The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

wp Scugog Citizen -- Wednesda, Osiober 15,1591 9 --= Join the um.....club, if your memory is failing by Helen Suzanne I don't know about this business of aging. It seems the minute you blow the birthday candles out on the "Big 5-0" the mind starts to rebel. Of course, I am assured by my doctor that the Oycpeional lapses of memory are a very natural aging process and to be quite candid with you, many of my friends hovering around the Big 5-0 experience the same thing. Unfortunately, their names escape me at the moment. Bo rather than sit and fret about this normal progression of years and the effects they oecasionally play on my mind, I have decided to start a "forgetfullness club." The rules are fairly relaxed, but in order to become a member, one has to have the ability to laugh at oneself and mock the normal symptoms of aging we all experience. If you fit into any of the categories below, you probably have a better than even chance of joining 1/ Have you at anytime ever been deep in conversation with somebody, only to stop halfway through a very important point you are making because the point has completely flown out of your mind? (This drives me crazy, especially when I feel 1 have a knowledgeable contributi........ what was I saying?) 2/ Have you been in a situation where you are introducing someone near and dear to you and can't for the life of you remember the name? (I did that just the other day when my identical twin sister was visiting. I became so flustered, I almost introduced myself instead. What a foolish mistake. Everyone knows Marg is five minutes older and looks it.) 3/ Have you ever gone into the grocery store just to pick up one or two items and instead bought two weeks worth of food, exited the store and then realized because it was such a lovely day when you left home you decided to walk the ten blocks instead of bringing the car? (I can't tell you the number of times I've done this. To give you a rough idea, I am seriously considering charging the local VIEWPOINT by John B. McClelland fmm BACK ON THE ICE Nice to see the Port Perry MoJacks off to a positive start in the Central Ontario Junior C Hockey League. The team is tied for first with a record of three wins and no losses. ModJacks are getting some great goaltending from Rick Hutchinson and solid D from the guys out front. In three games, just seven goals have gone into the net for a GAA of 2.35. That folks, is none too shabby in any league, but in Junior C it is especially sharp as teams sometimes forget about D and the poor guy back there between the pipes. This GAA of 2.3 most likely won't hold up from now until the end of the season but the MoJacks are building around team defense. I like this kind of hockey (forget those 9-7 shoot-outs) It's just my personal preference, but I would rather see a close checking, low scoring game. If you're in need of a hockey fix (what with the NHL locked out) there's no shortage of it around Scugog these days. The MoJdacks home games are on Sunday nights starting at 7:00 PM. You can see some good hockey all Sunday morning as the Scugog H.L features five games. This League has guys in their 50's and guys just a year or two out of Junior. It is good quality and highly entertaining. Games start at 6:45 in the morning and run through until about noon. And the Minor Hockey teams are starting to swing into action. Most every night of the week there are games at the Arena just west of the Fairgrounds. Speaking of hockey, | see where a coach with a Midget team in Toronto found himself in hot water. The reason? He retained the services of Nicky Furlano to teach his 16-17 year olds how to box Furlano did some damage as a pro boxer a few years and has had a few scrapes with the law. Of course, the bleeding hearts condemned the fact these teen-agers are being taught to fight. I think it's a good move. Boxing is a superb way to get in shape (try a half hour on the heavy bag, or better yet, put on the gloves and the headgear and go a couple of rounds in the square circle) And let's be honest, fighting the last time I checked is still tolerated in hockey. Even if a kid never has to throw a punch, knowing how is a great confidence booster. "Anybody who knows anything about this sport, knows that there are occasions where what's known as the "intimidation factor" has influenced the outcome of a game or an entire series. As long as fighting remains part of * the game (right or wrong) teaching 16 year olds what to do when the gloves come off is perfectly acceptable. And you never know when they might need a bit of pugilistic knowledge away from the rink as well. By the way, the rules against fighting in Minor Hockey are stiff. One fight on the ice and a player is banished from that game. Being the instigator or the aggressor will result in suspension from the next game. Repeat offenders face multi-game suspensions. The debate over fighting in hockey is as old as the game itself. Frankly, I think the sport at all levels has made great strides in getting this under control. Especially when compared with other sports, like baseball, where charging the mound and the bench-clearing brawl are almost routine. IN CLOSING... .. nomination period for the November municipal elections closes this coming Friday (Oct. 14) at 5:00 PM. We'll know then who is running for what council and the boards of education. Then, it's four weeks to voting day on November 14. Is it just my imagination or has the "campaign" so far been about as lively as'paint on a saucer? I thought that when the Fair Board jumped inko the scene with both feet at the Fair back on Labour Day Weekend that this might be a spirited election in Scugog. Maybe things will start heatin' after nominations close on Friday. grocery store rent for the grocery buggies that inhabit my front lawn.) 4/ This is really good. How about when you invite Mrs. Clean who boils her hands before she touches anything earthly, and her husband over dinner. You turn the oven to broil in order to do the steaks which must be done to perfection, and completely forget about the roasting pangyou shoved in the oven that you were going to clean first thing the next morning before even the birds awakened. It is the same roasting pan that you made five batches of cabbage delight in three days ago. (Personally, I think she should have been grateful that I even remembered to buy the steaks, instead of making those rude comments about those malodourus wafts emanating from the kitchen.) Well, I for one am just chomping at the bit to get this venture going. If anyone out there qualifies, give me a call right away. My home number is 985- <n. Just a minute. It's on the tip of my oh, gosh, In hindsight, maybe this club is not such a great idea after all. Excuse me? Club? What club? x (Helen Suzanne is the pen name of a Port Perry writer whose columns appear from time to time in the Scugog Citizen) Don't play games on backs of kids in poverty To the Editor: The discussion paper on cuts to social programs as suggested by Human Resources Minister Lloyd Axworthy has been released. So I guess it was inevitable that the local Durham MP Alex Shepherd would proceed to soften people up by writing in his most recent column that perhaps the plight of children living in poverty has been some how exaggerated. After all as he said, "Let's not mix apples with oranges, child poverty is what I've seen on the streets of Peru and Spain." Child poverty in the United States is more than anywhere in the western industrialized world. 20 per cent of all American children are growing up in poverty, and it goes up to 54 per cent for children living in single-parent families. Here in Canada we have nothing to boast about as it relates to child poverty. Our rates are twice as high as those in France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany. In 1991, 1.2 million Canadian children were living in poverty and the numbers have since gone up. This means that over 18 per cent of our children are living in poverty today. The Financial Post and some time/one time Toronto Sun writer Diane Francis has been a major critic of our government's income support system by saying that the payments are so good nobody will get off welfare. She has gone as far to say that the system is creating a class of people who are nothing more than parasites. If welfare payments made to single mothers who have children, are as great as Ms. Francis and Mr. Shepherd have suggested why then is child poverty still with us? If anyone thinks social spending cutbacks somehow are good to liberate the needy from their cycle of dependence, all they need to do is to look south at the United States. There, at least 81 million people have not one cent of medical coverage. Is the federal government hoping to move us all towards that? What is really in their secret plans to cut $7.5- billion from social programs over the next five years? . Lay it out on the table now, and please Mr. Shepherd, don't play a smoke and mirrors game on the backs of the more than 1.2 million children living in poverty in Canada today. Sincerely, Gordon L. Mills, C.D.,, M.P.P. Durham East At the Fli with hn Film about Ed Wood deserves a look ED WOOD Directed by Tim Burton Now in Oshawa Kk k 172 How ironic that a major motion picture has been made about Ed Wood, arguably the worst filmmaker who ever lived. A notorious cross-dressing alcoholic, Wood gleefully cranked out Z grade horror films with dreadful effects, no continuity, and awful acting. That he went at his work with such glee is likely why he remains relatively popular. It was said of Wood that he had all the tenacity and will power of Orson Welles, but not one iota of talent His films, Plan 9 From Outer Space, or Glen or Glenda, are indeed awful, but it is their charm (?) that has kept them alive. Working for virtually nothing, Wood just kept cranking them out, despite being an industry joke. He died broke and destitute in 1978; now we have made a multi-million dollar film about this oddly charismatic man. Filmmaker Tim Burton has carved an impressive career at the helm of such weird movies as Beetlejuice (1988), < S-- Batman (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), and Batman Returns (1992). His black & white biography of Ed Wood is likely his best film, but also his least accessible. Think on it! Will movie audiences go to see a black & white film about a dreadful director with a passion for Angora sweaters and women's clothing? I hope the film finds an audience because Johnny Depp is wonderful as Wood, and Martin Landau is Oscar worthy as drug addicted Bela Lagosi, the great horror star shamelessly exploited by Wood. Landau finds Lagosi's old world nobility, as well as the heartache of an actor hopelessly addicted to drugs. Equally fine is Bill Murray as one of Wood's transvestite buddies, and Sarah Parker as his no-talent wife. Ed Wood lacks a cohesive, strong narrative, but lets face it, that has never been Burton's strength as a Director. He creates images that both delight and haunt us, and Ed Wood is no exception. This is among the best movies | have seen this year, give it a chance.