Times Advocate, 1993-10-27, Page 6tis v Tirnes-AtayNtAte, OcIOber 27,1993
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`tea Editor: Adrian Haiti
illustness Susi I: Don Smith
- Comppattorl er: Deb Lord
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Wen are never so likely
to settle a question rightly
as when they discuss it
freely."
... Thomas Macatly
Published Pooh Wednesday'Morning at 424 Main St.,
Exeter, Ontario, NOM ISO by l.W. Eedy Publleatlons Ltd.
Telephone 1-51.9-2,15-1331
e s.T. VR105210105
C. ty-wide dcision totter.
o:matter what attempts are
o.matter what attempts are
made-overaheltextfewidays to resolve
the issue,leltdlowdenIthisyear is bound
tote ably of atmess.
Attt3mpe to!mvetthe Celebration
from Sunday October 31 oto theSatur-
day,- as fimpast rendition, shave resulted
in backsliding, confusion,and:divided
communities rightacress:theprovince.
In same -ways iraliseems tgaite 1rivtial.
Iniottterways itran beiquiterimportant.
Pazents tueedto imow,what night -to
sendttheirchildrenIoutrtrick-or-mating,
soatheyean kesorrte:ctmtfort9that
[there issafety lin ;numbers -our+onthe
streets. Police.and fire departments
that are �fferingadditional patrols don't
need to. have twomights to worry=.about.
In this.area, households.are faced with
.the -possibility of seeing ghosts and
goblins:arrive on -their doorsteps on
w.
binhm'nigatu. -To-avoid-slgaanc situation
}of v dog idallowetewon ions=side •of ire
stater day;land ton theother on n -
:day; hwood's„ugtees taveviooided
on -undayfor/he whole community.
Theme local government body tthat
seems toihaveescaped!the=.entire:cO ttro-
vensy-isprobablythejonethat mould
have shown some -lea fiatahip and settled
the issuerin a-muc'- i :e sane -manner.
County council;by virtue:of'>tepresenta-
don of all municipalities, -could :have
made aresolution.and aproclamation of
Hallowe'en'on one night orthe other.
That's something to consider when this
issue text comes .up for HallovtYe'en
1999, when October 31 is once again a
Sunday.
Of course, -by -then Sunday -maybe just
another day.
A.DJ1.
Non-profithousing •has merit
non -profit -housing o'ect
pr J
proposed for Lucan.deserves a second
chance,. at -the very least.
'Thursday evening's4niblic:meeting
failed to:draw-anyone:to hearthe:pro-
posal for a such a buildingin'the vil-
lage. -Public. attendance was needed to
.prove. there is a.need for housing:that
can be tailored to low-income families.
Without proof,.there can beano govern-
•ment funding .to. allow .theproject to
proceed.
The Toronto Blue Jays were likely the
guilty party for:the complete.lack ofre-
sponse to the meeting. Competing with
the World Series is: almost impossible,
and organizers seem;prepared to. take
another shot.at getting the -message to
the public.
The St. Patrick's Knights of .Colum -
;thus will be the sponsors for -the Ministry
'..of Housing proposal, if it gets off the
ground. The group will -be investing
considerable time:and effortinto the
:project, They also know:their communi-
ty, and they probably aren't too far off
the -mark when they predict &healthy de-
-mend for geared -to -income housing.
It is .to be hoped -the community will :be
-makinga better;effort to respond to the
surveys, questionnaireslmdmeetingsire-
.
quired bythe-ministry to discover if1t-
can.could_use a _quality rental building
for low-income families, which will be
integrated with other units:at full market
value.
Now that .the World Series is over, the
Knights of Columbus should ltave..an
easier time gettingthe community'sat-
tention.
A.D.H.
-777-4
Our
iezu�s
.....
Local Lions club not "involved
"... is not inv/ohed iri this .carn-
paign and .does not.condone-this
type of. solicitation"
Dear Fxlitor.
It has been brought to ouPatteruion.that.an,out of
town Lions Clubhaa been Goodu W g a ule-
, srssiseting ntepiliga to raise funds from our area.
,We mash tohadvise-your.asaders that iheBxeter Li-
ens:t ub isnot involved in this.emapaigoand does
not undone this type of solittitation.
Thank you
Beater Lions Clu
,pen Thompso
Preiitien
i
'eter's Point :.•
By Peter tie$sel
'the subject of this column was suggested by instance.
I do have a few areas of expertise. If you
vlwere to ask Inc, for example, the difference bc-
cotween a Holstein crow and a Shorthorn steer, 1
t ould tell you right away that one is mainly for
I,milk and the other for beef, and I might add
:that a steer - is a bull without some of the equip
;,pient. I know all that because I studied agricul
,t; jure and worked on a farm. So my answer
would be well-founded and not a sign of 111
,.Hess.
Onthe other hand, when Alexander asked me
just the other day why different kinds of oil
have different rateen.1-4K9Atly, I succumbed
to MAS.
The proper answer would have been: "I don't
know. Alex, but 1 can help you to look it up."
Instead I was driven to mumble something
about thick and thin, winter oil and summer oil
... different oil for a different job ... and so
forth. I really didn't have a clue, but I felt 1 had
to find an answer.
my daughter Stephanie, who just turned 12.
Readers are reminded that I always welcome
suggestions for topics.
I've suffered from the disorder called Male
Answer Syndrome all of my adult life. Now
that I've finally had it diagnosed and named, I
feel better already. 1'11 probably get well soon,
because I understand it's curable.
I don't know who discovered it, but he or she
deserves a Nobel prize, I'm sure that rttlllions of
men are afflicted without realizing it.
Patients with Male Answer syndrome suffer
no pain or discomfort themselves. But those
who come in frequent contact with the, espc
dally their wives, children, students or employ
ecs, are driven to distraction and despair by it.
Male Answer Syndrome goes like this: men
who have it, feel compelled to wer any
question on any subject, .whetlthey have any
knowledge about it or no(. Wel , take mc, for
The other day 1 stopped off for
a cup of coffee.at the donut
.shop. The price,-with,tax,,was
'96 cents. I forked over a dollar,
and got a nickel in change, to
rimy surprise. Try to explain that
to a fifth -grader. that the
change from 96 cents is a nick-
el.
On top of the counter, I no-
ticed, was a "penny pot", allow-
ing me,.tihe customer, to take or
add pennies to it to make up a
more even amount of change.
The cashier didn't bother. If the
till is short a penny, so what?
:Even if she did that for a hun-
dred customers in a day, she'd
only be short. a dollar. A small
.price to pay for a hundred hap-
pier customers.
At the centre of.this.issue is
the reality that the Canadian
one -cent coin isnowperceived
as virtually worthless. Lots of
people are now prepared to drop
four pennies into the ubiquitous
register -top "penny pot" to
avoid the bulgein apurae,or
wallet.
" I regularly sort my change,
dumping :be.pennies nick-
els itlto ajar,:andaav' title
quarters and dimes for; laun-
dry. Maybe once ayear I dig
through the jar, and roll .up the
The penny pot
pennies and nickels, amazed
that with all the work required
to.count:and roll them,•all-the
sheer weight -of metalinvelved,
I've got little to slmvd for it in
the end. The fact is, pennies
just don't add up anymore.
I've been to otlger.countries
with currencies of lesser values
than ours. In France, for in-
stance, where the franc is worth
about 20 cents, the smallest coin
appears to be the five -centime
piece - again worth about the
same as our penny. -But you
.don't see too many of the tiny
five -centime pieces. It took me
awhile to realize why, but with-
out sales taxes. most items are
priced to avoid the insignificant
coins, and most things above the
price of a cup of coffee are
rounded off to the nearest franc.
That's the key to it all isn't it?
Our provincial sales tax end the
OST make it pointless to round
off our prices. We're also sup-
.posedly convinced that some-
thing;priced $19.95 is much
cheaper than $20 (oh yeah, fools
maevery time)..I don't know
.about you, but I have decided I
no logger like.seeing the tax
added on at the end. Asevenor
eilghtpproent provincial
,Wwsen'ttoo bad to grasp, but put-
ting the GST on top again al-
ways makes the final bill a little
higher than I expected.
• I know it's:suppoaed to'keep
our;governn lents honest; by put-
ting the tax right out wheje we
can see it. One tax for all prod-
ucts stops the value-added tax
trouble of other countries where
it can soar up over 20 percent on
targeted luxuries, but all hidden
in the price.
Still, I'm getting more and
more resistant to not being able
to pay the price I see on.the tag.
,With taxes neatly incorporated
into the prices of everything,
numbers could be rounded off,
and we'd have less pocket
change to fuss over ever/ day.
if a cup of coffee cost 90 or 95
cents, we'd get a dime or nickel
in change from a dollar. 'Inc
need for the "penny pot" .would
disappear. The penny could dis-
appear along with it, saving this
country a fortune in minting and
counting costs each year.
Maybe then those two rolls of
mint pennies I stashed away in
1977 might be worth the fortune
I had hoped they would be. Un-
til then, they're really only jest
fodder for the "penny pot".
Male answer synd ron
The Male Answer Syndrome.
I guess it is a sign of intellectual insecurity.
Why can't we be honest? Like wotnen? They
don't have this trouble. It has nothing to do with
education or intelligence. Nobody in this world
- male or female -- knows everything about
everything. Extremely few people know some-
thing about everything, and equally few people
knoweverything about something. So the so-
bering truth is that most of us know every little
about some things, and nothing at all about
most things.
Women seem to be able to ape with tha'
harsh truth far better than men. Unlike men,
they're riot terrified of saying "1 don't know."
We men aro pathologically afraid that our
precious masculinity will take a beating every
time we admit that we don't know the answer 10
a question.
"Dad, what exactly does E equals -e aces
square mean?"
Smart answers would include: (a) "I don't
know", (b) "I've,forgouen," (c) "I was sick the
day. we had tbat-jn. tool", (d) "let's lugk it up
together", or (e) "Go And ask your mother."
Until very• eoatitly, I .would have made an ab-
solute.I;opl pl jnyself by trying something like
this:
"1 think that L stands for eternity, M.fprmu-
tant, and C for coneatination. It means roughly
that etenial space is twin; as extensive as con-
cationation with or withoutin„u$ants, but that's
an over -simplification, in actual fact.it's prob-
ably a bit more complicated than that."
But front now on, my life is going to be much
easier. As with so many other human problems,
identification is half the cure. 'lb all you fathers
and grandfathers out there, who have encoun-
tered similar symptoms, say afterlife: "144' t
know." And then runf.don't .walk, to your pe4r-
est bookstore, to buy (or order) a bunch of op -
to -date refvence books. I'd be delighted to wog -
jest some of them.
Satisfied, Steph?