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Times Advocate, 1989-07-19, Page 4Page 4 Times -Advocate, July 191989 Times Established 1873 Advocate Established 1881 Amalgamal d 1924 Published Each Wednesday Morning at Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S0 ' Second Class Mail Registration Number 0386. Phone 519-235.1331 *CNA ii^‘ ROSS HAUGH Editor HARRY DEVRIES BM BECKETT Publisher & Advertising Manager DON SMITH Composition Manager Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Canada: $25.00 Per year;. U.S.A. $65.00 What's going on? While the elected officials of a municipality supposedly rep- ` " resent the wishes of their citi- zens, it is the office staff of the munici- pality who interpret and administer those wishes. Without an office staff literally nothing would get done. So it is not without some alarm that one wonders what is happening at the Grand Bend municipal office that has led to the resignations of three key people from its staff within the past few. months. Dianne Mollard, longstanding clerk - treasurer for the -municipality, gave her notice of leaving her postion in March, but was dismissed before completing her term. Secretary Barb Dalrymple left in late April and now acting clerk Christine Smith is resigning at the end of this month. I Rumours abound that personality con- flicts or excessive workloads are the causes of this loss of staff.. If this is true, council should make sure these troubles don't resurface. It is clear Grand Bend is going to have to get its act together if it expects to survive the next few months. Grand Bend has probably more wor- ries than any other local municipality at this particular point in time. The munic- ipality is going to have to deal seriously with issues such as parking problems, court cases, and its yisions of fitting into Lambton's restructuring schemes. With- out some stability in the municipal office council will likely end up holding the bag only to find it empty. Fortunately, a new clerk -treasurer has just been hired. We wish him luck. It looks like he's going to need it. By A.D. Harte Let them fly economy class t seems ironic - or fitting - (de- pending on your point of view) - ghat Prime Minister Brian Mulroney stood in front of the site of the original guillotine while watching the Parisians celebrate the 200th anni- versary of Bastille Day on Friday, July 14. Although our prime minister is in no danger of having his height abruptly shortened, he seems to have lost his per- spective. The man who was elected to serve his fellow Canadians is acting more and more like a pre -revolutionary French king than the head of a demo- cratic country. Here is a man who has not held a prop- er press conference for almost three years, who did not recall the latest ses- sion of parliament until April, and per- ogued the session soon after. Here is a man who gave the French one of Cana- da's cultural treasures, a Riopelle paint- ing commissioned by the Pearson gov- ernment to hang in the administrative of- fices of our nation's busiest airport. Even more outrageous is the profligate spending of money squeezed from thou- sands of ordinary Canadians. A Toronto paper reported on the weekend- some of the excesses in the use of the govern- ments' eight -plane fleet of executive Challenger jets. Mita Mulroney's flight from Senegal to attend her son's confir- mation cost taxpayers $104,000. (This is about what the average Canadian would earn in four years - then have half taxed back to government.) Marie An- toinette would have understood. The divine right of kings vanished a long time ago. Perhaps it's time for Ca- nadians to take up the cry heard through- out France 200 years ago. Liberty. Fra- ternity. Equality. 'For all. By Yvonne Reynolds From. the east If this column appears this We didn't ask the Windsor radius of Kingston. ,moo c tr..,, ,steirigg.mbim,1 „,weze„ ttp. at, .Qu,,r tix through Vermont and oT Canada Post. McDonalds. Soon found out it �' �;?diilc; ii° -rices f>✓ We mailed this from Frederic- was economics. Only an hour or scenic route over ve hilly and '` 4 • s x. s rr ;. irate go- =*�tt rr r y;ittly"t'r- speeding ticket in Vermont. ing was slow it was wo mule. A few days earlier we headed . . - In Vermont we had to wait a out on a 12 -day trip to the eastern few minutes for a drawbridge to parts of Canada and the United From the come back down after letting a �1 States.` couple of 'sailboats through. the first night was spent in teditorr s disk :anann • Serving South Huron, North Middlesex & North Lambton Since 1873 Published by I.W. Eedy Publications Limited MINIM Still awkward I have never outgrown the awkward stage. Other little girls spanned the stages from dimply - checked, fat -legged toddlers dancing along in their Mary Janes, through the difficult ado- lescent years in scruffy running, shoes and penny loafers, and into graceful adulthood wafting along on three-inch heels and yards of chiffon. My develop- ment was arrested somehwere between caterpillar and cocoon. I never became a butterfly. I am always tripping, falling or bumping into something. It seems I have had scabs on my knees continually since the age of three. I have regaled you before with true stories of incidents such as tripping over the dishwasher and doing irreparable damage thereto. Did I ever confess I stepped on a neighbour child's pet rabbit, with similar results? Don't leave any- thing on the floor within a 10- foot radius of my size eight and one-halfs if you don't want it flattened, demolished or evis- cerated. T blame my frequent mishaps on weak muscles. Before I gave up ice skating, I needed a Welcome Our little tawn has finally be- come civilized. After existing in a cultural void for 125 years, it has been put on the map. It was the last community in the western world with a population of more than 6,000 to finally get a McDo- � fid t qnr+ 'T'h, Crr., trie.ri to get in touch with Paul Scott, who is publisher and editor of the Uananoque-Reporter. After finding the editor's office closed Friday afternoon and Sat- The big news in the Kingston urday morning, we were told by Whig Standard was that 166 em - the motel owners that Paul had ployees of the Ontario Health In- ''Yt, is f ClwC ' Pion •i'.�.' -.�.:' j - -viv ana was probabl'y"out on the St. told their Joos wow.. ,. `.>.. Lawrence River. come January 6, 1990. Early Saturday afternoon, we That's when OHIP premiums stopped at a McDonald's Restau- that most of us pay will be rant in eastern New York state. by Ross Haugh There we ran into a couple from Windsor. When told we came form Exet- er, they asked, "Do you know Lloyd Cushman?;',.It turns out that Lloyd, who at one time owned Midtown Cleaners in Ex- eter, purchased a dry cleaning business in Chatham from this gentleman. 1 In both states, hay baling was iTl lull sv'ing.��'f. } av, ‘,;("y cash field crops until getting close to the New Bnlnswick bor- der where we saw many acres of potatoes. Vermont is the number one producer of maple syrup in the United States and third in granite v.;in iicrir Tilt: sugarmaple is •': arc • ± clover the state flower and the henitff `"trirush 3s ` the state bird. The most unusual sight in scrapped and replaced by a tax to Maine was seeing dozens of be paid by our employers. farms where the house and barn Their biggest complaint was are attached. that most were wooed by the Our first impression of New then Bill Davis government in Brunswick again concerned eco - 1981 to move from Toronto to nomics. Their provincial sales tax Kingston with promises of life- is 11 percent. long employment. Pun of the Week: Would the They have been promised first world be any better if squawks call on any government jobs only came from ducks and which open up within a 40 mile geese. of celebration when the Golden Oates -opened for ttie ?iiscr (latet admitting the hungry -populace. Why not? The occasion should have been marked by a giant fire- works, by dancing in the streets, by politicians' speeches and simi- lar highjint-i• . After all, the day of McDo nald's Arrival =itra" Corti fidelity (MAC -Day) marks the true birth of a town. It doesn't matter when it was first settled or incorporat- ed. Those dates are trivial in comparison with the time when it is considered worthy of a Mcdo- nald's. When it becomes a link in utewo„AIUr�, ... _ Let's- face it, towns are lost without a McDonald's. They don't even deserve a road sign or a Lion's Club. They're not worth a stop sign on the Trans -Canada Highway. Did you know that people are leaving towns without a McDonald's for towns with a McDonald's at a rate that is even faster growing than the number of hamburgers served in Ham- burg? I swear. You can check it r►nt 1 Reynold's Rap by Yvonne _Reynolds strong body on each side holding me up just to get around the rink. I have been accused of stum- bling over my own shadow. I have given a whole new meaning to the question "Did you enjoy your trip?" I really outdid myself recently. Picture the scene. Opening night crowd milling around outside the Blyth Festival Theatre. Every- one dressed in their best. T -A representative exits from box of- fice, saunters along sidewalk. T- A rep steps off edge of sidewalk, losing balance in the process. T- A rep topples to the ground like a mortally wounded ship sinking into the ocean with one impor- tant difference. A ship disap-, peals forever beneath the waves. I had to arise to face the amused looks of my audience. There is a silver lining to this sad story. My failings can some- times be turned into virtues. Af- ter this paper's front office was enlarged and renovated, the new location of the photocopier was not decided until I had walked past the machine four times with- out knocking into it. Surely I. could make a few dollars acting as a hazard detector for organiza- tions like the Workers Compen- sation Board or the Farm and Home Safety Association. Interested? I'm easy to find. I'm the one with all the bruises and bandages. to town, McDonald's Towns without a McDonald's amount to absolutely nothing. That's why they had to introduce McDonald's in London, Paris, Rome, and even Moscow. The POINT citizens were leaving by the jum- bo load �Ts've heard of the trouble in China. But I bet you don't know the real reason for all the unrest. Old Dingdong Deng didn't want any Golden Arches i Even though cDonald's had admen to s t gd cialty dishes, McEggrolls and Chicken McChoppets. Do- nald's. Otherwise it loses all credibility. We're now having supper at McDonald's every night. We've stopped buying food at the gro- cery store except for chocolate bars and jujubes (which we need for breakfast and lunch) and cap- puccino yogurt (for a midnight snack). I've read somewhere (I think it was in Reader's Digest) that green stuff like fruit and vegetables can kill you because of the pesticides and fungicides and chemical fertilizer. So wc're much healthier since we've living on a McDonald's diet of mostly meat scraps, carbohydratcs and salt. There's only one problem. We table. Can you keep a secret? We've already put an offer on a tante of the big M, and we're putting the old place up for sale. That'll save us $3 a day in gas money. At almost 1,100 bucks a year, that'll pay for the extra tax- es we'll have to pay in town. In fact, come to think of it, liv- ing close to McDonald's, we won't need a car any more, and we can sell both of the gas guzz- lers. We also won't need a fridge, a freezer, or a stove. fmr- ; rr vim m ve;- we't 'fiat 1— - huge garage sale. There'll be pots an pans, dishes, cutlery, and din- ing room Furniture, the kitchen cookbooks. What are we going to do with all the money we'll have? Go travelling, I suppose. I read that they're installing a McDonald's in the Leaning Tower of Pisa. And the Golden Arches of of Vatican City will be ready to open before the end of the month in the Sistine Chapel. As soon as they repaint the ceiling.