Loading...
Times-Advocate, 1988-10-12, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, October 12, X988 Times Established 1871 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamated 1924 • d d Ames -l1 v Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario,-NOMASO Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. - Phone 119-235•1331 mis 4►CNA ROSS HAUGH BM BECKETT Editor Pubisfier & Advertising Manger DO's SMITH • Business Manager HARRi DEVRIES • Composition Manger SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $25.00 Per year; U.S.A. $65.00 Stay out of it The controversy of Ben Johnson's ac- tions at the recent Olympics continues on the front pages of most national newspa- pers across .Canada and will likely do so until a government inquiry -is concluded. . We feelthe federalgovernment should. have _ little involvement in athletics. • Sports Minister Jean Charest suspended Johnston for life as soon as the steroid use was verified without giving the athlete any chance of defending himself. Charest also did not consult the Canadi- an Track and Field Association. The federal government has no legal right to get mixed up in the controversy. The sprinter from Toronto and Jamaica did not break any laws, be they Canadian or International. What he has broken is an Olympic rule. Although Dr. Jamie Astaphan's in- volvement will be investigated by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, what he did was not a legal mat- ter, either. He has a right to administer certain types of drugs to any patient for therapeutic reasons. Johnson claims his doctor is innocent which really means the college does not actually have a complainant. it's only the government. We would suggest the government stay clear of what happens on the sports field, They have enough to do to govern the country. At the start of the Olympics , Ghosts October is a very special.month for us. Our wedding anniversary is on the 8th. Elizabeth's birthday on the 21st. A glorious month, with warm days bringing sunshine and blue skies, and a symphony of fall colours. With crisp -and frosty nights. With the occasional storm reminding us of . the coming ice age. A time to reflect (where has the summer gone?),.to plan and prepare (is the oil tank filled? How many new • pairs of snow boots, snow suits, and skates do we need?). - October has been a month of great events in recent years, going back a couple of decades. Maybe you've forgotten some of the names already, names that were in the headlines and on everybody's mind not so long ago. In October 1968, the Parti Quebecois was formed with Rene Levesque as president. A year later, in October 1969,- former Prime Mihistcr John Diefenbakcr was installed as chancellor of the University of. Saskatchewan. And do you remember the War Measures Act, "the wind of madness blowing across Quebec" in October 1970? When Pierre . Trudeau scolded the "bleeding .hearts who just don't like to see people with helmets and guns". When the late Jean Marchand pronounced: "There is no more freedom", when James Cross and the unfortunate Pierre Laporte were kidnapped by the.FLQ which Cross later described as "six kids trying to make a revolution". No one realized then what deep and fundamental changes this small 'handful of terrorists would force on Canada. in October 1971, Soviet Premier Kosygin was attacked by a Hungarian immigrant on Charest was boldly predicting our ath- letes would be bringing -home a goodly bunch of medals and almost in his next breath was maligning Johnston for his al= leged use of steroids. " - - In the past four years we have seen nu- merous federal inquiries into antics of members of the Cabinet and MP s. Now they have the audacity to say about the Johnston situation, "We will see that a thing like this will never happen again". Let's start the broom sweeping at home. Funded athletes may not like this ap- proach, but why does 'our government support athletic ventures with taxpayers. money? - - The United States government does not spend one nickel of tax money on their Olympic programs and all costs are borne by the private sector and voluntary public donations. The American Olympic and sports gov- erning bodies are absolutely autonomous as well as being efficient and successful. A similar situationoccurreda year ago in Boston when That city's mayor decided. he was going to charge every hockey player that was caught swinging a stick or in an act of violence. Haven't heard much from him lately. The reason for this is the National Hockey League hands out its own penal- ties and the same should happen in this well. dramatized Olympic situation.- -- By Ross /laugh of Octobers past Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and a 'Strike by La Presse -workers in Montreal turned into a bloody riot. The federal election in October 1972 reduced Trudeau'r Liberals' to a minority with 109 seats, while the Conservatives under Robert Stanfield won 107, the NDP under David Lewis 31. There were 15 Social Credits and 2"independents. In October 1973, Trudeau `-1 PETER'S POINT • by Peter Helsel visited Chairman Mao Tse Tung in China, and that country agreed to buy 220 million bushels of Canadian wheat over the next 3 years. Parliamdnt voted to continue the partial ban on capital punishment (except for the murder of policemen and prison guards) for another 5 years. Team Canada played the last of 8 games with the Soviet team in October 1974. Canada won only one game and tied three in the series. Trudeau and the provincial Premiers met in Ottawa to discuss inflation. The Canadian Wheat Board announced in October 1975 that the Soviet Union would buy $100 million worth of Canadian grain. The inside postal workers began a strike that lasted 43 days. A massive demonstration against wage and price controls took place on Parliament Hill in October 1976, and in the same month the Canadian government signed a contract to buy 128 German tanks. - In October 1977, .Conservative Stirling Lyon defeated . Ed Schryer's NDP government in Manitoba, and the Queen visited Canada for Silver Jubilee celebrations. The government announced the removal of wage and price controls. In . October 1 9 8 1 , the government announced the birth of Canada Post Corporation to replace the Post Office Department, and Trudeau was off to a summit conference in Mexico. Two members of the Canadian expedition reached the 8,848 m peak of Mt. Everest in October 1982, while 1 Canadian and 3 Nepalese were killed in the ascent. Robert Bou.rassa became Quebec Liberal leader for the second time in October 1983. It was a proud moment when Marc Garneau became the fust Canadian in space, and many tears were shed when William Davis announced his resignation as Ontario Premier in October 1984. Our family was among thousands of Canadians proud to shake hands with "Man in Motion" Rick Hanson who was handed a cheque for a million dollars on Parliament Hill in October 1986. Why did I conjure up these ghosts and shadows of Octobers past? Just to remind you that the last leaves of 1988 are falling and adding to the litter on the forest floor. Some day someone will stir up the litter, dig down a few inches and find what Edgar Allan Poe Called the "October of my most immemorial year". ocate Serving South Huron, North Middlesex &- North Lambton Since 1873 Published by I.W. Eedy Publications limited How Are they true? many old sayings or fables that you know, do or do not have a little truth to`them? This week we will take a quick look at- a few of these and make some comments about tacit va- lidity. The first one we will bring up is "Time flies". This term is used so often in referring to the pass- ing of the weeks, months and years. That brings up the ques- tion "Where ues-tion"Where does it go?" Time does certainly go faster if a person is having fun. Let's compare a. trip to the dentist to dropping in at the beauty contest at ' Burgerfest Days at Grand Bend. No question as to which' visit would seem to go the quick- est. No offense intended to the dentists we know. For the next phrase we use im- formation gleaned from a news- paper while on our recent holi- days in Wisconsin. Some of this - may be "tongue in check". You be the judge: The research on "a watched pot never boils" was based on close observations of 3,120 pots of water heated on a gas range over a five-year period. - Each pot of identical make was, filled with exactly the same, amount of watcr and thc gas turned up to full flame. On even - numbered days, the average time for the 1,560 pots to boil was three minutes and 32.5 seconds. That was with the researcher watching and urging the water to heat up. On odd -numbered days, he turn• ed up the flame -under the • the creamy substance will not same pot and ,did anything but freeze until the ice in the bucket look at the .pot. He wandered has been mixed with salt and re - 'around the' house, whistled old duced to a slushy brine. That's a tunes, tied his shoes,"etc. The re- case of getting warm before' sult was.the -water in the 1,560 freezing. • unwatchcd pots came -to a boil in . How about, "You can lead a an average of just three minutes horse to water, but you can't and 12.8 seconds. '- make -him drink". Some of this research may`-- `that statement is false. In talk- ' ing to some of our equine fric ids, we find that almost eve- ry time a horse is lcd past a wa: to trough, it will stdp to drink. Horses are probably a lot smart- er than we give them credit for. We won't comment on phrases such. as " You can't rollcrskatc'in a buffalo herd" , " a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush or a rose by any other name smells so sweet". Oh , well: On the other hand is a glove. * * * * * Congratulations arc in order to the students at Centralia College of Agricutural Technology for their great efforts this year in campaigning for the Canadian Arthritis Society. __ Thcy set new record this year by collecting $3,100. in a area canvass of homes business- es. . This is exceptional progress from the first year of the canvass in "1971 when just over $300 was collected. Well done to director of ssu- dent affairs Elgin Farewell, stu- dent campaign co-ordinator Frances Croce and everyone in- volved in the pmject: AA, From the editor's, disk ley RossAHaugh t seem far-fetched, but have you ever left something on thc stove to talk on the phone or go out- side for a few moments. That happened to us a long time. ago - with steak in the frying pan. It seemed the steak was burned to a frazzle in something like 33 sec- onds. We often hear that hot water will freeze 'faster than cold water. That's,not the case. We trifid this - experiment a few days ago. We took similar water glasses, filled them to the same level with the two temperatures of water and put them in the freezer. • Ice began to form on the top of the cold water glass about six minutes earlier than it did on the hot water container. To sort of shoot down this the- ory, heory, we go back to the old fash- ioned .ice cream - making where No kidding! Unless you live in the country, you have no idea what goes on out behind the barn. Or in it. Our friends in the goat herd have opened our naive eyes - and 1989 we will have to conic up with names beginning with J.) ' The girls have been in a pen by themselves since May, and only let out when their sire, Abra- sometimes made us want to cov- er them in horror. Our billy, Abraham, lets pass no opportunity to prove be de- serves his name, which means "father of multitudes". He also .foes not iet family relationships stand in the way when he hears . the call of the wild. Graphic ev- idence of these dominant traits, quite normal for malegoats, can be observed from the time the male kids arc quite young. For this . reason, the female goats are separated from the Males at five months, as we don't want them bred until they are mature young ladies of at least a year. As an added pre- caution, we sell the males at three months. We followed these rules with our three teenagers, Happy, Holly and Ivy. (in case you are wondering about the girls' ap- pellations, we name alphabeti- cally by year. The two Hs ar- rived in late December, and Ivy cmc along New Year's Day. in Reynold's Rap Yvonne Rev nold.' ham, was safely shut inside. Recently i noticed that Happy seemed well -fleshed, and had ac= quired a little udder. This usually docs not happen with a .young• goat until she is about ready 10 deliver her first offspring. Don assured me such an event was impossible, as she had been re- moved from the company of her brother, step -brothers and father months before. The impossible happened. Don took a woman wanting to buy a little goat out to the bam one af- ternoon, and discovered the choice was wider than he had thought. Happy had just given birth to Iwo pretty Jitle kids. a . boy and a girl. The new mother seemed quitd proud of herself. She stared around boldly, the, look on her face assuring Don she could give the Mona Lisa lessons in enig- matic smiling. - Counting back, we .figure the poor innocent creature got prcg- .nant at a mere four months'of age. Don swears the only way this could have happened was by immaculate conccption. rcall it incest. Our teenage mother is no longer as smug, either. She is caring for her little ones quite well, but is not as sure she wants to be tied down while still so young. She gazes longingly through the slats of her pen at ber two former com- panions. -'Thcy art- drinking, rtdrinking, and getting outside to play in thc sun once a day, and here she is stuck in the bam with two kids to look after. Abraham isn't saying anything. He is just hanging around the teenagers' pen, showing an inor- dinate interest in Holly and ivy. As for the two kids, they are sleeping and eating and leaping .and jumping, glad to be alive re- gardless of the circumstances.