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6 Oakville Beaver Weekend Sunday November 7,1999 T h e Oakville B eaver Ian Oliver Publisher Neil Oliver, Associate Publisher Norman Alexander Editor Kelly Montague, Advertising Director Martin Doherty Circulation Director Ten Casas Office Manager Mark Dills Production Manager Riziero Vertolli Photography Director Metroland P m trig, Pubfching & Distributing Ltd., includes; Ajax/Pckem g News Advertiser. A lston Herald/Courier, Same Ac*/ance. Barry's Bay This Week. B olon Enterprise, Brampton Guardian, Burington Post. Burington Shopping News. City Parent. ColngwoocWV&saga C om ectcn. East Mark M rror. Enn Advocate/C ouitry Routes, Etobicoke Guardian, Ftamborough Post. Georgetown Independent/Acton Free Press, Huroraa Buaness Tmes. Kingston This Week. Lindsay This Week. M arkham Ecnom ist & Sun. M idland/Penetanguishm e M irror. M ilton Canadian Cham pion. M ilton S hopping News. M ississauga Business Tim es. M ississauga News. Napanee G ude, Newmarket/Aurora Era-Barrier. Northumberland News. North York Mirror. O akvile Beaver, O akvile Shopping News. O dtm ers Hockey News. O rila Today. O shawa/W hitby/Clarington Port Perry This Week. Owen Sound Tribune. Peterborough This Week. Picton County G uide. Richm ond HiH/Thornhill/Vaughan Liberal. Scarborough Mirror. StouffvleriJxbridge Tribune. Fbresrer'vbung, City of York Guardian RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: N e w s p a p e rs THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: s = ! Y vm ca `f e r a f r Association ^C N A ___rn in n iir TV AUCTION Q akvlle XENTOE TH E $ R O N Tip t U T T E R F L Y JiNqlE B eII Fund Ti-Erm ^O TT& 5 1 * l 4 6 7 S p eers Rd., O akville O n t L6K 3S 4 (905) 8 4 5 - 3 8 2 4 Fax: 3 3 7 - 5 5 6 7 'S E 5 7 Editorials Economic magic When is a federal budget not a federal budget? When it's an `economic update' from federal Finance Minister Paul Martin. To the surprise of no one who takes a careful look at their weekly tax deduc tions, the federal government has been picking our pockets for years and now has billions of dollars in excess of spending. So Canada's in a great fiscal position, right? Martin concludes that as we hit the millennium, the Wrong. federal government will In his own version o f voodoo econom ics, Martin concludes that as we hit the millennium, have a $9.5 billion bulge to play with, $4 billion o f j the federal government will have a $9.5 billion bulge to play with, $4 billion of which may go to which m ay go to pay down the debt. The key word j pay down the debt. The key word here is `may'. And here's the other caveat by Martin...unless it's here i s ` m ay'. not needed for something else. Just what that something else might be was not forthcoming from Martin. It's the debt that is ham pering the buying power and economic status of Canadians. Tax cuts are a mirage as long as our massive debt continues to hang over the country. The only way for Canadians to have a good standard of living and lower taxes is to knock down the debt. It's pointless to have lower taxes if more of those monies go to interest payments and not programs or services. Furthermore, as long as the feds use `bracket creep' to push more taxpayers into higher tax brackets, real tax cuts are a farce anyway. The average taxpayer will just keep paying more and more tax. Here's the deal. The debt is over $600 billion, so any talk of additional programs is moot. If a household is deeply in hock, purchasing a new car or doing extensive renovations has to be put on hold. Extrapolate that to the debt and the idea of spending more is ridiculous. He's out of the closet as a 'foodie' Alas, it's come to this. T 'was a time, as recently as last summer, when I still considered myself to be a hip, happening, cool cat. Then I caught m yself using words like `alas' and `t 'was', and fu rth e rm o re I sta rte d fin d in g m y s e lf fre q u e n tly b eco m in g engaged in deep discussions about things as unhip and uncool as lawn care-g ru b w orm s in p articu lar. Whoa, I reflected: just how hip and happening is that? Grubs, for good ness sakes? W hat next? Would I suddenly take an interest in the proper way to prune petunias? But that's not the half of it. In recent months I've found my coolcat quotient plummeting even far ther. Right off the hipster radar screen. Because in recent months, I 've becom e hopelessly hooked on...Cooking shows. Personally, I blame my wife for any loss o f cool that's occurred, and for getting me hooked on these shows. You see, one night while channel surfing, she found what she believed to be the most amaz ing thing. Something called The Food Network, which as I under stand it, is like The Golf Network. Only it's about food, not golf. "Wow," my wife said. "Twentyfour-hours-a-day. Food show s." She soon became addicted and I, wanting only to maintain the close ness in our relationship (being a comforting as vegetating in front of your television while a master chef, a cu lin ary a rtist, p re p a re s an exquisite, exotic and mouth-water ing meal that you'll probably never taste even if you live to be 100 years-old. Crawfish beignets with tomato and com tartar sauce imme diately comes to mind. Anyway, I got hooked. Not by all the shows, mind you. But by one in particular-problem is, it's a popular show that airs about a zil lion times a day. Emeril Live. For those of you eternally hip, happening folks who (a) have a life (b) have not seen Emeril Live, it's an hour-long cooking program hosted by the ebullient master chef (and restaurant owner and author) Emeril Lagasse, a man who likes cooking with a pinch o f hum our and a brash dash of attitude. This is the chef who's famous for adding extra garlic to each recipe (10-12 cloves) and a whack of spice just to `kick it up a notch'. In E m eril's world, everything is kicked up a notch. I'm not alone in my admiration of Emeril. The other day, our fouryear-old took it upon h erself to pick up the remote control (which she's not allowed to do), turn on the television (which I didn't think she knew how to do) and channel surf (that's my girl!). After a quick run up the m any ch an n els, she found something that captured her attention. She ran to find me. "Daddy," she called, "Em eril's on and h e 's say in g " b a m " . Overhearing his-sister, our nineyear-o ld shouted: "He m ust be kicking it up a notch." So we have family nights with The Food Network. I feel old and unhip. Until I hear that Emeril Live is a huge hit on U.S. college cam puses. Mind you, they've turned the show into a drinking game. Participants m ust take one swig each time Emeril says "kick it up a notch," or "essence" or "bam !" And that, cooking fans, is a dandy recipe for a hangover. sensitive 90s guy), began to watch along. I was skeptical. I couldn't imagine anything more mundane, or moronic, than television cooking shows. Unless, it was televising golf. But I found that these cooking shows are perfect anodynes to the aches and pains of life. Honestly, there are few things as relaxing and Pud VW E I L , P IP Y O U ^ H O W M A X By Steve Nease MonMto s t a n d AND U SE TH £ p o n Y DIKE A B is Boy ?