Times Advocate, 1992-12-30, Page 4Page 4
Times -Advocate, December 8d, 1902
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swsUNor•. Adrian Nene
�uih*.s'Mwlt>�sr. Don smith
C n' ltBr: Deb Lord
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•
Curiouser and curiouser
he current situation with Exet-
er's town police is almost beginning to
look like a stop on Alice's journey
through Wonderland.
On her way, Alice can visit with town
council, who didn't like the idea of in-
stalling a .police services board right
from the start. Council now feels left
out in the dark about what goes on with
the police, even though the mayor him-
self sits on the board.
Unhappy with the board budget for
last year, council appealed it and won a
few victories they can't actually collect
on - or at least not until they can figure
out how to "unpurchase" the new cruis-
er.
In addition to not getting along well
• with council, the police board also
managed to "relieve from duty" the po-
lice chief and then bring him back to
duty ten weeks later - all very mysteri-
ous and without any explanation to
Alice who pays these peoples' salaries.
Alice is now raising her eyebrows at
last week's revelation that the police
chief brought in the OPP to sweep the
police station and its cruisers for bug-
ging devices. Alice can't find anyone
she knows who can fathom who would
be capable of bugging the station, or
why anyone would want to.
Even if the chief came forward with
evidence of an invasion of privacy or
breach of security no one knows wheth-
er that would make the situation better
or worse.
Through her looking glass, Alice finds
her faith shaken in her town police
force. Although she knows of nothing
to discredit the actions of the force or its
officers, she can't help but wonder if all
the turmoil beneath the surface will fi-
nally come to the top.
Also in the back of her mind, Alice
knows town council wants to find out if
it would be cheaper to contract .the
whole thing with the OPP. Is this
source of the all the problems, or just a
symptom?
Alice, the taxpayer, needs some kind
of explanation .of what appears to be
tearing her police force apart. Only a
few years ago, town council were gush-
ing with praise about the department and
the favourable report it received from
the ministry. How could so much go so
wrong so quickly?
As is typical these days, Alice cannot
likely expect to hear the whole story.
Some aspects of this mess are bound to
be agreed upon to be hushed up and nev-
er made public. But time is running out
as the disillusionment grows. It is about
time the police services board made
good on its promise to reveal the reasons
behind their actions of recut months.
The chief too may find he owes more
than a "no comment" on certain matters.
A.D.H.
Peter's Predictions for 1993
Goodbye 1992. Some of you
may mourn its passing, other
welcome it. Most of us have had
the usual ups and downs.
What will 1993 have in store
for Canadians'' You "could con-
sult the wisdom of Farmer's Al-
manac or the crystal ball of Sta-
tistics Canada. What's going to
happen in the world around us''
You could read pages and pages
of judicious predictions in the
Financial Times or in Macl-
ean's. Watch the learned fore-
casts on TV or listen to them on
radio.
But if you want to have the
real inside dope, you need to go
no farther. You're going to get it
right here in this column. in
your very -own community
newspaper. And it'll only take
you five minutes to read.
January: It'll be fairly cold,
with a good possibility of anow.
All across the country there will
be skating parties, sleigh tides
and winter carnivals.
February: No self-respecting,
groundhog will be foolish
enough to stick its head out of
its hole far enough to make a
shadow, whether the suns shines
or not.
March: The calendar - which
was definitely not invented in
Canada - will make us believe
that spring is about to spring,
but we'll all know better.
The Irish will make the non -
Irish jealous.
April: Little girls will proudly
wear their, Furter bonnets, and
little boys will fall into mud
puddles. Those of us with trees
on our lots will wish we had
raked -the leaves last fall.
May: Love will shake the
Peter's
Point
•
Peter Helsel
earth - from robins' nests to high
school classrooms and lovers'
lanes. Those of us who are past
the blissful blush of youth will
fix -the -screens to keep -the -mos-
quitoes out. Sons and daughters
will move their mothers to tears
of happiness.
June: Electronic imitation
church bells will ring through-
out the land as young and not -
so -young couples exchange
rings of gold and vows of devo-
tion. Fathers will secretly ex-
change a shirt here or a pair of
slippers there because they were
too small But- they'll .keep and
proudly wear the green tie with
yellow stripes.
July: There will be spoiled
picnics in the park and un-
spoiled fon on .the beach. The
hole in the °sone layer -will wor-
ry some, .but not all .sun :titor-
shippers, and awtlan lutionaMes
will be better than ;Last year. A
million totes :of we ,erewn , will
be consumed.
August: People with deadlines
will tell their bosses or custom-
ers or wives: "After Latour
Day"! And they will go back to
enjoying the lazy summer days
while they last.
September: Mothers and an
increasing number of fathers will
heave enormous sighs of relief,
while their tanned kids will drive
their tanned teachers crazy all
day long.
October: We will find the
most ingenious excuses for not
raking the leaves. it's too early.
It's raining. It's snowing. It's too
windy. It's too late.
November: The department
stores will be rushing the season
with their -plastic Christmas stuff
even before Remembrance Day.
But there will be time to enjoy
the fog, the early darkness. and
the earth's preparation for win-
ter.
December: Snow and shop-
ping, laughter and carols, joy
and happiness, mulled •whine and
gingerbread «pkies, log fires
and parties, family reunions. and
festive dinners, .and the climax
of *tall: the shining eyes ofchii-
ikon.
There you have them: my pre-
dictions for 1993. What? Noth-
ing ,anginal. you why? Sawe as
every year? Well, that's Madly
what I'm .wishing for. That all of
you will co iinue :to-.etljoy the
okapi. .but rich amain/coo of-
ten take tEorggotuod.
AMAMI,--the W+omit Ape .atYWrda00,9,04l hoct
Deu er;to 4?4,Mnin rRwlet, cr antro P.O41.4t 40,410100612nt NOM ,x,56
"Men are never so likely
to -settle a question rightly
as when they discuss It
freely."
... Thomas Mabey
r.L4 ..d tee* Wettessdsr st 424 Vein St.,
tufts', etita to, PRIM t0• J.W. 14it iei.u. n Ltd.
TrNJlhe is taf�
.$.T. UIt1O *thele
Best of '92
Ah yes, the 53rd Times Advo-
cate of the year. That's right, a
little quirk of the calendar al-
lowed for 53 Wednesdays this
year and so we all get one more
paper this year to read, one more
to write.
Since this is a quiet time of
year we, like all the rest of the
media, are allowed to be a little
introspective. As New Year's
approaches there is this irre-
pressible urge to look back on
the past ye— as if it ,...,,,c all lost
once we c: ►ss that on the
calendar into 1993.
The urge is much stronger
when we reach the end of a dec-
ade. I recall the past attempts to
make sense of the 1970s, an era
of little style or grace, anu the
1980s, an era with perhaps too
much style and grace for its own
good. I dread to think how we
must try to sum up the '90s in
December 1999. along with
summing up.the 20th century
and the secnd millennium:
everything from jousting tourna-
ments to jet fighters, bubonic
plague to AIDS.
But what of little old 1992?
You can read in these pages
about our most interesting news
and sports stories, the most con-
troversial issues and most note-
worthy triumphs. Putting it all
into perspective can perhaps
give us an insight into what '93
holds in store for us.
Hold that
thought ...
Adrian Huge
The daily papers, news maga-
zines, and even the television
_are putting together reams of
similar information to jog our
memories.
I even notice the special inter-
est magazines have their own
ways of pointing out the land-
marks of the year. Automobile
Magazine, a favourite of mine,
has announced their automobile
of the year: the Chrysler LH se-
dan series. I thought hard about
it and decided theirs was a fairly
decent choice, although I
haven't had the chance to drive
one myself.
I then found myself thinking
about what new product would
get my vote as best of the year.
I had to admit, perhaps because
it was a recession year, that very
few new products hit the shelves
in 1992; fewer still that showed
true innovation.
I put this question to a few
other people to see -if tiny .could
come up with ung =tit
has changed their lives. I didn't
get very many useful answers.
So I was just left with the one
thing that I felt 1 could endorse
as my product of the year: Mr.
Clean Bathroom Cleanser.
Don't laugh, the blue stuff is
probably the only thing I've
bought all year that renewed my
faith in television commercials.
The nice -smelling stuff works
on just about everything and I
can now get rid of all those oth-
er bottles that lurk in the vanity
cabinet.
I'm not going to complain.
Maybe I'm just getting old, but
one solid new product will do
just fine for me for 1992. I
guess I'm not quite ready to start
competing with Consumer Re-
ports.
1'd better stick to the news.
Here's to 1993.
i