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The Huron Expositor, 1986-01-22, Page 2�Huror� expo itor SINCE 1860, SERVING THE COMMUNITY FIRST BLUE RIBBON AWARD 1985 Incorporating • Brtasseis 1k,st 10 Main Street 527-0240 Published in SEAFORTH, ONTARIO Every Wednesday morning ED BYRSKI, General Manager HEATHER McILWRAITH, Editor The Expositor Is brought to you each week by the efforts of: Pat Armes, Bessie Broome, Marlene Charters, Joan Gulchelaer, Anne Huff, Joanne Jewitt, Stephanie Levesque, Dianne McGrath, Lois McLlwaln, Bob McMillen, Cathy Melody and Patrick Rattle, Member Canadian Commuhity Newspaper Assoc. Ontario Community Newspaper Association Ontario Press Council Commonwealth Press Union International Press institute Subscription rates: Canada $20.00 a year (in advance) Outside Canada $60.00 a year (in'advance) Single Copies - 50 cents each SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1966 Second 'class mail registration Number 0696 O C Conflict is brewing Litter bugs must be blind too W ith all the management manuals and how-to books on the market today there must be something somewhere that tells how far apart litter containers should be placed for optimum use.'It seems to me you could have wall-to-wall garbage pails and people would still litter. Litter bugs must be candidates to have seeing -eye dogs. Not only do they turn a blind eye to litter receptacles but they never seem to notice the mess they leave behind. The litter problem is certainly less prominent than it was in the past. It used to be common practise for people to toss pizza boxes, milkshake containers, bottles and more out the car window during pleasant and scenic Sunday drives, Public education and hefty fines soon made people more aware that littering is an offense in more ways than one, (There's nothing like a few fines to speed up the education process). Today litter bugs are most defintely in the minority. Now when someone litters, people notice. I have always felt a kind of kinship with people whose cars looked like the inside of a litter bin. At least I knew they were not tossing discarded items out the car window. My car was always full of discarded odds and ends and I have no difficulty understanding someone who has an untidy vehicle. Apart from wondering what those mouldy things on the dash are, I can be quite comfortable in a messy car. I'm not so comfortable when I settle into a spotlessly clean car and observe the driver slipping cigarette cellophane through the side vent. At the risk of losing a friendship as well as a ride, I have to give my basic anti -litter lecture. Auto litter fiends are not limited to the "toss it out the window" syndrome. These HERE'S THE BEEF ---® by Carolanne Doig are often the same litterbugs who clean out their car in the parking lot, five feet from a garbage pail, slip the garbage under the parked car, and then drive away leaving it to blow around until someone else picks it up. Very sleazy: They also think nothing of emptying out car ashtrays in their friend's driveways. • litterbugs can also be of the pedestrian variety. You see them in maps,, relaxing on the benches with their coffee and cigarette, They may only be a few feet from the carefully placed litter containers but they would rather butt out on the floor and hide their crushed styrofoam cup in the decorative bushes. Sometimes I think litterbugs have other physical handicaps besides being shortsight- ed or totally blind. They have problems with their motor ability also. Now I realize all men are not created equal and I'm ,even more aware all women are not created equal, but do you realize there are people out there who can put a basketball through a hoop from 30 feet and never miss.... and on the other end of the spectrum there are on this very same planet those who can't hit a garbage can with a crumpled paper towel from two feet??? Amazing isn't it? However basketball players practise, practise, practise. I'm sure with a little practise everyone could hit that garbage pail for 100 per cent, Every once in a while it is time to clean out the car, the purse, the pockets, and oh, yes, the golfbag! Out comes all kinds of garbage, paper, gum wrappers, bottle caps, kleenex, and much more. This little clean up ritual is good for body and soul, It gives you an excuse to take a break. Sometimes you find all kinds of good stuff you thought you had lost. It gives you a feeling of accomplishment...a sort of mini spring cleaning. It is a credit not to be a litter bug, however, there are many people out there who never • litter and therefore feel they should never have to pick up either. I have watched people kick a pop can or cup out of the way rather than toss it into a nearby bin. It's not fair that all the anti -litter good guys should be cleaning up after the few remaining litter bugs. It's darned annoying but it has to be done. It is a known fact people will be far less likely to litter in a clean and tidy environthent. People are less inhibited about tossing garbage if there is evidence someone has already committed the crime. Millions of dollars in taxpayers' money is spent annually on litter control. Littering is a nuisance, an eyesore,. and an expense. With every piece of litter you toss away to the roads or sidewalk, goes money from your very own pocket, Neatness counts, but littering adds up. A conflict, which could cause problems ranging from minor inconvenience to genuine hardship, is brewing between Ontario medical practitioners and the provincial government. The Ontario Medical Association's response to the government's proposed legislation banning extra -billing by the province's doctors Indicates Ontarians in need of medical attention will continue to be the ones to pay the price, regardless of whether physicians are allowed to bill above Ontario Health Insurance Plan—OHIP rates or not. ' The sad thing is -- the whole conflict could have been avoided had the Ministry of Health, guided by Minister Murray Elston, taken a less provocative approach in introducing the legislation. The OMA has decided to ask member physicians to opt out of OHIP en masse. While they will still not be allowed to bill their patients above OHIP rates, the effect of this action will be to cause immense confusion in the insurance plan's reimbursement system, causing patients to be out of pocket, their medical expenses for a much longer period of time Than Is now the case. Instead of some 17,000 medical practitioners sending their bills directly to the plan, OHIP will have to deal with claims from hundreds of thousands of individual patients. With the high cost of medical attention being what it is, few Individuals will be able to afford what could be months long delays before receiving their money back from the plan. The OMA's main beef with the legislation is the loss of freedom to charge what they see fit for their services, something most professionals take for granted under the free enterprise system. However, the sting could have been taken out of this action, had the government consulted the medical community in advance of Introducing the disputed bill. Doctors in this province understand as well as anyone, the need for a social medical plan, they are only arguing the Idea should mot be.takgp. too far, to the point where it becomes futile to specialize Or work extra hours, because of government -imposed earning limits. If the Minister of Health had approached the OMA for input, before going ahead blindly into what is a very worthwhile project, perhaps obvious flaws could have been corrected. Perhaps a sliding scale allowing higher payments to more experienced or specialized physicians could have been incorporated. Perhaps a provision allowing for OMA input Into the setting of fees, would have helped doctors to accept this legislation more readily. At any rate, the idea of a fully -funded medicare program is a good one, but it should not be imposed unilaterally on the medical community. The OMA itself, must take part of the blame for the current impasse, because it took no steps to voluntarily eliminate extra -billing under conditions of its own choosing, before the government was forced to act. Let us hope both sides will see the need for a speedy resolution to this pressing concern, before the new legislation begins to have adverse affects on the very people it was designed to protect.--P.R. TO THE EDITOR The Expositor has been like a "letter from home" for us for nearly 29 yeas but we do miss reading the news of Dublin. Is there not someone who would be wiping to cover the village news? i am sure t am not the only former resident who regrets the absence' of theings et Dublin being reported. My�concem is with Canada Post.. Our Expositor is always a week or more arriving at SNOW DAZE — Wendy Grldzak, Tracey Hlusser and Stacey optimist snow sculpturing contest. i<evin Gridzak created and rode Hlusser were hard at work Saturday making "something" for the esnow elephant. Mcllwralth photo our home. in spite of these problems, we do enjoy the Exgosttorand look forward to the news of the Seaforth area. May 1986 be a happy and peaceful year foraflour relatives, friends and the Expositor staff. Mary (Sthpieton) Gafffley Smiths Calls. Ontario Citizens constantly gouged Surprise! The Canadian Automobile Asso- ciation says we Canadians are being ripped off at the gas pumps. Tho group suggests there is collusion between the large oil companies to keep prices ariifically high. A year or so ago another report surfaced that said the oil companies had gouged the citizens of this country to the tune of $12 billion from the year 1957 to 1983. Have you ever noticed when world oil prices Increase, the cost of our fuel goes right through the roof almost immediately. When world prices fall, however, we never see a corresponding decrease - in cost. Why, you ask? Greed, yep, all consuming greed Hideous provincial and federal taxes combined with the big companies rapacious appetite for profits add up to one big rip off. And there is not much we can do about it. We are living in a fantasy world if we think goveniments are going to sacrifice billions in tax revenue and the oil companies are going to forego millions more In profits. Gas prices rose two and a half times the rate of inflation last year. The feds slapped on another tax January 1 and they will pummell us again next January 1 with yet another tax hike. S ♦ ♦ EAT SOCKS by Heather Melwraith Paper bathing suits? f must admit when I fast heard the concept I thought it was a novel idea, but now that eve had time to think it through, rm not altogether certain. Paper bathing suits? [must adrift the "sheer" thought of such a thing existing, while it doesn't altogether surprise me, does seem a bit ludicrous. But I'm assured ed by at least one member of The Expositor staff, there is such a thing. Based on my own past experiences with bathing suits I can quite honestly say if someone offees me the option of wearing a fabricorpaperbathingsuit, I'd Surely opt for the' first. More than likely ed ask if there was possibly atifudalternative, nernely a bathing suit following the designs of those my grandmothers would have worn. ed be thejirst to admit I'm not exactly the most confident person in a bathing suit. There is something about being trapped inside one of those outfits that just Wants to make the shy in me, more shy. Trnthekinditf person that despite the overwhelming warmth ofsummers more often than not, gets as muds Mileage out of the, towel' as the bathing suit itself. Birt bad'c td paIiee bathing suits. Undoubtedly my first concern would have to reenter around the practicality of such an item.. Surely if some, of the top hotels are going to offer_ their illrepared-'patrons the option of purchasing such an item one Would assume .they'd he Somewhat prac'licorl. Bet hoer. 607 Maybe my concept of paper is too limited. I know paper comes in a variety of forms, and now eeqen colors, but none of the images my mind Le willing to conjure up seems to fit into likely bathing suit criteria What quicklyspiings to mind is such paper types as. tissue paper, newsprint, bonded paper. construction paper, cardboard, aepe paper, toilet paper....and none of them seem quite the appropriate poaside altfte. i mean, whatever type of paper is sturdy enough to allow itself to survive the ngots of just basic human movement, would be uncomfortable on, to say the least. And none of the paper products I can think of would survive the chemical action of water, let alone clorinated water. And what about the water jets of a jacuzzi? Then there's also the question of paper arts - and the possibility 01 the dyes netting. Imean let'sbe practiialbete The onlyway I can see such a suit existingisif everyone were willing to dress in 'Pamper" or Huggie" type attire. Babies go §wiling in their diapers all the time. don't they? But somehow the picture of a. number of adults running around in his-and-ber diepeis date not seem that appealing either. I rite isabd, paperbathingtuits are a hovel idea, butnatal actuallyseeone 1doubt tithe able to justify "thein in my mind. Besides once the suits are:paper, what will theyexpectofus next=`to dry off with paper towels? CORNUCOPIA, ti by David Broome With every tax hike andpprice increase we have actually responded like sheep. Oh, we bleet and whine fora bit. But the government and oil companies know the belly aching never lasts very long and soon it's back to our daily routines and thus the latest round of price gouging is soon forgotten. You see. t believe nwst of us really don't mind paying high taxes on gas and letting the oil companies squeeze us for bulging profits. if. just if, the Canadian people could organize, and through some Utopian miracle we forced the feds to forego all these taxes and somehow managed to control the omnipresent greed of the big oil companies there would still be one rather difficult question to ask. That is, where would the tax money then come from? You have the answer, right? Our personal taxes would sail right through the heavens and our most precious commodity, food, would be the next Have a nice day — If you read in the papers one of these days about some middle-aged guy going obeer and punching a pretty young waitress teller right in the mush for no apparent reason, you'll know it was I, driven finally over the brink by that inanity to end them all, "Have a nice day." It may happen in a restaurant. ItwiTl be just after that waitress has served me lukewarm soup. followed by filet of sole. The filet wilt tuna out to be of the hoot variety, rather than the sea variety, and I will just have broken a tooth on it. As t am fumbling fragments of bone out of my face, she will sashay off to serve another customer, hips twitching, and toss over her shoulder at me a gay "Have a nice meal. now." That's when I will let her have it. Or it might occur on a Friday afternoon, in the bank. The weather forecast is for blizzards, I'm in a snarkymood, an my Way to have two teeth extracted, and my arthritis is giving me a fairly lively foretaste of hell. And this young feller, her feet aging, slaps down mywithdrawal, summons an exhausteclsmile from down around herose, and cbi trips, "Have a nice weekend. eh?" It's not the grammar or the verbiage I object to. It's the utter insincerity of the suggestion. It means just about as mush as if the speaker blew his or her nose and spat into the wind. And its prettyobviouswhere it Mine from. It's one of those American imports that should be banned at the border. It has crept across via the .airwaves, issued in treacly tones by signing -off disc jockeys and game show MCs. An'd•it has been copied by Canadian media Ietiple, who ape automatically the mtspro- nunciatons of their U.S. counterparts, such as eggsac tion for` "execution" and noshus for "nauseous." From there it hes spread like the Black Plague into our airtime, hotels, restautnnts. target for a government tax grab. Imagine paying an extra 10 01.15 percent at the chedmut counter each week. Taxes beget taxes. Taxes on our weekly grocery bill and about everything else would be too high a price to pay in the fight to subdue our governments and oil companies awesome greed. Hope for a token lowering of fuel prices. Anything else is just a dream. 1 would suggest we can show these elected persons in Ottawa what we think of their tax system. However, some things just never seem to change. The last federal election reminded me of the guy who junked his V. W for an Edsel. Hypocrisy rules when some lousy politician tells me [have been greedy and living beyond my means. Heave.' help us. ugh..... SUGAR AND SPICE by Bill Smiley and even our sat institutions like the banks. !haven't been in a bordello lately, but rd be willing to bet that when a customer totters oft shaky and unshaven into the cold dawn. the madame will coo after him in dulcet tones, "Have a nice day, now." I have a strong suspicion the damn thing originated in the deep south, alone with such heartfelt maxims as "Y'll come back real soon, y'heah." Which means, roughly, if you want to be ripped off again in our pint, we'll be happy to oblige. I refese to believe all those waitresses, air stewardesses, bank clertts are spouting this garbage from deep in theirhearts. Those gals are tuckered our. They don't give a diddle Whether we drop dead, as tong as we do it in front of somebody else's wicket. No, they've been coerced into this phoney farewell by the Sheen l grees they work for, the type who think that if the clerks utter such Slop in the Holiday inn in Texas, they should do the same in the Holiday Inn in Toronto. • And they're the guys!have itinfor, not the prunderlings, forced to soil their lips with an artificial, Cynical that raises the hackles on the likes of me, At first I responded to this silly utterance with a reluctant and very concise "Thanks. You too." As I became more disgusted with the obvious falsity of such as the dentist absentmindedly Muttering "Have a good . day" jest after he'd drilled two and yanked one, my response subsided to a grunt. Next step will be fo look one of the idiots' who issue this inanity right in the eye and calmlyask: `.`Are you lidding? Who told you boSay that? Do you mean it? What do youcare what kind of day I have? I don't really care what kind you have." This might make a few of the more sensitive ones blush. But most of them would just drop their jaw and wonder whether old Smiley had got into the sauce, to make him So snarly. It may take stronger measures, and I hope. many of my readers who agree with me will join in putting a halt to this pemidous poop. if it happensin a public place,perhaps should the manager and say "This young lady or man is interfering in my primate life, in my demotic tight to bare a rotten day or weekend if Ifeel like it. Now you, buster, just tell her never to insult another customer With that silly saying, or ell take my business elsewhere." This is the only language understood bythe type of turkey who thinks sucb garbage as "Have a good day" is good publicrelations. Hit him where it hurts. In the P.P. panic pocket. Perhaps I am overreacting. I have been known to do this in connection with Celsuis, metric, politicians of every hue, greedy unions, misleading advertisements, town engineers, school adminstrators, and about 12,000 other things, including the highway robbers known as garage mechanics. Maybe it Will pass away, along With other such won -to -tire -heels expressions as "That'll be the frosty Friday" and "All righty" and the ubiquitous' "Turkey," whish seems to, cover a multitude of mental and physical abbetratidns. your dukes up, But in case it doesn't, keep yo you purveyors of "Have a good...."