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Have you ever had one of "those‘‘ days? p I‘m talking about one of those days when someone or some group says or does something so absurd you are left with a total feeling of frustration. It tends to make you want to scream! > I was watching CBC‘s The National recently and I couldn‘t believe my eyes and ears. It occurred to me that I might be losing control of my faculties, but then L realized it was the sheer absurdity of two news stories that made me react in such a fashion. It made me feel better ... but not much. The two stories ran backâ€"toâ€"back: one on the disâ€" tinct possibility of the extinction of the Cambodian populace due to starvation; the other on Alberta farmers being fined for storing their surplus wheat inâ€" stead of dumping it as per Canadian Wheat Board regulations. ~_ . Manila {(AP) â€" The world will grow less food than it eats this year for the first time in five years, the regional director of the Food and Agriculture Organizat:on said Dioscoro Umali told the Manila Business Day that food stocks saved in previous years would have to make up the difference. _ Manila (AP) â€" Food production in 1979 will lag behind present nmeeds and for the first time in five years, surplus stocks will have to be drawn on. As usual, the hardest hit would be the poor nations and those torn by civil strife or wars, particularly Banglaâ€" desh, Chad, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Uganda, Upper Voita, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. I‘ve nothing but sympathy for Jimmy Carter in this case. It seems he‘s tried almost every peaceful avenâ€" ue available to obtain the release of the 90â€"o0dd hosâ€" tages being held by Iranian students. Where and when will it all end. I said last week that I was a nonâ€"violent sort, and that‘s true as a rule. But the situation at the American embassy in Tehran. Iran, is causing me to wonder about my passive naâ€" ture. A development yesterday indicates that Carter‘s patience may have paid off. Now Iranian authories are willing to settle for an investigation into the shah‘s alleged war crimes rather than actually deliâ€" vering the man to the Iranian government. The Iranâ€" ians also insist that all the shah‘s wealth be turned over to their government. Those demands I would consider acceptable. But assuming that the hostageâ€"taking incidents comes to a bloodless end, I wonder what precedent will have been set. It seems the religious fanatic preâ€" Caught one of those deep and heavy colds that make you cough up stuff that gourmets pay for and call oysters. Had to take two days off work, first time in two years, and went back far from well, but driven from the house by my wife‘s solicitude. Remember that column I wrote last week about the glories of October? Forget it. I must have been in an euphoric mood. Reality has returned. Had the turn signals and the heating fixed on my car. reached into my pocket to pay the bill â€" maybe thirtyâ€"five dollars â€" took a look at the bill, and had to be helped into the front seat of the car. One hundred and one dollars, plus change. Approximately 30 per cent of the entire value of the car. You could buy a pretty good jalopy for that sum. not so long ago This morning. when I looked out the window. I nearâ€" ly keeled over 1 can see six roofs from the bathroom. and every one of them was white. Snow, on the day after Thanksgiving Thought 1‘d give my wife a treat and cook the Thanksgiving dinner. She wasn‘t keen on a bird. as there were only the two of us But you have to keep up traditions. like the British dressing for dinner in the jungle And that‘s just what it was like. Dressing for dinner in the jungle. On the Saturday. I picked up a nice roasâ€" ting chicken. about four and a half pounds. Didn‘t pay much attention. as it was in a plastic bag. and felt fat and jumicy Got up a bit late on Thanksgiving Day. and the stuffâ€" ing was made I usually do this. because I love exâ€" perimenting with seasonings. A shot of this. a dash of Today. when I got home from work. it was hailing And I‘d forgotten to put the garbage out Stewart Sutherland Bill Smiley I know that the Canadian railway system is so disorâ€" ganized that those in charge don‘t know whether their trains are coming or going half the time. _ _ Hopefully ‘such a revamping would mean that we could get our surplus wheat to port facilities and from there to countries where it is desperately needed or at least to storage facilities until it is needed. And transporting our surplus wheat on such a chaoâ€" tic rail system is tantamount to letting it rot! But the system is presently undergoing a massive reorganizaâ€" So what can be doneâ€"about the present situation? Little, if gnything, I‘m afraid. But if we work on cleaning up our own back yard, we might just make things a little more tolerable for those people in the Third World in the future. Bangkok (AP) â€" Will Cambodia die? The current scourges of famine and disease, heaped upon nine years of war. terror and social disintegration. have led many to sound an alarm: a race and culture that have survived a thousand years are heading for exâ€" tinction in the final quarter of the twentieth century. sently in powerin Iran isn‘t the slightest bit conâ€" cerned about the power of the US. How long will it be before another ugly incident takes place, and how much will the American people and government take? First we should continue to straighten out our rail system so that when an emergency such as we are presently witnessing occurs we can be better equipped to deal with it. * Comparisons are being drawn between Cambodia today and the Nazi genocide of the Jews or the disapâ€" pearance of the Incas and other ancient tribes. Whatever happens, I don‘t think the Iranians will come out on top in the longâ€"run. I‘m not sure I‘d blame the Americans for taking acâ€" tion against Iran. Boycotts, political nameâ€"calling, smear campaigns and even hateâ€"mail are one thing, but actually capturing holding and degrading Ameriâ€" can citizens is quite another. Iran may be a powerful country thanks to its oil reserves, but I think their government is taking a mighty big chance threatening the US. One journalist compared the situation to a cat continually prodding and pushing a very large dog. Sooner or later, the dog is bound to get upset armd if that happens there‘d be little left of the daring feline. Carter has been under tremendous pressure to take military action against the pesky Iranians, and frankâ€" ly I‘m surprised he hasn‘t. f Anyway. she‘d beaten me to it, not wanting to feel beholden. Feeling beholden is when your mate does one of your jobs, and reminds you about it for the next three years â€" that, a soupcon of something else. It usually turns out to be either pretty exotic, or inedible. Well. I didn‘t mind. But that‘s the easy part â€" the stuffing. The tough part is getting it in, and wrestling with the bird, and trussing it. You usually wind up with a mixture of butter and dressing all over you, up to the elbows and down to the knees. and a bad temper. Often you have to scrub the kitchen floor. there‘s so much goop on it. once you‘ve got the beast in the oven But 1 didn‘t mind. I‘ve been through this sweaty struggle before, and know well the sense of triumph when the slippery monster is finally in the oven. bastâ€" ed in butter. and ready to start sending out that inelueâ€" table odor of roasting fowl It looked as though it had just come through Grade 1 of Butcher‘s School. All the skin was missing from the left side. It had one leg. one, stuck up at an obscene angle. The neck looked as though Jack the Ripper had been at it on one of his bad nights. And all the good guts â€" liver. gizzard and heart. had been stolen These, along with the neck, are what I make my magâ€" nificent gravy from. The neck was there. all right. and as tough as the neck of a vulture This time. however. I was rather shaken when I pulled the bird out of the plastic bag and prepared for battle Dld‘ynu ever try to truss a oneâ€"legged chicken. semiâ€"skinned. and make it come out like the usual work of art? Don‘t. Your heart won‘t be in it Howard Elliott Watefoo Chronicle, Wednesday, Novemtier 14, 1979 â€" Page But it wasn‘t all black That oneâ€"legged chicken didn‘t taste bad. if you‘d had enough preâ€"dinner tranâ€" quilizers to destroy your taste buds We did find that the damper on our fireplace works. after twenty years, and we got it closed to save heat dollars pouring up the chimney She has to walk a mile and a half. in windy weather. to get antiâ€"biotics from the doctor. She is horrified that she gets only a little more than half her pay cheque. when all the deductions are made. Hah‘ After years of being a student,. living on loans and grants (and handouts from us) she has entered the chill world of capitalism and income taxes To further the jollity of the occasion. we got a call from my daughter who is teaching a thousand miles away. in the north. It was a bit like getting a call from Hades. She had a wracking cough,. and had been off work for a week. Her students are "hard as nails". and there were dark rumours of wildâ€"dog packs that will attack if you slip and fall on the ice. and wildâ€"dog kids who wi‘l do the same. She was so lonely she could searce hang up the phone I was so disturbed that I had to resort to a prepranâ€" dial nerve relaxer, and this led to further disaster: the pot with the vegetables burned black, because I can‘t smell smoke. and my wife was upstairs, staying away from the blue air that often fills the kitchen when I am cooking. It was doubly blue this time. It will take a week of scrubbing to get the carbon off the inside of that pot. Instead of letting our surplus harvest of wheat rot, we should grow as much asâ€"we possibly can and set aside a certain proportion (other than that which goes on the world market) for much needed disaster relief each year. Our export grain prices wouldn‘t suffer because this grain would be claimed by the governâ€" ment and wouldn‘t even be considered for world trade. * * This grain pool would not even have to be our own individual effert.â€"Other countries that are capable of producing surpluses turing boom years could be invitâ€" ed to contribute a percentage of their crop. This pool would provide immediate relief in the face of any naâ€" tural or manâ€"made disaster. s Canadian farmers should be encouraged to operate at the capacity their budgets permit and not be penaâ€" lized for producing a bumper crop. There will always be a need in the world for the surplus. The worst part of it is, that residents in the area of the fatal accident Friday have said for over a year that signals are needed, but their warnings went unâ€" heeded until it was far to late. If that incident isn‘t reason enough to cut through civic and government bureaucracy, nothing is. I think rail crossings, no matter where they are, should be equipped with warning signals. But railroad officials claim cost, maintainance and installation are prohibiâ€" tive factors. "After the next few months of starvation and slaughter, we may have to search outside Combodia to find Cambodians," he added. Bangkok (AP) â€" The world community is witnessing a ‘‘nationdl tragedy the proportion of which may have no parailel in history," Kurt Waldheim, United Nations Seâ€" cretaryâ€"General said. Take the carâ€"train crash in Kitchener Friday that took the life of an area woman for example. Kitchener officials have been trying to get railroad officials to install crossing signals. But, as usual, the process was long and unseccessful. Now the brilliant souls at our railroad headquarters have promised to install auâ€" tomatic crossing signals to prevent further tragedies. Newspapers and news have been depressing lately. With the Iranian situation, starving Cambodians, a near disaster in Mississauga and the antics of our federal government, I‘ve found the news something to be avoided in favor of a goog novel. Lets hear it for bureaucracy