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Scugos Citizen -- IT Jay 23,1991 -- 7 VIEWPOINT/COUNTERPOINT Sr Cathy Olliffe So, how do you know when (if) 'the recession is over? "Look at the employment rate, count the number of cars sold, or washing machines; measure this and that, feed it all into a big computer, then plot it on.a graph and compare it with the same stuff you did last year. K, the economists have all kinds of tricks to find out if we are in a recession -or not. But an casy way ta get an accurate assessment is from your local grocery store. : Just ask your friendly grocer how many packages of Kraft Dinner are click- . ing through the check-out.counter. Kraft Dinner? Seriously. It seems that Kraft, the giant American food processor can gauge the state of the economy witha fair degree of accuracy based on sales of thé famous macaroni'and cheese that comes in the card-board box. The logic behind this is that den times get tough, a lot of people turn to old reliable to fill their stomachs. It's cheap, filling, nourishing to a point and easy o prepare. But when the good times roll, hey, what do you want: macaroni and cheese or steak and caviar. Seriously, I read an article not long ago in a financial jogrnal that suggested this method. is a fairly good yard-stick on 'the nation's economic well being. If a lot of people just survive a reces- 'sion'by stocking up on Kraft Dinner, I suspect a few actually. thrive "by buying stock in Kraft Foods when times get tough. If I was running Kraft Foods sight now, I'd be Jooking" east to the Soviet Union. The USSR as we all know is in a-mess and 280 million people are facing shortages of eyery kind, including food. Can you imag- ine the market for Kraft Dinner right now? All thoge people craving that nice, warm, full feeling one gets after a big plate of Kraft D. Only trouble is they have no money to. pay for the stuff. The ruble is worth zip outside Russia (and not much more inside) and the Big Seven economic powers last week indicated they are not about to hand large amounts of cash to Premict Gorby to pull his political chest nuts out of the fire, Is there .not something slightly ironic about the fact the USSR has spent billions over the decades doing everything short of all-out war to wreck the western, demo- cratic. and capitalist way of life. Now, when the communist system is bankrupt financially (it always was bankrupt moral- ly and spiritually) the leadership runs to those same.western countries with open arms and says "help us, please." For my money, any hand-outs to the Soviet Union must be tied directly to mili- ; tary reductions (verifiable, of tourse) a complete hands-off the Baltic States which: have been struggling for indepen- dence fordecades, and an acceleration to open democracy, free enterprise and free- dom for the individual. Don't get me wrong. Mikhail Gorbachev. as leader of the USSR has taken 'that countryymonumental steps towards reform. Ard the, people deserve support. They are not 10° blame for the seven decades of communist {oily foisted on them by Lenin, Stalin et al. But let's see some clear examples that the system is changing. And let's see some concrete proof of military reductions with the savings diverted directly to eco nomic reform that will mean something to |* the average citizen, IN CLOSING..... The Borelians Theatre group of Port Perry has taken a bit of .a gamble in staging a production at Town Hall 1873 in the dead of summer. But the group has always had a flair for "being _ different." And in staging "Same Time, Next Year," a bitter-sweet comedy by Bernard Slade, they have come up with a winner. Talk about a nostalgia trip. Steve Foote as George and Lorraine Chiusolo as Doris give top rate performances. They are the only actors on stage, and that in itself must be tough. If you need a break from the pool, the boat, the bar-b-q or the Blue Jays, get over to Town Hall 1873 this Friday or Saturday evening (July 26 and 27) and catch some fine summer theatre. Curtain is 8:00 PM and you can get tickets at the door. Enjoy. 1 did. See the colour on the {ront page? Beauty, eh? Yeah, well, we're kind of proud of the way it looks. Just another way to brighten up everyone's day. That's our job -- to bring a smile to your lips, to-let you know what's new, 10 help make shopping easier -- and to give you something to look at on your coffee break. It's especially important to. me to do all these things and to be quick about it. I don't want you to have 10 wade through pages and pages of information about the same topic, when one short story. and a picture does the job just as well. - Personally, I don't have enough time in the day to read long drawn-out stories or watch the entire news broadcast on TV. I+ want my news fast and easy 10 urider- : stand. Not that it's easy being concise. Writer's block is rarely a problem. If any- thing, I find it tough writing short. Photos, 'on the other hand, tell a story at a glance. One look, and you've get the gist of what's going on. I'd like to see more pho- tog An the paper -- and we will, as the advertising base grows and the paper gets -* i bigger. the last two weeks. We shoot all our pho- tos in full colour and have them devel- oped by Rob, Norm, Marilyn and Jeff at RJM Photographics. Then we size the prints and take them to Tony and Wendy at Port Perry Printing. Tony PMT's the. pictures (screens them for printing). Finally, the finished pages are printed by Uxbridge Printing (there are no local presses capable of printing a newspaper our size). « Somewhere along the line, our photos got a lide faded looking. Were we con- cerned? Well, not HALF as concerned as everyone else. Suddenly .we were the centre, of atiengion. RIM talked to Port Perry Printing. Pont Perry Printing talked to: Uxbridge Printing, Everyone was going way out of their way to help us. The next thing we knew, the pictures were bright and crisp and beautiful. It's really nice to be cared about, espe- cially by these people who are such pro- fessionals in their fields, Thariks, guys! = Mivet ps MygatERY 4 We're pretty sure he's a boy, "but with such long, pretty blonde ringlets, it's hard to tell. All we know about this faded photo Is that It was taken by W.H. Leonard of Port Perry. This Leonard guy must have taken a lot of pho- tos because there are plenty of his at the museum. There are many, many uniden- tified photos at Scugog Shores: Museum, and curator Gail Sheridan would love, some : day, to have 'them all properly identified. To-give her a Mand, the Citizen . will print a different 'unsolved mystery' each week, in the . hopes some. of these marvel- lous but mysterious people will have names once again. If you think you solve this week's unsolved m call Gail at the museum -- 985 3589. T SNAPSHOT OF THE WEEK AFTER HOURS -- help shots -- Perry. NEED A HAND, GRAM- PA, HUH GRAMPA, HUH? Matthew Stewart was really anxious to his William Roy Hope, cut the grass (we wonder how anxious Matthew will be when he's 167). Thanks to Beth Stewart for the photo! - Send us your: favorite snap- of your family, your pets, your vacation, whatever photo you've taken 'and you're 'proud of! Citizen staffers will select their favorite snaps and run them in this space. Then, at the end of the year, we'll have a' panel of judges choose their favorite picture, and the pho- tographer will win a brand new 35mm camera. Our address is 36 Water St., Port something? grandpa, hear from You. their minds. readers, Is something bugging you? " Or are you thrilled about tever's on your Our motto is 'A Proud Voice for Scugog', and more than any- thing, we want to give our read- ers a voice to say whatever's on Like other newspapers, we welcome letters to the editor, but to make it even easier for we've started 'After| Hours, an after-hours tele- phone hotline, which records! your 'live' letter to the editor, If you're 100 busy to sit down 3 (RE and write, simply dial 985- NEWS anytime before 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m. weekdays and all the time on weekends. ur After Hours answering [Bd machine will récord your cs cp it a reason: .able length). Then we'll tran- scribe your call and publish it in our After Hours column. Please include your name "mous messages will be printed. The phone number won't be After Hours is 'even easier than it sounds, So call us! and phone number. No anony- | published, but we will call you