Times-Advocate, 1988-11-23, Page 4i'aqu 4
Times -Advocate, November 23, 1988
Times Established 1871
Advocate Established 1881
Amalgamated 1924
Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S0
Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386.
Phone 519.235.1331
ROSS HAUGH
- Editor
HARRY Df%RIES
O CNA
IM BECKEii
Publisher 8 Adsertising Manager
DON SSUiH -
Composition Manager Business %tanager
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
Canada: $25.00 Per year; U.S.A. $65.00
Attitudes important
--t,
IIow important are attitudes in
forming the success of individ-
uals, organizations, sports
teams or business firms?
Positive atittudes are very important in
all walks of life and should probably be-
gin in the home when boys and girls are
quite young. •
A good place to begin would be to teach
our children at an early age to show re-
spect for their parents, teachers and'cler-
gy. That sounds like a good start and the
same attitude towards the rest of humani-.
ty should follow quite easily.
What factors are necessary to, create a
good attitude in life? In addition to re-
spect, good posture and dress habits are
very important.
What triggered this subject was the
coaching change during the past week by
the Detroit Lions professional football
club.
The first thing newly appointed coach
Wayne Fontes did was put a new dress
code into effect whereby players are to
wear ties and jackets when on road trips
I
and in the public. He says, "You are pro-
fessionals. Let's look the same."
At the first team meeting, Fontes also
ordered about a dozen players to take off
their caps -or Etats and to look at him di-
rectly when they were conversing.
It may have been only an accident but
the Lions went out Sunday afternoon and
scored only their third victory of the sea-
son.
It's not only our young people that need
this type. of training. Just take a look at
Remembrance Day services and see how
many people are really standing at atten-
tion.
Then during the singing of National
Anthems at sporting events, most speeta
tors and participants are cheering and
hollering before the last few words have
been sung.
Let's all of us stand tall when we sing 0
Canada or God Save the Queen. This will
be an attitude change that will help us in
most of our endeavours through life.
Education faces change
tis becoming evident that an in-
creasing number of parents are
not at all happy with our educa-
tional system: Reading the rundowns on
the various candidates which have ap-
peared in neighboring newspapers, a
surprising number of aspirants for board
•of education seats are women who are
disturbed about the quality of schooling
-their children are receiving. And they
have good reason to be disturbed.
The Ontario government has set up a
commission to study the school system.
This group will devote' its- attention for
the next year to the Grade Six level. At
that rate it will be at least four or five
years before the study gets down to the
lower grades and by that time our
schools will have graduated thousands
more semi -literates.
Business people and employers every-
where are equally disturbed. Govern-
By Ross Haugh
ment-sponsored programs are being es-
tablished to offer courses to the "func-
tionally it iterate" people who are find-
ing it i creasingly- difficult to find
employ eht. Why, in this -day and'age,
whenever more public money is being
spent on education, can our children not
learn to read and write adequately, as
their parents and grandparents did?
Discussing this subject not long ago
with a former teacher we gained some
fresh insight. She says the aim is to get
children sufficiently interested in what
they are reading and they will employ
phonics instinctively in later grades.
That seems like a good idea, but for some
reason it is not working with enough .of.
our kids.
Perhaps if we get a number of riled -up
mothers on our boards of education we
may get some results.
Winghom At/lance Times
Go west, young
. Alarmist predictions always
make good reading. People hold
. deep regard 'for anything that
foretells of doom and gloom for
their future.
Environmental problems are
guaranteed headlines, what with
'. =•--gent nfousc'effects, population
explosidns and advancing -
deserts. I'm surprised wc have
anything to look forward to.
The supermarket tabloids also
have their share of scary stuff.
No doubt thc mysterious alien
crystals that did away with Elvis
will get us all lathe end.
Economists arc essentially
alarmists at heart, considering
that's how they make their mon-
ey: watching the stock market
plunge up and down.
However, New York joumalist
Daniel Burstein has come out
with a new book, predicting that
Japan will overtake the Unitcd
States as the world's largest eco-
nomic power.
He reports that the United
States has become the world's
-biggest debtor and Japan now 11-
1
nanccs nearly half of the U.S.
deficit. The Japanese arc still
building manufacturing strength
while the Americans arc soon to
lose theirs.
A lot of good Free -Trade might
do us then.
Hold that
thought...
by
Adrian [carte
Burstein is even suggesting Ja-
pan and the U.S. could emerge
as economic and political ene-
mies.
This alarmist literature should
make for better nail-biting read-
ing than Stephen King's bcst.
You have to admit the prospect
of a small island economy, left
crushed after World War 11, con-
quering the mighty Unitcd States
is pretty astonishing. But there
man
is historical precedent here. The
centre of civilization and po*er
has traditionally been moving
west. It went from Greece, to
Italy, through France and Hol-
land to England and eventually
over to the New World. it might
seem only natural that it would
continuc across the Pacific to Ja-
pan or China, maybe even Rus-
sia.
I'm sure the Romans would
have scoffed at the idea of their
empire collapsing at thc hands of
a bunch of Vandals: Queen Vic-
toria would never have guessed
her descendants would be carica-
tured as big -eared foam puppets
on national television.
Perhaps Canada should take
advantage of this situation. A
iargc Japanese -Canadian popula-
tion out west can keep the doors
to Japan open to us so we can set
up Vancouver as the new shining
star of culture and civilization in
the west.
it sounds silly and preposte-
rous, doesn't it?
Where dol sign?
--'-
Serving South Huron, North—Middlesex
& North Lambton Since 1873
Published by I.W. Eedy Publications Limited
What's in store for '89
Will our long, hot summer be-
come a cold, damp winter? - •
Only the 1989 Farmers Alma-
nac knows for sure.
- The 172nd issue of the legen-
dary annual handbook is once
again brimming with words of
wisdom, helpful hints, fool-
proof recipes and, as always the
yearly weather predictions.
First published in 1818, the Al-
manac has provided readers with
reliable weather information for
the 'year and boasts an 80 to. 85
percent rate of accuracy..
Today, the Farmers. Almanac is
targeted towards the urban read-'
cr, while maintaining the charm,
traditions and down to earth in-
tegrity that have remained charac-
teristic of the handbook over the
years.
Each issuc of the Almanac fo-
cuses on a new theme and high-
lights a 'thought of the year',
based on timely topics. -
This year's theme spotlights
plowing, tracing its history up to
and including the 75th anniver-
sary of the International Plowing
Match and . Farm. Machinery
Show held this fall, near Strat-
ford.
Thc 1989 thought of thc year
should give everyone something
to think about: "if you seek much
and need little,u will always
have a lot."
Ray Gager, editor sine -C-19 4
and his son Peter arc responsible
for researching, writing and pub-
lishing this North American tradi-
tion.
The Gcigers take extreme carc
to guard the 'age-old' secret for-
I get lots of letters fmm read-
ers. Some simple say: 1 like your
column, keep up the good work.
Others disagree with this or that
point. Some give me (much ap-
preciated) advice on how to raise
my kids. An increasing number
of readers ask me for advice.
I'm no Ann Landers, but they
ask me anyway. "Dear. Peter:
How do you suggest 1 deal with
.my ten-year old who refuses to
wear clean clothes to school, to
church, or anywhere else?"
"Dcar Peter: My husband
thinks that our six-year old
daughter is sick in the head be-
cause she still sucks her thumb.
What do you think?"
Not all letters have to do with
kids either. Recently I was asked
to referee between a husband and
wife, to help in deciding a wed-
ding date, and to name a street in
a new subdivision.
So I decided that once in- a
while 1'11 publishsome of your
questions (abbreviating them if
necessary, and changing your
name). My answers should be
taken with a grain of salt. I wish
to make it clear that i am not
qualified to deal with questions
mula that determines the annual
weather - forecasts predicted two.
years in advance with.thc afore-
mentioned accuracy of 80 id-85-
percent.
o 85 -
percent. .
Hundreds of -letters and phone
•
1 From the
;editor's disk
by in,
Ross Haugh
t
venture has -turned into. a multi-
million dollar business with over
six million copies of the Almanac
sold last year. This year's sales
arc expected to equal or surpass
- last year's figures. •
Do you know what word be-
. conics shorter when you add a
syllable? ('an you name an every-
day condiment which contains
two deadly poisons when separ-
ated and are harmless when com-
bined? These puzzlers and More
arc in the 1989 Farmers Alnla-
nac.
The 1989 edition of this popu-
arAlmanac is available free of
charge at the Exeter branch of
VG National Trust.
calls come into the Geiger's head
office in Lewisburg, Maine each
year requesting weather prcdici-
tons for a specific day.
The Gcigers spend all year
searching for the unique editorial
ingredients that make up the
many sections of the Almanac.
These include astrological fore-
casts; capsules of wisdom, pot-
try, recipes, puzzles, short sto-
ries and anecdotes. -
Herc are only a few of the Al-
manac tidbits for this year:
Bad habitis arc like a comforta-
ble bed- easy to get into , but
hard to get out of.
To light•a birthday cake with
many candles, use a-pic •ec`ry
spaghetti,
What do you call a cow that is
eating grass? A lawn moo-cr.
-C editor Peter Geiger says
they try -to Newt a modern day
point of view wit n _ Il fa-
shioned idea. The result is a pith
lication that -is growing more
popular each and every year.
What started out as a small.
* * * *
Our personal congratulations
go out to the two very well de-
scrvcd winners of the annual
Town of Exeter Citiien of .ttie
Year award.
Lauretta Scigncr has been a res-
ident of Exeter for 4i years and
in addition to her occupation as a
physicill education teacher at
South liuron District High
School for most of those years
has given many hours of volun-
teer time in more' ways than we
have space to list.
h's the same for -the male rccip-
„icfltReg McDonald. Rcg has
��
tiF oorc than 40 years of his
valuable ti • assiSiiiivith all
activities at the I:. •r branch -of
the Royal Canadian 1 cgi
• it was Reg's idea to rename
�local Legion branch in honour of
_
R "Ted" Pooley and he has
been a l -_pile of the First
World War vetera .
Advice
that obviously require profes-
sional help. Thc only advice i
can give is based on my own ex-
perience as a parent, spouse, and
PETER'S
POINT '
by Peter l lesscl
journalist (in that ordcr).
Marion . M. from Davidson,
Saskatchewan, writes:
"Dear Peter: We have two chil-
dren, a twelve-year old boy and a
ten-year old girl. Their constant
fighting worries us. Do your
kids fight, and if so, how do you
deal with it?" ,
Dcar Marion: Yes, our kids
fight. A lot. it doesn't worry mc
too much because I think it is
normal misbehavior. However,
we don't approve of it, and wc
do step in when things get
rough. We isolate them, some-
times take privileges away. We
try to usc.logical consequences.
if they're lighting over a Ioy, we
confiscate• the toy for a •certain
time. If they seem to be scrap -
.ping because they're too tired,
wc put them to bed. Lots of
luck.
•"Dcar Peter: ('an you settle this
argument hetwcen George and
mc?. •Es s that IcicLna
baths are had for you, as they
dry out the skin. l J • nr
daily bath is/healthy. Janice S., -
Carleton Place, Ontario.
Dcar Janice: You didn't tell me
whether Gcorgc is your husband
or your son. Either way, I've
never heard °f anyone with sc-
vcrc skin prohlcros caused by
having a hath a day. Tcii Gcorgc
to alternate between baths and
showers. And buy him a bottle
of hath oil.
"Dear Peter: Some time ago
you wrote a column about trap-
ping micc. We never had mice
where wc lived before, hul now
that we moved, we find evidence
of them. i forgot what you used
to catch them. I've tried cheese,
but our mice don't seem to like
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