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| 4 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Tuesday, March 13, 1984 ditorial comments "CANADIANS ARE DEERLY Drs- - TRESSED, AN UNARMED CRUISE MISSILE FLEW OVER YESTERDAY! / chatterbox by John B. McClelland Last week was a near total washout for me. I came down with my first and worst bout of the flu this winter. Coughing, hacking, one minute cold, the next minute hot, I used-up Kleenex in prodigious quan- tities, and was the recipient of all kinds of well mean- ing advice on how to cure the common cold-flu-grippe or whatever it was that grabbed me by the throat with such ferocity. Suffering as I was and with nary a hint of s in the air, the last thing in the world on my mind was Ui rics of reer, But I noted that suds drinkers in good old Ontario will not have the ty to sample "no- name' beer which is making in-roads among Western Canadians. The Old Fort Brewing Company in Prince George is a box of 24 "no-names" at about $2.70 less than a box of brand names. The no-names are selling quite well in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan, but here in Ontario, provincial government policy for- bids a to market cut-rate beer. The only beer drinkers have in Ontario is the brand. The price is set and you pay it or go thirsty. Why won't the Ontario govsiumient five beer drinkers here a break on the price? And e we're on the topic of beer, when will the good citizens of good old Ontario be allowed to purchase beer in grocery and convenience stores? Probably never. But getting back to the price of the stuff, I'm loyal to one brand, always have been, but if I could get a break of a couple of dollars on a case, I think I could be peruaded to at least try the no-name brand. But not here. In this part of the country where free enterprise is king, where people hate the hidden hand of government ta with the market-place, the price of a commodity like beer is set and fixed by regulation. Like I said, this is hardly the time of year to be thinking about the price of beer, but spring and sum- mer surely can't be too far away. That's when it will really hit home that the cost of the stuff is just too darn Of course, if beer drinkers don't like the price, they could always switch to one of those fine Ontario wines. THE LAST KICK They've been kicked so often this year, it is almost unfair to kick them one more time. Besides, who cares about the Toronto Maple Leafs, a team in danger of becoming the laughing stock of any professional sports Loyal fans of the blue and white have suffered through yet another dismal year, and the number of theories about what is wrong with the Leafs. is exceed- ed only by the number of stars in the universe. A lot of fingers point to the guy at the top, Harold Ballard, and then continue down the manage- ment and the coaching staff. Fair enough. These peo- ple have to take some of the blame, but those 20 guys Who put on the uniforms game in and game out must shoulder the lion's share. If you really want to know what happened to the Leafs this year, look no further than the stats. In 69 games so far, the Leafs have give up 339 goals, the worst defensive record in the entire league. That's the long and the short of it all. No hockey team in any league is going to have a winning record when it has the worst goals against average. So blame the defenseman. is over the hill; Nylund is over-rated. Korn is really a forwad; Farrish is really a minor-leaguer; Benning is too young; Gingras just can't play hockey, etc., etc. And blame the goal-tenders, too. Palmateer has had his day in the sun; St. Croix isn't NHL calibre; Bester still be in Junior; so should Wreggett. On the surface it would be easy to point fingers of blame at the defense and the goalies. But solid defensive hockey begins behind the other team's goal. From my observation, the Leafs have about two forwards who know anything about defensive hockey, the rest are out there for a skate. There is no system, no disci , No innovation. Don't blame or Nykoluk for the goal-against average. Any player who knows how to skate can pla defensive hockey. It doesn't take a great deal of skill, i does take two things: hard work and discipline from n. There is only one team in the league these days that can play one-way hockey and win: The Oilers. Look at the records of te other successful teams this season: Isles, Caps, Bot.con and Buffalo, even Quebec; and they all have resp- ctable goals-against records. We have heard it all season, that the Leafs have potential, some good young players and it is true. But until those 20 guys decide for themselves that hockey is a two-way street, the team will continue to fight it out for last place. Harold Ballard, the ement and coaches are easy targets for blame. But they can't do the back- checking. It's as simple as that. Hope It Works Smoked eel may not be everyone's cup of tea, but in Europe and Asia, it is considered a del : 'Ontario used to have a commercial eel for the export market, but pollution in the Great Lakes put an end to that about five years ago. But a Toronto consulting company believes t domestic raising of eels for export may be viable, and _the company wants to conduct experiments this sum- mer at one of the unused sewage lagoons north of Port Perry to determine if indeed eels can be farmed like trout. The company still needs approvals from several 'agencies, including the provincial Environment Ministry, and we hope the project gets the green light, if it can be proven that there will not be a detrimental effect from it. : it's an intriguing idea, one that should generate some interest right here in our own backyard. And who knows, this project could lead to a new industry in On- tario, one that will provide needed jobs and income. if the project gets the green light, the company, this June, will start bringing some 12,000 eels to the lagoon, feed them under controlled conditions and carefully monitor their progress. It will be an interesting experi- ment, one worth watching. We hope it works. Alcohol At The Wheel In our society a citizen has the right to drink alcoholic beverages, the right even to drink himself or herself sil- ly if such be his or her tastes and tendencies. But this right must always be assessed in the wider social context. A person's right to drink must not be exercised in ways that interfere unduly with the rights of other per- sons, If someone's drinking causes behavior that en- dangers you or even seriously inconveniences you, you have the right to interfere to some degree with his or her drinking. If that persons drinks and then drives on a road on which you are driving, then his or her drinking becomes very much your business. A bewildering variety of statistics is available on drinking-and-driving ---- and an even more bewilder- ing variety of interpretations of those statistics. But it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that in an alarming proportion of all traffic accidents, especially those resulting in deaths and serious injuries, there is an alcohol factor. Profesor John Cohen, an English psychologist, 'made some exacting investigations of driving skills. Here is one of the conclusions: "Moderate quantities of alcohol tend to make most drivers increase their speed, although they are usually unaware that this is happen- ing ... Alcohol intensifies any driver's tendency to over- rate his ability in relation to his performance." This conclusion comes out of carefully controlled ex- periments with real drivers and real alcohol. Two psychiatrists working in the same field, Dr. Neil Kessel and Dr. Henry Walton, make this comment: "The drinker is in the worst possible position to make the deci- sion whether he is safe to drive or not." They add this warning' "The drinker himself becomes progressively less able to detect his own impairment." The hands of the police and the courts must be strengthened with respect to drinking-and-driving mat- ters. Breathalyzer and other tests, it must be recogniz- ed, do interfere to some extend with a citizen's rights and liberties -- but surely we must balance those against the rights and liberties of other citizens. Whose job is it? This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done. Now, aint't that the truth? RITE Tes. RO a all ST : ]