Loading...
Times-Advocate, 1988-06-29, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, June 29, 1988 Times Established 1873 Advocate Eytablished 1881 Amalgamated 1924 MA. BLUE RIBBON AWARD 1985 imes Published tach Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 150 Sec9nd Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 519.235-1331 ROSS HAUGH Editor HARRY DEVRIES Composition Manager eNA JIM BECKETT Publisher & Advertising Manager DON SAWN Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $25.00 Per year; U.S.A. $65.00 Serving South Huron, North Middlesex • & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by J.W. Eedy Publications Limited Time for a change Some inadequacies in Canada's Un- enmployment Insurance Act may be re- moved as the result of a recent Federal Court of Canada hearing. A federal judge called for paid paterni- ty leave for natural fathers in some situa- tions. o A The judgment of Mr. Justice Barry Strayer recognizes the importance of isoth mothers and fathers in raising chil- dren. .At the moment, natural mothers and adoptive parents can receive up to 15 weeks of unemployment insurance bene- fits at 60 percent of their wages to a max- imum of $318 per week. However, a natural father c 't receive benefits unless his wife dies d 'ng child- birth or is unable to care for the child. Judge Strayer said the federal overn- ment has two choices, but neither seems to make much sense. Ile sugipsted it can eliminate benefits to adoptive parents or give natural parents another 15 weeks of benefits, so fathers 'are not discriminated against. Recommendations from a commission on unemployment insurance, a Canadian Human Rights Commission and a pair of parliamentary committees have suggest- ed practical ways to bring fairness to the system. They would try a two-tier system of benefits to give natural mothers tithe off to recuperatefrom childbirth and then 'allow the remaining benefits of the 15 weeks to be split if desired with the fa- thers. This system would appear to be much fairer than increase the current length of ,benefit time which would prove to be very costly. By Ross Haugh Must sign letters At the Times Advocate we are the saute as most newspapers in that we welcome letters to the editor. It is emphasized that these letters must be signed and accompanied by a tele- phone number if we need to clarify any information: Letters may be on any topic and will be used if the aforementioned criteria is fol- lowed and are not slanderous.or libel. Recently we bent the rules a bit in printing an unsigned letter as it criticized this newspaper and an .explanation was inserted. In the future all unsigned letters will go inrthe waste paper container. Letters to the Editor Dear Ross: - The annual fund-raising campaign for the Canadian Cancer Society has been completed for 1988. We would like to take this opportunity to ex-. press our appreciation to the many ' dedicated volunteers who contribut- ed valuable energy and time to sup- port another successful campaign. When all the figures are in, we hope to have come very close to meeting our projected goal of $25,600. We think that it is important to be aware that all the planning strat- egics involved in a community pro- ject of this magnitude would be ut- terly futile if it were not for an adequate workforce with which to implement action. Since the Cana- dian Cancer Society depends on vol- unteer effort, we gratefully ac- knowledge all those who endeavoured in any vslay to assist us in achieving our goals. We also wish to thank the community for By Ross Haugh their generous 'financial donations -which will be used in the ongoing fight against cancer. As we wind up the 1988 cam- paign, it is our hope that continued enthusiastic support will be forth- coming from our community as fu- ture campaigns are planned and car- ried out until such a time as they will be no longer necessary. . Sincerely, Peter and Sharron Snell Campaign Chairpersons Peanut butter I don't know how long peanut butter has been around. And I don't knov1 what families did before it was invented. But our kids would be in bad shape without it. •In fact, I'm looking for a way of getting the stuff wholesale, since our annual consumption is nearing the 50 kilogram mark. At S2.89 for 750 grams - you figure it out, but i think it's close to S200. Are there any peanut butter merchants out there among my readers? If so, let's make a deal. Each school day at our house begins and ends with peanut butter. While the boys have a bowl of cereal for breakfast (and that warrants another column), Stephanie cannot face the day without her peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich. She doesn't cat very much of it, mind you, because Princess refuses to cat what she describes as "the crust". Shc ' eats into her sandwich, hollows out the middle and leaves the margins on her plate. Thus about one third of the sandwich gets thrown out. I was brought up with a healthy respect for food, especially for bread. There wasn't anything more frivolous Chap wasting bread. But these arc the 1980's, and kids tell their parent., u.hcrc it's at. I've discovered that this dislike of so-called crusts is almost universal. But the peanut butter get consumed, and it is probably the greatest source of protein our children have. Some of thcm sometimes cat some meat. They'll nibble on a piece of cheese. But if it weren't for peanut butter, they'd all suffer from protein deficiency. So what am I getting worked up over? After all, until about six years ago I used to cat a peanut PETER'S POINT • butter sandwich myself occasionally. I don't any more since I started baiting mice with it. I always associate the smell of peanut butterwith the unpleasant chore of setting tbousetraps. I don't mind the kids eating the revolting -looking stuff. I'm only worried that they won't get used to a lot of other pleasant foods. Such as smoked oysters. pickled herring, or beef tongue. They've become so accustomed to peanut butter sandwiches that they're refusing to eat more interesting stuff. All three equate lunch u. school with peanut butter. If we give them ham sandwiches, for example, they'll come home and complain: "You didn't give us any luncti today!" "Yes we did," we'll protest, "we made you these delicious ham and lettuce sandwiches". "Oh that stuff," - they'Il moan, "we thrcw that in the garbage, it looked pink and revolting". So on five days a week, from September to June, they cat the same lunch, and they love it. They thrive on it. On weekends, whenever they don't like what we cat for lunch, they vote for peanut butter sandwiches - Duncan and Alexander with honcy, Stephanie with strawberry jam (no substitute jam allowed). When we cat out with thcm, chances arc that at least one of them will order a peanut butter sandwich. In fact,they rate restaurants by whether they serve peanut butter sandwiches or not, and if so, how they're done. Ycs, there arc good oncs and bad ones, mediocre ones and just barely tolerable ones. Every night, just before bedtime, I stand at the kitchen counter and prepare three gourmet peanut butter sandwiches for the children's lunches. It's the last thing I do before I go to bed. No wonder 1 have recurrent dreams about peanut butter. I can be thankful they don't give me nightmares. And of course there arc so many different kinds of peanut butter. Only one kind will do for our kids. I won't mention -the name of Please turn to page 5 "I'M AT THAT DIFFICULT STAGE -- MAKING TOO LITTLE TO LIVE ON BUT TOO MUCH TD DF. ON WELFARE." . Better than ever "Better than ever". That's the comment from Deb Hodgins of the local Student Employment, Centre regarding the placement of students for summer jobs. Deb told us Friday aftemoon that the number of students placed in jobs since the centre opened in May is over•500 and that's about '100 more than the same time a year ago. Of that 500 figure, about 350 jobs were filled during the month of June. She were. on to say that "kids in this arca are pretty lucky to have so many job opportunities. We have more placements than. the Goderich centre does. The reason for this ismany of our jobs are farm oriented." The employers are not so lucky as many are not able to fill their jobs with the required help. We know that a number of area strawberry farm operators are still looking for help. We called one farm Friday morning hoping to buy some berries already picked and were told they couldn't find enough pickers. It was the same story at one of the local food markets. Not enough help to get the ber- ries to the store. Another large outlet for stu- dent help is stone picking on arca farms and seems to becom- ing a more increasing necessity for a good farm opercration. While in the middle of writing this column, one of our fellow employees dropped in for a chat and quickly confirmed the previ- ous statement about stone pick- ing. From the editor's disk by 15 Ross Haugh She said her husband a�ns picked 25 loads of stones off one field a year ago and it needs pick- ing again. She added, "I think the stones have babies during ttie winter. There arc always more there again in the spring." That brought out a comment from an- other sidekick of ours, "Is that what they do underground?" Our final comment would be "It's an earthy subject." Back to reality, the fact most• students are able to find jobs ap- pears to be just a following of the job trend throughout the prov- ince. . Deb Ifodgins said hersupervis= or had indicated recently that un- employment in the province was below five percent. That really means it doesn't erkist. Principal Bruce Shaw •at SHDHS confirms the real press- ing need by employers for stu- dent help. He told us m 75 young people from the high school ire employed at Dash- wood Industries and most of these were let go in May -to fill the employment need. WOW. No, we didn't see a pretty girl go by the office window. WOW is a new program spon- sored by Canada Employment Centres. In Exeter it will be oper- ated at the Old Tg1wne Hall ,with co-operation from South Huron District High School. Guidance teacher Ric Graham will be ass- sisting and a former student Dana Bozzato-is the co-ordinator. Dana is curently completing her Masters in Social Work at Laurier University in Waterloo. WOW stands for Work Oricn- tation'Workshops. It provides a combination of workshops and on-ithe-job training to orient young students to the work world. It will encourage thcm to continue their education. or seek more specific skills training based on their future employment ambitions. Ric Graham told us, "This is a chance for younger students to experience the real world of work and try out their future roles in a safe and uperviscd way." A numbe • f local committed industries and • sincsses will be participating i this co-op work education p • :ram with students rom gra • s nine to 11. - hbumpin the night Thin s t at o �Ncarly a year ago I moved to Tctcr from that urban arca to south. I was amused by the white squirrels romping through my back yard, and rabbits nib- bling at the rose bushes, but I arrived unprepared for one other species of local fauna. I first saw one here at my desk. Running at 40 kilometres an hour across the office floor was a centipede, an impressive- ly big centipede. I remember considering myself lucky I didn't have them in my apart- ment. Unfortunately, I was mistak- en. Although they attempt camou- flage against the beige living, room rug, I know they're there. "At least," I thought, "they aren't as large as those at the T- A." Again, I was mistaken. In the bathroom the other evening I met one' so huge I didn't know whether to step on it or shoot it. A .44 magnum wasn't handy and I had bare fcct, so 1 took advantage of a convenient bathroom fixture. It's not that I dislike insects. Ordinarily, I don't.mind thcm at all; and these centipedes are no threat to my safety. I just value my privacy, that's all.a Centipedes like to stare, and I'm absolutely not allowing something with dozens of legs to roam around while I'm asleep. Perhaps local municipalities could take advantage of the com- Hold that thought... by Adrian Harte mon bug. Annual fairs could hold centipede races, or maybe even a centipede stomping con- test. I doubt any insect rights . group would raise protest. A quick check of the library's insect books revealed that most authors give brief descriptions of the centipede's legs and poison fangs and then move on to glow- ing descriptions of cockroaches, spiders, termites and other more pleasant things. I'm not surprised. Many peo- ple hate snakes or spiders. Cen- tipedes meld the worst of both, with long ugly bodies.and a mass of legs. Ian Fleming kncw what he was doing when he used a giant poi- sonous centipede in Dr. NO for an attempt on James Bond's life. The 1962 movie failed in substi- tuting a tarantula, which isn't deadly poisonous anyway and is furry like a teddy -bear whcn put beside a centipede. 1 can't feel guilty about doing away with these things. High- speed chases across the kitchen floor make it difficult to take them alive and their poor con- struction leaves legs behind at the first attempt at humane capture. Fortunately, mankind has yet to cause the extinction of a single species of insect: However, I'm assured centipedes aren't truc in- sects. In the meantime, I live in a state of mild paranoia. I don't go into my bathroom or bedroom with- out a quick check of the walls or ceiling for a cluster of legs. Sometimes I'm not disappoint- ed.