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w w w . o a kv ill eb ea ve r.c o m O A KV IL LE B EA V ER Th ur sd ay , O ct ob er 1 4, 2 01 0 6 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5566 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 The Oakville Beaver The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council.The council is located at 80 Gould St.,Suite 206,Toronto,Ont.,M5B 2M7.Phone (416) 340-1981.Advertising is accepted on the condition that,in the event of a typographical error,that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item,together with a reasonable allowance for signature,will not be charged for,but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate.The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline.Editorial and adv rtising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. United Way of Oakville Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America NEIL OLIVER Vice-President and Group Publisher, Metroland West DAVID HARVEY Regional General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution SARAH MCSWEENEY Circ. Manager WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com MICHELLE SIU / OAKVILLE BEAVER HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Caitlin Brush was at Fareshare food bank last week to donate the food and money two boxes and two bags of food as well as diapers and $100 she received for her 13th birthday. Caitlin request- ed food donations be made instead of traditional birthday gifts. Last year, she also asked that food donations be given in lieu of birthday presents and the year before, asked her friends to fill Operation Christmas Child gift boxes instead of gifts. Caitlin, a Grade 8 student at Pilgrim Wood Public School, turned 13 on Sept. 24. ATHENAAward Letter to the editor I knew an angel and her name was Trixie. We found each other at the Humane Society on Sept. 9, 1999. On July 27, 1999, I had wit- nessed my five-year old dog, Bear, die in front of me while returning home from a walk. A beautiful dog that unknown to anyone had a blood clot. He was my best friend. This put me into a horrible depression. One of my clients heard of my loss through the company I worked for. He arrived at my door one day and persuaded me to go to the humane society. That is when I spotted Trixie. All the other dogs were barking and wagging their tails. Trixie had eyes of despair. She lay in her cage, chunks of fur were missing on her body. When I inquired, I was told they found her wandering around. They did not know her age or her name or anything about her background. When I asked about the miss- ing fur, I was told it was stress related. I was told that she was a mix of lab and perhaps Portuguese water dog. This is all they knew about her. I could not turn my back on what I had seen. I took her home and named her Trixie. I cried with pity when I saw this angel hiding food because of the fear I would forget to feed her. I made sure her food and water bowl were never empty. I cried with pity when I saw that I had to open cupboard doors very carefully because she had the fear of being hit with the cupboard. I cried with pity when people tried to pet her on our walks only to see her dive down to protect herself. I was told by many people she would never be okay. Well, Trixie was more than okay. One year later she thrived. We healed each other. On Dec. 20, 2000 my daughter was born. Trixie decided she wanted to be a baby mon- itor. How she managed to wiggle under the crib was an incredible feat. The minute she heard a whimper, she crawled out to get me. My daughter attended Trafalgar Ridge Montessori school at the age of two. This won- derful school, hatched chickens, a duck and wild turkey from an incubator. We had a variety of weekend visitors all of whom had the ability to walk freely in our home. Trixie was happy to have the company and missed them when they left. As a result, we adopted Benjimin Bunny. A beautiful New Jersey Woolie Bunny. Then came three more bunnies, Charles, Honeybunny and Fiona. I questioned how a dog that was so incredibly abused could turn into the most gen- tle soul I have ever encountered. She cried when I had to put any of the bunnies in a pet carrier to bring them in for veterinary care. When I came home I had to remove the bunny from the pet carrier as Trixie, put up a fuss and wanted them out immediately. I have memories of giving the rabbits treats and then seeing Trixie standing behind Trixi was n ang l The Oakville Beaver is a division of I recently came upon a story suggesting the current genera-tion of youths will be the first generation in the history ofmankind to have shorter lifespans (due to sedentary lifestyles) and, astonishingly, be less intelligent than their predecessors. In other words, since the beginning of mankind we have been evolving. But now, were about to begin devolving. Its probably only a matter of time before we end up back living in caves, prim- itively etching on the walls, trying to invent fire and reinvent the wheel, and having to go out and catch dinner with a club. Clubbed sandwiches. The crazy thing is, the science fiction writers we used to mock writers who wildly predicted not only the invention of comput- ers, but the inevitable decline of civilization as those computers eventually started dumbing us down by doing everything for us well, theyre now being proven to have been prophetic. Dumbed down? A recent Associated Press story lamented four- year-olds still in pull-up diapers, second-graders who cant tie shoes, teens who are befuddled by can openers and ice-cube trays, and college kids who have never addressed an envelope. The AP author then questioned, Are we raising a generation of nincompoops? Of course we are. But, as the adults raising these kids, arent we the bigger nincompoops? We are, after all, the ones who bulked up our offspring on tempting technology, then acted shocked when they actually got addicted. Now were stuck trying to futilely wean them off this dependence by limiting their Facebook time to 23 hours a day, or their Google searches to 500 per homework session. For their part, our kids would say that were worrying about them not having outmoded skills that theyll never need seri- ously, who needs to address an envelope? In this day and age, do we all still need to know how to milk a pig? Er, cow? According to Mark Bauerlein, author of The Dumbest Generation, whats truly distressing is the bigger picture: appar- ently the absence of technology confuses kids when faced with even simple mechanical tasks. Also, with dependence on technol- ogy comes an inevitable loss of independence and a loss of initia- tive. Kids dont need to think, they dont need to solve problems, all answers are available online. As parents, all roads of discussion regarding our offspring lead back to one thing: happiness. Regardless of whether our kids are nincompoops or not, we want them to be happy. According to comedian Louis C.K., in an inspired rant on Conan OBrien: Everythings amazing right now, and nobodys happy. His point is that amazing technology has given us a false sense of entitlement. And when we believe this technology has failed us, we instantly become miserable. Were unhappy when our cell phones dont work immediately (Give it a second, Louis admon- ishes, its going to space!), or when our jet-setting lifestyles get grounded on a runway for 40 minutes (It was the worst day, ever!). Trouble is, we long ago reached the point of no return. Nobody can turn back the hands of time. Nobody can turn off technology (half of us dont even know how). And society is doomed to get more and more, ah, nincompoop-ish. Get out your clubs, people, its time to go get a sandwich. Andy Juniper can be visited at www.strangledeggs.com, con- tacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, or followed at www.twitter.com/thesportjesters. Were going back to living in caves and reinventing the wheel Andy Juniper See Trixie page 13 Trixie