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f 12 weekendersarurdaynovember 1 1997 helene johnson for councillor ward 2 whitchurch stouffville rooted in the community based on experience in the whole community helene johnson can speak for you nov 10 1997 vote together lets build a strong community whitchurchstouffville needs new ideas new blood and a new mayor for more information call 6408695 or 6408538 taj va 0 my brain drifts in and out as stocks fly and plummet even i have been unable to help noticing that the stock market is not so much flying as plummeting every morning 1 awake to the dulcet tones of a newscast er on cbc radio one the radio station formerly known as wasp while mr wallethead sets the alarm at various times depending on his schedule we always wake up to the news itself or a preview of the upcoming national news or a quick encapsu lation of the local news weve just missed there is no cause for panic since more news is always on the way be it a regional roundup or an analysis of some aspect of one of the latebreaking stories i have just heard but utterly failed to absorb or the ultimate cure for insomnia the business news occasionally well get a bit of weather or the sound of jim cur- ran firing a cannon down high way 407 after abandoning his search for a traffic jam ie two cars driving in the same direction within five minutes of each other but these days whatever you listen to news is just a time check away on 680 all news all the time the news is changing there was a time particularly in early sum- kates corner kate gilderdale mer when you wouldnt have noticed if theyd just recycled the same headlines for a week or two world news was about the french reaction to quebec sepa ration national news was about another premiers conference on canadian unity local news was about protests by myriad commu nities rejecting the eurocentric biases rampant in the peoples republic of ontario when diana died all other news abruptly ceased to be replaced by 24hour reruns of the car wreck and tributes from world leaders and photogenic celebrities these were swiftly followed by charges against the dastardly roy als and the paparazzi and much handwringing over the invasive ness of the media meanwhile if a whole third world nation had been wiped out by genocide that news would have had a tough time making it to the life section a few weeks later however the canadian search for identity had reasserted itself and we were back to news as we know it then along came the market collapse experts were all over the airwaves like a rash explaining how we had come to such a pass and examining the potential for a complete crash as always my brain drifted in and out of their indepth analyses and even mr wallethead whose grasp on financial reality is the only thing that keeps me fiscally afloat was at a loss all he could tell me was how many thousands of dollars our investments had lost in the past 24 hours on metro mornings business news from england meanwhile the canadian dollar was reported to be taking a nose dive in a flamboyant and entirely uncanadian fashion our currency usually slips or climbs with appropriate restraint and the poor bloke who is stuck with reciting its meanderings is hard pressed to introduce a note of urgency into his broadcast last week his excitement was entirely unfeigned i still dont know what it all means but it cer tainly woke me up next time i win s10 on the lot tery ill bypass the money mar kets and invest in a pair of socks moores the suit people