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Page 4, Terrace Bay-Schreiber News, Wednesday, December 7, 1983 r ee ° The Terrace Bay-Schreiber News is published every Wednesday by: ONLNtLON Laurentian Publishing Co. Ltd., Box 579, Terrace Bay, Ontario. POT 2W0. Telephone: (807) 825-3747. EDITOR AND MANAGER....................5 ede eeeees Karen E. Park ADVERTISING MANAGER.................-----ee ee eee Diane Matson RECEPTIONIST. «oo. cco eo eck ees s ein one ee wee oo Sharon Mark PRODUCTION MANAGER................-2- see eee eee cers Mary Melo © DEADLINE: Friday NOON cn Subscription rates: $10.00 per annum (local); $14.00 -- per annum (out-of-town). Second Class Mail A. Registration No. 0867. a Four CHEERS for Ontario! Last week was a historic week, no matter where you resided. One thing that occurred that will definitely go down in history is the winning of the Grey Cup by the Toronto Argos. We had to wait 31 years for this event to happen again, but wait we did, and it paid off. I just happened to be in Toronto when the blessed event took place. I flew in and arrived at the Toronto International Airport just in time to see hundreds of people attempting to purchase tickets to Vancouver or anywhere in British Columbia. Some went home. Some (I'm sure) didn't realize where they were or why they were even at the airport. But they all must have had a sixth sense about Toronto winning the coveted cup ... because they all wanted to be there when it happened. I can't blame them. For the price of plane fare ... the cost of a hotel room (if they could find a hotel room vacant), the mere price of their meals ... their booze ... etc. ... the meager price of their admission ticket to the game (which were costing them anywhere from $50 to $800 per seat); they could be right there in B.C. to see their favourite football team take the Grey Cup. Or they could cough up the price of a case of beer, a bag of pretzels and a package of cigarettes (smokes for the nerves) like we did ... and sit home in front of the television and watch it in splendid colour ... without the pushing and Shoving ... without the high cost ... and without freezing our butts off like you usually do during Grey Cup season. As mentioned before, I was in the vicinity of the action. BUT you wouldn't have seen me out on Yonge Street with the thousands of others on Sunday night having a celebration party for the Argos. No sir! 1 was sitting in front of the silver screen watching the fools! You didn't even see me on Monday, amidst the crowds on Bay Street, welcoming the team back to their home town of Toronto. No Sir! I watched it on the boob-tube. It was then that I thanked God for the fact that I wasn't scheduled to fly out of Toronto just at the time that the entire team (plus their fans) were flying into Toronto. I hit it lucky. The only thing that 1 witnessed that even resembled a celebration, were the numerous fragments of paper blowing throughout the streets of Toronto - the paper that was bestowed upon the heads of the team in congratulations of their victory. I also saw a few folks who looked like they had a pretty good time in Vancouver. At least I am assuming that big heads and blood-shot eyes established the fact they had had a good time. I wonder if they remember it? The second historic thing that took place last week was the announcement of the 10 cent stamp that can be used for Christmas mailing this year. That is still a very controversial subject around the post office though. Signs have already been posted stating that ALL out-going letters must carry a 32 cent stamp BUT apparently one can't even obtain a 10 cent stamp due to the fact that they have been sold out. You almost wonder if it will be worth all the hassle to try to purchase cheap stamps and risk the receiver of the letter having to pay an additional charge for non-sufficient postage or if you should say the heck with it - and fork out the 32 cents per just as it was last month. Plus, nobody has decided what the correct postage is anyway. The way Canada Post operates ... they should have this matter cleared up just in time for next Christmas! Historic fact #3 should make several Christmas shoppers happy (maybe). Anyone who has been scouring the stores in hopes of obtaining the coveted Cabbage Patch Kids to be used as gifts this year for Christmas, will be pleased to know that Coleco (the makers of the dolls) will be chartering numerous planes into the eastern continent to specifically pick up the manufactured dolls. They figure that by December 31st, most of their orders will have been filled and anyone wanting to purchase these prized collections will be able to do so by the end of this year. Maybe not in time for the Christmas tree ... but you know what they say ... "Better late than never!" It's better to wait than to have to stand in line and fight for the purchase of one, as many have already done in parts of Montreal and Toronto. Can you just imagine standing in line for four hours in anticipation of obtaining one of these 'ugly' dolls until the store doors open? I certainly cannot. I shall sit on my behind and wait until they are available. Which may be longer than December 31st. The fourth great mark in history took place, again in Ontario, last week. This was the announcement made by Metric Canada concerning the selling and marketing of products by metric measure. I happen to be one of the many who rejoiced at this statement. It certainly took them long enough to realize that the entire situation was a big screw-up from day one. It may have been acceptable to announce metric conversion for 25 years down the road ... when you and I will be old enough not to care ... or the students who received metric education will then be old enough to understand the crap. But you don't take a hot potato such as 'metric and attempt to shove it down someone's throat - especially when that someone isn't willing to swallow it. Just think! Now we may have the opportunity to purchase our gasoline in (yes) gallons. Remember those? We may even be able to figure out how many miles to the gallon our vehicles can actually do again. No more purchasing fabric in metres. When you buy land, you can actually equate back to acres instead of hectares. You can drive 55 miles per hour instead of 90 kilometers per hour. You can measure out a cup of liquid instead of point so many litres. Just think! Wouldn't it be lovely? I would actually know the price of a pound of pork chops instead of having to stand (like an idiot) in front of the meat counter, and try to figure out the price per pound instead of cost per kilogram. I guess what it boils down to is the fact that I'm just too old to accept new _fangled ways. ; You can't teach an old dog new tricks is what they say. And this old dog is pretty happy about the announcement that she received last week. an going to run out and have a 10 ounce bottle of beer just to celebrate! eers If I could somehow be magical- ly appointed Godfather of Canada _for one day, know what my first official act would be? Forget the Crow Rate. Nix on a Stanley Cup for the Leafs. I wouldn't even waste my time ordering Allan MacEachen to speak in either of our two official languages. Nope. First thing I'd do is dispatch a Canadian Forces Transport to pick-up the premiers of Newfoundland and New Bruns- wick. I'd have those birds stand- ing on my carpet in double-quick time, and I'd say to them, "Boys, I don't care how you do it. You can flip a coin, arm wrestle or go 10 rounds in a regulation boxing -- ring. I'll leave the methodology ~ up to you, but one of you has to change the name of your city." Yeah. St. John's Newfound- land ... Saint John, New Bruns- wick. Or is it the other way around? Search me. I never could remem- ber. I could memorize "Thirty days hath September..." to figure out the number of days in any given months. I committed to memory the old saw about "'i' before 'e' except after 'c' ..." so that I wouldn't write dumb things like 'recieve' and "peirce"... But I never found a decent way to remember whether St. John's was in New Brunswick or in Newfoundland. It's been almost a lifelong source of humiliation, from those hideous hours in front of Mister Hewitt's Grade Seven City mix-up class, to a wretched moment at a party last week. I wus Jiscoursing brilliantly about Newfoundland's off-shore drilling problems and how the politicians in St. John seemed to think that ... A smug, cool-looking pedant in horn-rims broke-in, pointed his pipe-stem at me and declared: "You mean St. John's."' Yes. Of course. Wrong again. Shot down by the great Saint John/St. John's Conundrum. Will I never learn? Apparently not. The one small solace I can find in my mental blank spot is the fact that I am not alone. A newspaper story out of - wait, till I double-check it now - Yes, out of Saint John, New Brunswick - says that there are some red faces on the bridge of the Soviet research vessel "Akademik Sergey Koralyov."' Last week, the Russian ship showed-up in St. John harbour for what the captain announced was a three-day visit. It was news to the City Fathers. They'd had no notice of an impending Soviet visit. Even more mysteriously, the Akademik Sergey Koralyov sud- denly upped anchor and sailed out of the harbour the following morning - without so much as an explanation,-a thanks-for-the-hos- pitality or a fare thee well. An official of the External Affairs Department in Ottawa cleared up the mystery. The Akademik Sergy Koralyov ought never to have wetted its anchor in Saint John harbour. The Russians had asked Ottawa for permission to dock on Cana- dian soil to take on fresh water and supplies. Ottawa granted the permission to dock for three days in St. John's. Newfoundland. Apparently, the Soviet captain; dug out his Michelin Guide, his finger found Saint John, New Brunswick, and into Saint John he sailed, blithely unaware that he was in the wrong city, in the wrong province. The place he wanted was about one thousand miles east. It's all right Comrade. Happens to the best of us.