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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1985-05-08, Page 341 Page 10B—Crossroads—May 1985 Don't you get a little tired of the touchiness of modern society in which, no matter where you step, it's on some- body's tops, no matter what you say or write, it's a slur on someone's background, color, creed or convictions? About the only areas left in which one may chance a re- mark without fear of inflict-- ing a wound are politics and sex. It's extremely difficult to inflict even a bruise on a politician. He must have a fat ego in the first place, and he quickly acquires a brass hide to go with it. Add an ability to talk out of both sides of the mouth at once, and a certain skill in straddling fences, and you have cabinet material. In the field of sex, there don't seem to be any limits any more to what can be said, presented or simulated. Movies, magazines and theatres, club us over the head with raw, unembell- ished sex, or seek to titillate the spook in each of us with highly embellished, freaky sex until the whole once -ex- citing subject has become a crashing bore. Aside from sex and politics then, there is scarcely an as- pect of the human scene where even'. angels fear to tread, lest they . step on Bill Smiley Today's society someone's sensibilities. Ethnic jokes are out, black is beautiful, gefilte fish is glorious, Rodesia is rotten, poor people are more noble than rich people, gay is gorgeous, and the only real sin is to be old. Lord forbid that we should ever go back to the days when a Catholic was a "inick" or a "dogan", a black person was a ."nig- ger", an Italian was a p„ vroa Chinese was a "chink", and so on. But I do get heartily sick of a society in which you have to tippy -toe all the time for fear of offending some touchy minority, or tres- passing inadvertently on someone's weird religious affiliations. We are developing into a society with a snobbish sort of reverse prejudice in which everybody is leaning over backwards in order to ap- pear not even to be breathing on anyone else. As a result, we are losing much of that good old Can- adian ct ustiness and turning into a nation of nice nellies in whose mouths margarine wouldn't melt. Even our mediareflect this trend in our society. With few exceptions, our newspapers are as bland, as Staple grain has limitless variety By Verne Palmer • Rice is nice. That's mo than just a nifty bit o rhyme; it's a fact. It's nice .for a variety of reasons. 'One, it's always, or shoul be; as near as your kitche • cupboard. Two, it's easy to work wit (the many different form available in the marke today make .perfect rice a snap for virtually evetyone). Three, it lends itself to 'an all -but -limitless variety of dishes. Four, it's good for you (a major portion of the world's people subsist on it). • Five, it's economical., And six, it stores so well yota could bequeath it to your children, if you so wished. Rice can be eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner and dessert, as. well. It lends itself to casseroles, side dishes, soups,. salads; cereals and puddings. It's a staple in Oriental, Middle Eastern and Mexican cook- ery and, present in most Other cuisines, as well. gg ORIENTAL ryl i6 1 VEGETABLE AND LAMB SKILLET 2 tbsps. vegetable oil I Ib lamb cubes, trimmed of visible fat • 2 garlic cloves,•minced I can (10,11 ozs, i condensed chicken broth 1 cup brown rice 1j4 tsp..red pepper flakes re i cup broccoli flowerets f 1 cup cauliflower flowerets 1 tsp. finely shredded fresh` ginger. 1 tsp. sesame oil a'. 1 small red pepper, cut into n thin strips (optional) h Heat vegetable oil in 10- incb "skillet. Add lamb and' s garlic; brown evenly. Drain excess fat. Add .. enough water to broth to measure two and two thirds, cups. Bring to boil in skillet. Stir in • rice and red pepper flakes. Cover tightly and cook 40 mindtes over low heat. Add broccoli and .cauliflower. Continue cooking, covered, . until all liquid is absorbed and vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in ginger and sesame oil. Sprinkle red pepper strips over rice; if desired. , Makes 6 servings. OVERNIGHT ANTIPASTO • RICE SALAD 212 cups water 1 cup converted white rice 1 tsp. salt ( optional) ' I 2 cup bottled Italian salad dressing 12 lb..,provolone cheese, cut Into 1 -inch cubes '4 Ib. Genoa salami, cut into thin strips "14 cup cherry tomato halves One-third cup small red onion rings 14 cup pitted sliced ripe olives .Pepperocini(optional) Bring water to boil in medium •saucepan. Stir in rice and salt, Coyer tightly and simmer 20 minutes. Re- move from heat. Let stand," covered,. •until all water is absorbed, about 5 minutes. • Transfer t� large bowl. Add dressing--to•ihot- rice:..Ctt uric --- room temperature, Stir in remaining ingred- ients except pepperocini ; mix well. Cover and refrig- erate several hours or over- night. Garnish with pep- perocini. STRAWBERRY YOGURT FONDUE About 10 medium-size ripe strawberries 3 tbsps. honey 4 tbsps. lemon juice ' 4 tsp. vanilla extract 2 cups plain, unsweetened yogurt 6 cups assorted fresh fruit, cut into'1'-inch.cubes. Wash and hull straw- berries: crush Jvith fork or puree in blender. Combine strawberry pulp with honey, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and vanilla extract, Fold into yogurt, blending well ('over and refrigerate until chilled, 1 to2 hours. Arrange fruit on serving platter and sprinkle w itp re maining lemon juice. At "ser- vant; time, spear fruit cubes on skewers and dip intochill- r•d yogurt mixture , t,¢ 0 You Don't Have Money Tree? You may not need one Check your Spore room attic and garage Turr• uneeded items into cosh Use the classified columns in the ADVANCE -TIMES CALL x357-2320 blanc mange. The letters to the editor have (more bite, and are often better written, than the editorials. Our magazines are either tiresomely "liberal" or narrowly nationalistic, or both. Tied in tight bundles, they make better firewood than they do reading matter. Television and radio news reporting, most of it culled from the late editions of newspapers, is incredibly unimaginative and re- petitious. TV programs, on the whole, are pure pap, offensiveby being so inoffen- sive. Public figures are so frightened of offending somebody or losing a few votes, that their public utter- ances come out as mush wrapped in marshmallow. What this country, and this society, need is a good -dash of cold water from some- where, to wake us from our mind -numbing, paralyzing "niceness". We need a Bob Edwards or a Grattan O'Leary to jolt us with.some honest vituper- ation, some colorful name calling, some hard facts, and some common sense. We need some politicians with guts, who don't give a diddle for the popularity polls, and who would give us the facts of life without any sugar coating. We need some educators with backbone to tell the people who claim that Huckleberry Finn is racist and The Merchant off Venice is anti-semitic and Catch-22 is dirty and The Diviners is disgusting, to go fly a kite. We need about 10,000 fewer smart -ass commentators on what is wrong with this country, and a few hundred honest men or women to tell us what is right with it. - We need far fewer "rea- sonable" people and a heck of a lot more 'unreasonable" people, who would refuse to accept something just be- cause it's always been done that way, or someone might be upset if things were changed. We need some thundering editorials, some pulpits pounded, some stiff jail sentences for racism, some honesty in high places. We certainly don't need a "good -war" or a "good de- pression" to make Canadi- ans stop whining and bitch- ing and mealy -mouthing, but we certainly need a "good" something 03 turn us back into the stiiirdy, individual- istic people we used to be. I haven't the answers. I'm no prophet. But I'm sick to the ears of a society that thinks: oki peopleare a nuisance; young people are never a nuisance; super- markets are sexy; social workers can make miracles; and everybody is as good as everybody else. Perhaps if you agree with me to some extent, you would enjoy reading The Golden Age of B.S. by Fred C. Dobbs. It's rambling and it's coarse in spots, but it's right on., r,t t- NOWr'��trt - ire Homes buift prior to Sett. 1, 1977 are now eligible for a C.H.I.. Grant up to a maximum of 650000 off your insutat' . costs. 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