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hy ait m Page 4, Terrace Bay-Schreiber News, Wednesday, November 25, 1987 2rrace Bay Schreiber hing Single copies 35 cents Subscription rates per year in town $14.00 The Terrace Bay-Schreiber News is published every Wednesday by: Co. Ltd., Box 578, Terrace Bay, Ontario, POT 2W0. Telephone: (807) 825-3747. - Second Class Malling Permit Number 0867 ; Sete Go ee cee eee en ae Ken Lusk out of town $18.00 Fenn is j «UST eit Pane eine! Julie Wright Member of Ontario Community OMG oS ie ee, Se, eee ee Guia Fourier Newpisberé Asecclatian onal the uw, 2 eee eee tS eS Bee oa y Ronadjer Coneiunity, Semapepan Association F Nancy Parkin Ride alcohol-free The Ontario Provincial Police Christmas/New Year R.I.D.E. driver check program began on Sunday, November 15, on a province-wide basis. The OPP R.I.D.E. program is a year-round anti-impairéd driving campaign, stepped up for eight weeks during the peak of the festive season. The two-week extension of the Christmas/New Year R.LDE. blitz, which ran for only six weeks prior to last year's program, has proved effective in screening twice as many motorists, and getting hundreds of impaired drivers and liquor law violators off the roads. Impaired driving is still one of the most significant factors in approximately half of all fatal motor vehicle accidents investi- gated by the OPP. 23 Impaired driving is still one of the most significant factors in approximately half of all fatal motor vehicle accidents investi- --- AND IF AVYONE KNOWS a ANY JUST CAUSE LiHy..- f gated by the OPP. "The OPP R.I.D.E. program is an essential means of reducing the risk of accidents and fatalities on our highways at any time of the year," said OPP Commissioner Archie Ferguson. "The potential for danger has traditionally increased during the Christmas season, and for this reason the OPP will place a high priority on taking impaired drivers off the road," he added. In last year's Christmas/New Year R.I.D.E. blitz, OPP offi- cers checked 357,167 drivers across the province and charged 1,193 people with alcohol-related Criminal Code of Canada driving offenses. A total of 2,938 motorists were taken off the road with 12- hour licence suspensions and 1,595 people faced Liquor Licence Act charges for having alcohol easily accessible to the driver. The OPP will operate a minimum of 40 R.I.D.E. check loca- tions across Ontario every day, stopping more than 20,000 vehi- cles weekly. All available manpower, aided by auxiliary members , will be committed to the R.I.D.E. program during the two-month Christmas/New Year blitz. "The OPP R.I.D.E. checks may inconvenience the motoring public, but we will keep the delays down to a minimum," said Ferguson. "Our main purpose is to save lives and prevent accidents and it is in everyone's best interest that we stop impaired driving," he said. Have a beef? Write to the editor. Please include your name and address, and mail to: The Terrace Bay-Schreiber News, P.O. Box 579, Terrace Bay, Ontario, POT 2WO. Arthur Black-- --@ @------___ Dear editor: I've been reading with interest the topic in your newspaper. relat- ing to Terrace Bay Council's dis- cussions on the need for econom- ic development initiatives in the community and area. I commend them for consider- ing it. Transistor Trivia By Arthur Black Trivia- question: name the inventor of the transistor. Naw, I don't know either. Whoever it was, he or she is cer- tainly not a household name. Which is odd when you think about it, because the transistor is a gizmo that revolutionized all our lives. I remember portable radios before the transistor. They were "portable" alright -- provid- ing you had access to a block and tackle. They were about the size of a Samsonite suitcase, weighed enough to pull your arm out of its socket and put out a sound that seemed to be coming from a tin silo weathering a bad hailstorm. The other day in my local Radio Shack I saw an AM radio the size and thickness of a credit card. "Does that really work?" I asked the clerk. He looked at me like I'd just come down from my shack in the Ozarks for my yearly shopping trip. Of course it. works. Where have I bee? I think in a couple of decades we'll be looking back at another. invention, wondering why more fuss wasn't made of it at the time -- the video cassette recorder. If I'd said the letters VCR fifteen ycars ago, nobody would have known what I was talking about. Today they're commonplace. Actually, the first practical videotape recording device was assembled in California 'way back in 1956, but that machine was temperamental, big as a bus and worth just slightly less than Johnny Carson's combined alimo- ny. payments. It wasn't until the carly 80's that the size and price of VCRs shrivelled down small enough to worm their way into umpteen million living rooms around the globe. But it hasn't just been a hard- ware revolution with the VCRs. There's been an amazing change in the software as well. When they first came out, VCRs were a good way to watch movies in your own home, or to tape_pro- grams off your TV for later enjoyment. Now, a whole line of specialty videotapes are available. A trip to my local Video Shop reveals that for-VCR.owners who are tired of watching The Maltese Falcon or Beach Blanket Bingo there's a whole host of brand new options. Video Fireplace for instance. Ninety minutes of burning logs repro- duced on your TV screen in smol- dering colour. Are you a big fan of our feathered friends? Then you'll want to sign out Tropical Birds, a tape that features toucans and cockatoos, macaws and para- keets, all chirping and flapping and preening for the camera. Also available: Hawaii Experience -- a cassette devoted to the surf and sand and swaying grass skirts of those splendid isles. And how could we forget Sunset TV, with which you get to watch Old Sol sink in the west for 30 glorious minutes. (For early birds, Sunrise TV is up for rental too -- though you could probably save yourself a couple of bucks by just renting one or the other and using your rewind button.) Don't go away -- this gets silli- Is an economic development office and staff worth having? Before you try to answer that one, you must answer some other questions. If Kimberly-Clark had to shut down its mill operation due to a change in world market condi- tions, what other reason would er. It is now possible to rent or buy a- tape called Rowing Machine Companion, so that when you don't feel like climbing into. your dryland rowing machine, you can punch it up on your TV and watch a professional skim across a lake. Then there's my hands-down favorite -- Video Dog. It is just what it sounds like -- a videotape of a dog. A dog that stretches, sleeps, barks, sits up and scratch- es for fleas. Except that there are no fleas. Or cans of smelly food or gnawing on the furniture or unpleasant surprises on the broad- loom. Video Dog, says the bumpf on the Video Dog cassette cover, "is the perfect pet. When you get tired of him, you just turn him off." There are a couple of Made-In- Canada entries in the Mood Video field as well -- one is called Solitude: Loon Country by Canoe, It takes. us paddling through the placid lakes and rivers of Muskoka country -- per- fect for Nature Romantics. who Aan't want-tna -cat ies tone Terrace Bay have for its exis- tence? When all the people pack up and leave, and businesses put ply- wood over their windows, who would pay the taxes needed to "keep the lights on"? The answers are short and sim- ple; see page 5 and finally there is my least favorite contender. Quintessentially Canadian. Unmistakably stupid. It is called, with brutal simplicity, Hockey Fights. Ninety minutes of NHL players pummelling the hell out of each other, complete with blood, sweat and rabid fans drool- ing in the bleachers. Hey, dat's what makes dis country great, eh? I'm no fan of the Free Trade deal, but if it does go through, Hockey Fights gets my nomina- tion. as the first export to be shinned south of the harder