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

OAKVILLE BEAVER Saturday, April 4, 2009 · 6 The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5571 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate.The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Commentary Letter to the Editor NEIL OLIVER Vice-president and Group Publisher, Metroland West DAVID HARVEY General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director Metroland Media Group Ltd. includes: Ajax/Pickering News Advertiser, Alliston Herald/Courier, Arthur Enterprise News, Barrie Advance, Caledon Enterprise, Brampton Guardian, Burlington Post, Burlington Shopping News, City Parent, Collingwood/Wasaga Connection, East York Mirror, Erin Advocate/Country Routes, Etobicoke Guardian, Flamborough Review, Georgetown Independent/Acton Free Press, Harriston Review, Huronia Business Times, Lindsay This Week, Markham Economist & Sun, Midland/Penetanguishine Mirror, Milton SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution SARAH MCSWEENEY Circ. Manager WEBSITE oakvillebeaver.com Canadian Champion, Milton Shopping News, Mississauga Business Times, Mississauga News, Napanee Guide, Newmarket/Aurora EraBanner, Northumberland News, North York Mirror, Oakville Beaver, Oakville Shopping News, Oldtimers Hockey News, Orillia Today, Oshawa/Whitby/Clarington Port Perry This Week, Owen Sound Tribune, Palmerston Observer, Peterborough This Week, Picton County Guide, Richmond Hill/Thornhill/Vaughan Liberal, Scarborough Mirror, Stouffville/Uxbridge Tribune, Forever Young, City of York Guardian Reader inspired to write OTMH saved her life, too I RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville TV AUCTION OTHS moving on DANIEL HO / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER ROBOTICS: Brandon Jutras, Jen Hall and Eric Atkinson from Oakville Trafalgar High School control their robot at the First Robotics regional competition held at the Hershey Centre in Misssissauga last week. The competition included 58 teams from Canada and the U.S. Oakville Trafalgar made it to the semi finals of the competition and will be competing at the World Championship in Atlanta, Georgia April 16-18. just read Susan Arnold's letter on how Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH) saved her life (Oakville Beaver, Saturday, March 28, 2009). I had trouble getting through the letter as tears welled up in my eyes. Next month I will celebrate a special 10th anniversary. In April of 1999, I also contracted necrotizing fasciitis or "flesh-eating disease". I checked into the OTMH emergency room with severe pain and a raging fever. I was met by my own GP, Dr. Deborah Grapko and the most wonderful plastic surgeon on this planet, Dr. Stephen Brown. They immediately made the diagnosis and aggressively battled the bacteria, which fought to overtake my left arm and then my left breast. I also contracted NF's nasty `partner in crime', Toxic Shock Syndrome, which proceeded to attack my organs. However, the wonderful doctors, surgeons, technicians and nursing staff at OTMH wouldn't give up on me and I survived with nothing more than several inches of scar tissue. The outcome should have been much worse and I know that if I had been in another community I may not have survived. After that experience I was featured in a fundraising publication for OTMH to tell my story and why it is so important to support this wonderful facility. Not only was I born in OTMH nearly 48 years ago, but both mysons were also born there. There are so many negative stories about hospital experiences these days that we need to get the word out that OTMH is different ... and it and its staff deserves all the support we can give. Susan's letter says it all. They just don't give up. I wish you all the best Susan. I am sure you will, as I do, live your life to its fullest, hold loved ones closer and appreciate every second on this earth. And on the 10th anniversary of your experience, I am sure you, too, will be thanking the powers for the Angels of OTMH. Thank you for sharing your story and providing your support to OTMH. CARRIE (MCGREGOR) CAMERON When the tables are turned and you are asked for a turntable I asked our son what he wanted for his 19th birthday and he said he was intent on making things super simple this year by offering up a wish list that contained but one single, solitary item. Unenthusiastic shoppers that we are, my wife and rejoiced, thinking that one desired present would surely equal quick and painless shopping. His birthday would be a breeze. Could we be any more naïve? It was after hours of searching online, and more time spent striking-out at nearby and some not-so-nearby stores that we concluded that in reality our son was not requesting one single, solitary item for his birthday so much as he was asking us to invent a time machine, travel back in time, and buy him a gift from the days when the measure of a young man's wealth was made not in gold, but, rather, in vinyl. You see, our son wanted us to buy him a turntable. For whippersnappers born ACD (After Compact Discs) -- that is, after the creation of CDs, or certainly post-1985 (when Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms became the first CD to sell onemillion copies and officially render vinyl obsolete), here's what you need to know: back in the day, a `turntable' was a piece of audio equipment upon which you spun round, flat platters that fogies called `vinyl' or `records'. Turntables and records were cool and delivered decent sound, but they had inherent flaws, not the least of which was a serious lack of portability (rarely did you see a muscle-dude strutting down a beach with a turntable, speakers and a long extension cord up on his shoulder). Oh, and records had a Andy Juniper maddening propensity to become dusty, scratched, stained, warped, chipped, broken, all of which rendered their sound unlistenable. Unless you were playing Led Zeppelin, and then chances are you never noticed the difference. Personally, I was an ardent and obsessive collector of vinyl. Each payday I would frequent the local record shop, pick out the cream of the crop and cart `em home, only to be greeted at the door by my mother's apocalyptic warnings that I was wasting my money and ruining my life buying crummy music that would soon be forgotten. Well, mom was wrong about the music (I still listen to some of those bands), but right about the records that are currently collecting dust in basement -- collecting dust since I so long ago fell for the reliability, durability and portability of CDs. Which, in turn, have recently all but succumbed to newer technology. So, why was my son desirous of a turntable in the first place? Well, all the punk bands he loves are, for no logical reason, now putting out tunes on vinyl. Back to the future. Trouble is, most stores catering to the sale of music equipment are not catering to the punk crowd (perhaps because people listening to bands like Bat's Ass and Eat Paste & Die tend to lack fiscal fluidity). Indeed, most stores haven't carried turntables since Tiffany topped the pop charts. And the throwback stores that continue to sell them, only stock top-of-the-line models. Read: expensive! Alas, we finally found a decent-priced turntable in the heart of Toronto. So much for quick and painless shopping. It could have been worse, I suppose. He could have asked for an eight-track player and a copy of Foghat. Shhhh. Best if we don't give him any ideas. Andy Juniper can be visited at his Web site, www.strangledeggs.com, or contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com.