift given
with love is of value.
All true. But there is that light in the eyes.
the smile that follows the unwrapping of the
peifeci gift, which for me make the jostling.
every wrenched muscle, every stress-filled
minute spent travelling store to store worth it.
And yet ... I have also seen that light and
those smiles with every gift that is opened.
Even those over which you know they're
wondering:- "What?'???”
So I have decided to relax. I have five more
weeks to discover the elusive. I will conduct "
my search with decorum and calm. I will set a
date for surrender then move on to the next
target. a more attainable one. This, should it he
necessary. I will take home. wrap and place
under my tree, knowing it might not be
perfect, but it has been giN en with no less love
than if it were.
cycle helmets returns