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Page THE HERALD OUTLOOK Saturday March 1989 the HERALD OUTLOOK published each Saturday by the HALTON HILLS HERALD Home Newspaper of Hills A Division of Canadian Newspapers Company Limited at Guelph Street Georgetown Ontario 3Z6 Second Class Mail- Outlook Exercise in wax 8772201 Registered Number 8778822 Ottawa Stewart MacLeod Thomson Hews Sendee It was Prime Minister Mulroney himself who said that his govern ment or perhaps it was his office didnt handle small things very well What he was emphasizing of course was that the big things were handled extremely well That was nearly three years ago But there is no reason why the prime minister would change his mind in the meantime A big thing would be something like a general election And in November Mr and his Tory team handled that very well A small thing would be arrang ing a sitting with personnel from Madame Tussauds Wax Museum And just a week or so ago Mr Mulroney and his advisers didnt handle that very well In fact they looked rather foolish It seems that the famous London museum which has wax models of the worlds prominent personalities has wanted Mr Mulroney to sit for measurements ever since he became prime minister in 1984 The prime minister not noticeably opposed to rubbing shoulders even of the waxed variety with other famous people kept putting it Off By the time his enthusiasm wax ed his first mandate was drawing to a close the opinion polls turned against him and Madame interest had waned The museum usually doesnt waste much time in moving out defeated politicians unless theyre of the stature of say Winston Churchill TIME RIPE Anyway when Mr won reelection last November the museum expressed renewed in terest In fact were told the wax experts practically pleaded with him to pose Those close to the prime minister said that while he now gungho for such an appoint he harbored severe reserva tions about how the Canadian media might cover the event Obj- viously he didnt Want to appear to be pushing bis way into the wax works And its doubtful whether be would look forward to cartoons about being measured particular ly when it came to that famous chin There are several versions of what actually happened but in any event an understanding was reached between the museum and the prime ministers office that a sitting would be arranged on March when Mr Mulroney would be visiting London This was on his way back from the en vironmental conference in The Hague The prime minister say in formants was led to believe the posing or whatever would be done without fanfare away from the prying media There are stories of internal memos being mislaid in any case signals were crossed and the museum announced tliat the Canadian prime minister would be sitting Not only that the museum ar ranged to give the Canadian media a demonstration of how it produces the wax figures This would be a first of sorts Mr Mulroneys scheduled sitting would not only be public knowledge the occasion would be part of a televised demonstration NOT HAPPY Its not difficult to understand why the prime minister might have lost much of his enthusiasm for the appointment But this being a relatively small thing it wasnt handled well It became a sort of catandmouse game between reporters and of ficials from Mr Mulroneys office Would he sit or wouldnt he For several days there seemed to be confusion One official told a reporter that it depends to some extent on how the media plays it By then the story of Mr Mulroneyls sitting or nonsitting was getting frontpage treatment Yes the prime minister did go ahead with the sitting but not as originally scheduled in the museum It was in the privacy of his hotel room away from prying eyes Tooilate The sitting had become one of the most publicized in the museums history And some reporters were upset because they were deprived of a demonstration It was all so unnecessary Its a great honor to be asked to sit for Madame Tussauds If its good enough for the Queen John Kennedy the Pope and Churchill it shouldnt be considered an em barrassment for a Canadian prime minister Virtually everyone depicted in the museum has freely cooperated Its not like going to the local bootleggers after midnight But as Mr Mulroney said on Ju ly l we do the big things well its the small things we do poorly PUBLISHER David A EDITOR Mike Turner AD MANAGER Dan Taylor STAFF WRITERS Brian MacLeod SPORTS WRITER Paul Donna Kell ACCOUNTING Tammy CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Joan SNAFU by Bruce Beattie ADVERTISING SALES Jeannlne Valois Craig Teeter Sharon PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT Dave Hastings Annie Myles Susanne Wilson CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT Marie Shadboll PRESSROOM FOREMAN Brian AJkman PRESS ASSISTANT Lee Bittner Backyard dilemma How dare you put the diet books in the widest aisle Everything old is new again Your Business Diane Maley Thornton Newi Service In the world of popular culture black is back jazz is in cats are cool Elvis lives and anyone who is not hip is a drag From clothes to music to the way people talk everything thirty years old new again Its eery People are clad in black from head to toe Women pile their up Brigitte Bardot style with bangs hiding their blacklined eyes They wear long black sweaters tight black skirts black tights and spikeheeled shoes with pointed toes Men grease their hair slick it back wear black leather jackets and black slacks Im talking about professionals doctors and lawyers in their early 40s The kids go much further Mind you the way the kids talk is music to the ears of aging baby boomers People are cool or hip or a drag language familiar to the set Boomers and their kids sit side by side in jazz clubs sipping Black Label beer That nostalgia sells is not news But the sheer strength of its appeal is something we should wonder at If a new magazine is any measure North Americans are walking backward into the future their gaze fixed on the past PAST BECKONS Memories billed as the magazine of then and now is made of the news of bygone days Why Jackie Married Art how Harry Truman defeated Thomas Dewey for the American presidency bow Orson Welles threw the country in to a panic with his radio play The War of the Worlds the making of Gone With the Wind and the Alger HiM spy case v- For reporters and editors drum ming up yesterdays news is an easy business But will it sell Seems so if early responses are any sign In the magazines second edition it is published quarterly editor Carey Winfrey seems ge nuinely surprised at receiving more than 500 letters from en thusiastic readers At first I was skeptical living in the past is not a good thing An hour later I had changed my mind at least provisionally Years of thirtysecond television news clips have made our memories far too short It is useful to remember that on ly 50 years ago people really believed that the Martians had landed and were poised to take over the world Who the magazine is designed for is revealed by its adver tisements Pluck pluck pluck pluck pluck Isnt it time to change the way you deal with gray the ad for hair dye reads Gray hair or Loving Care ADS AT ODDS While aging baby boomers are the target the ads are at odds with the still hip people sitting around jazz clubs wearing berets black leather jackets and graying goatees Who wants to be reminded that its time to start dying ones hair It gets worse A few pages later isflh ad for herbal tea followed by a limited edition plate to celebrate SO years of the Wizard an electric toothbrush designed to swish away plaque porcelain dolls of Scarlett OHara and Butler and Correcto laxative Memories calls itself the magazine of then and now The editorial pages are devoted to then the ads to now On second thought lets leave the past present behind and Staff Comment Brian MacLeod Your municipal representatives are going to be put to the test in the next few days Sometime on Tuesday night theyll have to make what will amount decision Homeowners on Metcalfe Court Eden Place and Dawson and Irwin Crescents are slowly watching their backyards crumble away into a ravine behind their houses Theyve been told that the original placed fill to extend their yards in the mid1960s and early 1970s but they didnt compact it properly The homeowners have been told their backyards will completely without stabilization Now its going to cost million to stabilize the banks of 34 homes The first 16 homes on Metcalfe Court are scheduled to have the work done this year The province has approved its 55percent share of the Metcalfe Court repairs That section alone will cost 300000 On Tuesday the town will decide if it will kick in the remaining per cent work out a costsharing formula with homeowners or tell the homeowners to pay for it themselves Whatever the decision on Met calfe Court is it will have to apply to the homeowners on the other streets as well The average price of the bank stabilization on Metcalfe Court is between and with a high of 36000 not exactly amounts that are tucked away for a rainy day If the town decides not to endorse the project there is no guarantee the money will be approved by the province again next year Homeowners say the town has known about the situation for 17 years For councillors the easy decision would be to say no the town cant afford it One would expect those homeowners would have a long memory come election time but its probably easier to explain to 34 homeowners why they wont get the money than it is to explain to the entire town why some projects have to be cancelled or why the budget is skyrocketing because of a bank stabilization project As it stands the homeowners will have to pay for the repairs out of their own pockets Some residents want the town to foot the bill saying the town has a moral obligation to pro tect them from unscrupulous builders Others are willing to work out a costsharing formula It would be easy perhaps to say buyer beware in this case But whats a prospective homeowner to do Go out and jump on their backyard to see if it crumbles The case for the moral obligation is there The case for the legal obligation may not be Thats where the dilemma comes in In the past with such potentially expensive projects councillors have stuck to the legal obligation Regardless it will be Interesting to beat the justification of their l