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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2004 THE NEW TANNER GRAPEV. NE SHOPPERS SALES From frozen foods to dairy to pizzas, Acton's new Shoppers Drug Mart will offer a wide range of products when it opens in mid- November, according to Shoppers senior vice-president of corporate affairs Arthur Konviser. "Our new concept stores have a high emphasis on convenience and health and beauty," he said, adding the 14,500-square-foot store is twice as big as conven- tional Shoppers stores so they can offer a much wider range of prod- ucts, including frozen food, milk, cheeses, pizzas and health foods. Konviser said they chose to open in Acton because there is need with the population base' in a "thriving good community that we'd be honoured to be a part of." ELVIS SHOW Back by popular demand, the Acton Firefighters Association is bringing another Elvis tribute show to Acton. Although the show isn't until November 27 at the Legion, tick- ets for the first show sold out within weeks -- so don't delay if you want to see "Elvis -- The Way it Was" featuring Stephen Kabakos and the TVB Players and Memphis Sound. Kabakos was crowned the Images of the King 2001 champion in Mem- phis. Proceeds from the dinner and show will help the firefighters pay for their participation in the Santa Claus parade, Canada Day fire- works and other community events. For tickets call 853-3195. CARP September 22, is the first fall meeting of CARP, Canada's Association for the Fifty Plus. The Halton chapter's fall meeting is at 7:30pm at the Burlington Seniors Centre , 2285 New Street., Burlington, September 22, Watch for future announcements regarding the guest speaker. Anyone needed more information is asked to call Harry.at 905-335-5717. HEARING HELP Hearing instrument specialist Christine Feige is now accepting appointments for clients at her new Active Ears office at the Ac- ton Medial Centre. Feige, a hearing specialist with offices in Hanover, Goderich and Sarnia, moved to Acton almost a year ago and determined she wanted to work locally. "Everyone should have their ears tested -- we take care of our cars better than we do our ears," Feige said, adding she wants "to give back to the community" and will donate half of the $50 hear- ing test to Habitat for Humanity Halton for its Acton build project. Feige can be reached at 1-866- 364-3277. PURITY CELEBRATES Congrats to Acton's Purity Life Health Products Limited -- Canada's largest distributor of health and nutritional supple- ments -- that is celebrating its 20th anniversary this week. Owned by Acton's David and Elyse Chapman, Purity has grown to employ 150-plus people, some of whom work from its HQ on Commerce Crescent. The model for Purity Life is based on David Chapman's vision of "empowering people to create well-being in their lives." HORSE DEAL Few details are available, but a sister company of Bahr Saddlery Ltd. in Milton, CanPro -- an equestrian wholesale company, has purchased a building on Com- merce Crescent in Acton. Word has it that the company has dropped plans to build a fa- cility adjacent to its Steeles Avenue retail store because of bu- reaucratic red tape. Company officials were unavailable for comment at press time but an employee at the Milton store con- firmed the purchase of the Commerce Crescent building. Macbeth's not my cup... continued from page 6 Austrian emperor telling Mozart in the movie Amadeus, when asked for a critique of one of the com- poser's hits, that it "had too many notes". : I have finally grasped what the emperor meant. Macbeth has too many words, especially when you' re sitting in the balcony strain- ing to catch words when they are uttered in the opposite direction. Neverthless we enjoyed the play very much until the intermission when the four American lads who sat in front of us discussed the first half. The biggest one who looked like he played defence for the De- troit Lions exclaimed: "You guys said to come to Canada for some fun =and this: i= it?" He was a play pooper, of course. Macbeth isn't meant to raise your spirits. It is lacking in American English except at the point where Lady Macbeth shrieks out those immortal words: "out damn spot... out I say!" Shakespeare obviously wrote it in a foul mood. In fact even James I didn't like it since killing kings was part of the plot. Headliners in Stratford's Macbeth were Graham Abbey and Lucy Peacock who played Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. They and the supporting cast caught the sombre mood of the play from the start. The patrons were caught in the play's web as well even when the three witches roiled around the pot casting the spell: "Double, double toil and trou- ble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble." I'd recommend Macbeth if you're a fan of Shakespearean English but if you just want an en- joyable experience try a Stratford musical -- if you can get a ticket. OUTSTANDING MARKS: Students at the Dance Inn are smiling after receiving outstanding marks on ballet examinations on may 15 by the royal Academy of Dance (RAD) in their Primary Grade 2 level. Seven students of the group received a Mark of Merit and eight Distinction, the two highest marks awarded by R.A.D.. Front row, left to right, Tara Gollop, Cailey Stuckless, Nicole Tkadletz, Tahira Kraemer. Back row, Ameila Van Den Enden, Katherine Zawadski, Emily Loewen.- Submitted photo. a The just finished Olympics brought to mind the opening cred- its of the old Wild World of Sports T.V. program. Older fans will re- call it was a montage of sports moments finishing with the words "The thrill of victory-- The agony of defeat." The agony of defeat was some poor guy who's trip down the ski jump turned into a train wreck when he lost his balance and crashed off the end. The look of pure joy and the op- posite depths of despair mirrored on the faces of athletes after their events are lasting images. One of my Olympic favourites is biker babe Lori-Ann Muenzer who sur- prised everyone by wheeling off with the gold at the Velodrome. That also brings up what I consider to be CBC's absolute low point in the games. Canada's most dramatic failure, after all the hype, had to be Perdita Felicien. Touted by all for a medal heredramatic crash shocked Cana- dian sports fans. | suppose her tripping on the first hurdle could be characterized as "the agony of de-feet." (Sorry) What happened afterwards was what ticked me off. "The crash" was run and re-run until we could all see it in our sleep. Right after the race a CBC inter- viewer nabbed fellow Canadian Angela Whyte, who had finished 6" and asked: did you see what happened to Perdita? Here's this woman who just ran the race of her life, finished 6" in the world, and all the CBC cares about is some- one who crashed. What an incredible lack of class. Being 6" in the world at an event like the 100 m. hurdles ain't chopped liver. And who's picture was on the front page next day? Not the 38-year-old cycler who toiled for more than 10 years and overcame huge obsta- cles. On no-- we had to see Perdita in ruins. Agreed, Perdita handled the situ- ation with class and dignity. But if what we as a nation care about at the Olympics is medals, which is what we are told, then why not put all the spotlights on the winners? Think I'm off base? Quick now: who won the gold, our nation's first in this event, in athletic gymnas- tics? Who tripped, fell and took out the Russian racer in the next lane? See my point? So, what about Irina \ Shevchenko? She trained her butt The agony of de-feet! The Way |" 1 See It with Mike O'Leary off for years to qualify for the fi- nals just like our ladies did. I would think her reaction would be a rivet- ing human interest story. I didn't see much about her. What about Ameri- can Joanna Hayes who won the event in a time better than Perdita's _best. Her performance, bettering the current world champion's (Perdita) time, should have rated better treat- ment. Far too much time and attention was spent by the experts explain- ing why their pre-annointed winner stumbled on the first hurdle. The answer is simple; forget the psychobabble. It's just sport, falls and failure are just part of the proc- ess. My old ski coach used to drum into us that if we weren't falling we weren't trying -- not pushing our limits far enough. By that definition I was an extremely successful skiier. Unfortunately, the stop watch told a different tale. Seems you're also supposed to finish the course. But I digress. I think Canada had a good Olym- pics. We had many top tens. One swimmer had three personal best times in a row. Isn't that what the Olympics is really all about? Chal- lenging yourself against the best in the world and doing better than you ever had before? What more can we ask? I applaud every athlete that represented us in Athens. Now our Olympic braintrust is saying the answer to more medals is more money. While money may be part of the answer, how it's spent is another question. We need less bureacracy. We sent more support staff and spear carriers to Athens than athletes. I heard we have seven -- 10 bureaucrats for every carded athlete in the system. And you can bet the apparatchiks are taking home far more from the public purse than any athlete. The latest brainfart coming from Disneyland-on-the-Rideau would see federal funds spent on promot- ing athletics in our schools. That should be a toilet for money. _ Schools are not set up to challenge individual athletes. Now if there was a program where promising athletes from schools were referred to high performance clinics with professional coaches then I think we'd have the beginnings ofa good program. But that would probably make too much sense for our Ot- tawa masters. It was the unexpected athletes who came through in Athens. I'll wager the same thing will happen in Peking four years down the road. By the by, Kyle Shewfelt won our first ever medal in artistic gymnas- tics. I had to look it up. There are other things going on in our wide wacky world. The American election is grinding on. The Republicans are holding their convention this week in New York. They must be having fun: I heard on the radio they were having a riot. Also on the American political scene New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey resigned because he had an extramarital affair with an- other man. I shudder to think of what Bill Clinton must be planning to recapture the title of chief sleazeball. McGreevey is report- edly spending time with his wife where, according to a spokesman, they were "still working on the is- sues they have to work on." My insider information is that they have agreed on an equitable split of assets, child support and even who gets the family pets. The only big fight is over who gets the lin- gerie. Negotiations continue. Closer to home the Mounties re- port that organized crime is recruiting homeless men to smug- gle dope into Canada with offers of cash and paid vacations. Since there's a big Mountie detachment in Milton, and we support our po- lice, we offer up the following trip so the horsemen can continue to get their man. "Check out the guys pushing shopping carts off the planes verrrry carefully." Yer wel- come. Liberal M.P. Carolyn Parrish is. proud she is not a member of the "Coalition of idiots" she sees in the United states. Word justin from the "Coalition of idiots" is that she ap- plied but was turned down. Evidently, Ms. Parrish failed the 1.Q. test. Ms. Parrish is also not joining Mensa. Stay tuned for even more riveting news from M.P. Parrish. 2