INSIDE
‘SPORTS MENU C2.

ROB BROWN

Sad commentary

FLICKED ON the car radio to

catch the CBC News at noon. The

lead story featured a Cable TV

company run by somebody named
Roger which has wrung in the New Year with
an inflammatory kind of marketing strategy.

Sprinkled between talk of negativity and op-
tions was: all manner of acronymic litter: there
were TSNs and CMTs, PBSs and A&Es, Gosh.

As near as I could figure it, if Roger was a
short order cook he’d whip you up a deluxe
cheese burger with onions and bacon, even
though you ordered a regular cheese burger.

After your first bite you would tell him you
hadn't ordered all the extras, didn’t like the
laste, and had no intention of paying the higher
price. Whereupon Roger would wipe his greasy
hands on the front of his apron, pick up your
plate, return to the kitchen, then reappear and
plunk a cheeseless plain burger in front of you,
and make no changes to the tab.

Now, | could have this wrong. Because this
cable confusion is so incredibly trivial, and be-
cause I simply don’t give a damn about it —
and have a lot of trouble imagining how anyone
would — I need to put the spurs to my brain in
order to make the poor fact-saturated organ deal
with the whole issue.

How, I asked myself, did a story this in-
significant get star billing on the News at
Twelve? Not that trivial little items don’t make
the big time air. They do, but they are always
happy time stories about enormously fat pigs, or

puppy, or a crow that has learned to speak

' Aramaic; there was no glec in the Roger’s story,

at least none that I could find,
There were. some big time items that might

~ have received star billing that day. The Russians
* under the direction of Depuly Premier Nickolai

Yevgoroy —- who obviously has not learned the
Icssons of Viet Nam, or Afghanistan — were
lumbering into Chechnya and getting a scrious
thumping. If Yevgorov had The Ast of War by

- the “brilliant ancient Chinese strategist and

theorist Sun Tzu, he would know the futility of

the Russian campaign and that bombing

civilians is a sure roulc to defeat,

Now this is a BIG story with BIG implications
for planet Earth. Boris. Yeltsin is looking to bol-
ster his flagging popularity by drubbing a-tiny
stale looking to’be a country. In the process

Russian pride will get pumped, and the control

of the oil upon which the Chechans have the
misfortune to sit wiil be reliquished.

If Yeltsin is unsuccessful he may not be re-
elected, opening the way for one Viadimir
Shiranovsky who gamered 14 million votes last
time round. Shiranovsky is a complete lunatic
who speaks of nuclear war as a viable option,
poses in his boxer shorts for the media,
espouses overtly racist dogma and has gotten
into fist fights in the Russian Parliament.

There were olher storics to lead the news too:
the ccase fire in Bosnia, among thousands of
other international, national and provincial

~~ items, all more important that Rogers dodgings.

That afternoon I fired up, the tube and logged
on to BCTV News, I showld have known.
BCTV had given the Rogers, story top billing

_and assigned it to the Abbott and Costello of the

provincial news world, Clem and Harv, (Who’s
on first? I dunne, Then we'll make it up.)

Yes sir, here was Harv standing like an over-
stuffed couch in front of a hanger he said con-
tained a five million dollar yacht soon to be pur-
chased by — you guessed it — Rogers. Hmmm.
Neat up Clem who had, after some scrious, big-
time sleuthing, discovered the employees at
Rogers Cable were no longer getting a free
package of soup in the company cafeteria.

Shame,

The real news story was the unbelievable
furore caused by the cable company’s actions.
At one point the company was handling 3,000
complaints an hour. If the people of this country
had expressed that level of indignation over the
GST, we wouldn’t have It. ;

What a sad sociely we live in. Thousands and
thousands of people surrounded by problems in
need of urgent altcntion choose to sit lifelessly
in the glow of their TV screens, while millions
of images —- most pomographically violent or
numbingly inane — radiate into their minds.

Neither the poor quality of most of the
progams, nor the transformation of news into
entertainmicnt, nor the rampant hucksteting,
arouses much in the way of aggressive protest.
But when someone mucks with the format,and
takes away the ability to, say, access a country
music channel or a sports. network, legions leap
to their fect 10 howl in protest.

Freud said religion. was. the opiate: of the

masses, Well Sigmund, men fteund, ip 8 taken a

backseat to TV..

lottery-winners, the- family that finds a missingtt-J

Head for
the hill

BRILLIANT BLUE. skies,
‘Spectacular views of majestic
mountains and snow, snow,
snow.

Just what you'd expect skiers
on Shames Mountain to be en-
joying last week.

But warmer weather than the
rest of us huddled on the floor
of the Skeena Valley?

Strange as it may sound, that
was the case.

Take last Friday, for exam-
ple. While Terrace was shiver-
ing in minus 13.2 degrees
even at the warmest point of
the day, Shames Mountain’s
forecast was a comparatively
comfortable minus 7.

However, weather specialist

- Harry Earle says it’s not un-

unusual for the mountain to be
slightly warmer when there’s
inversion conditions as there
were last week.

Skiers also gct another break
when these oulflow conditions
prevail: those howling winds
that attempt to bowl over un-
wary pedestrians often miss
the hill altogether.

Earle explained the outflow
tends to whistle down the
Skeena and Kitimat Valleys
and Shames can escape the
worst if not all of the wind.

“t’s tucked around the

aasttcons ,comer,’’ he said, adding ‘‘It’s
not a bad spot they’ve gol

there.”

The downside of last week’s.
conditions was, of course, no
fresh snow but Earle expected .

thatto change this week.
Noting the high pressure sys-
tem over the Interior was be-

ginning to break down, he

estimated southwestern. flows
would return to the area bring-
ing snow by today.

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 11, 1995 - C1

SECTION Cc
MALCOLM | BAXTER 638-7283

SKIING AT THE: PEAK. Clear sunny skies last week encouraged: ithe’ two. intrepid skiers seen
above to seek out the ultimate in panoramas at Shames. That involved treking approximately 700m
above the lifts to the summit, but once there the view proved the effort well worthwhile.

Defence the name of the game

IT’S NOT how many goals
you score, it’s how many you
let in.

That was the message in the
Men’s Recreational Hockey
division standings as the sec-
ond half of the season got un-
der way.

Norm’s Auto Refinishing top
the six team league in scoring,
having turned on the lights
127 times by the break.

And Troy Farkvam and Jim |

Rigler, its sharpshoaters, were
one-two in the individual
points standings.

But the All Seasons Lightn-
ing, only four goals better than
the lowest scoring team in the
division, still ruled the roost.

With only four losses in 21
games, the Lightning held a
four point edge and a game in
hand over the Refinishers.

For an explanation, you
don’t have to look much fur-
ther than the goaltending stats.
Once again this year, All Sea-
son’s backstop Leland
McDonald tops the list.

Having played in all but one
of the Lightning’s games to
date, he boasts a goals against
average of 3.85 per game,

If All Seasons look well
placed to take yet another
league title, the battle for
runner-up is still tight enough
to be interesting,

Norm’s Auto are just one

clear of the Back Eddy Bullies ©
with the Skeena Hotel Sharks
another three adrift.

The Refinishers have games
in hand over both their pur-
suers, however, and the Bul-
lies were due to face All Sea-

‘sons last night’ while Norm’s

took on cellar dwellers Preci-
sion Builders. ..
_ Over-in the Oldtimer divi-
sion, the Northern Motor Inn
Okies underlined their first
place status with an 8-6 win
over the Terrace. Timbermen
to open up a seven point lead.
However, the Timbermen

have played five fewer games.
anda points-per-game calcula-
tion shows the teams are al-

most evenly matched.

In the Oldtimers © scoring
race, Steve Cullis may. play for
basement _ bastions Convoy
Supply, but he hit ithe half nar-
towly ahead of Okies Larry
Payjack and Len Froese.
"Between the posts, Riverside

‘Auto Wrangler Jim Senka was
 Stingiest at 2.2 goals. per game.

but had only suited up five
times.

Okie Gerry Lamming’ ‘played
in 18 of the team’s first 20
games and posted a 2. 67 goals
against average.

For full scoring and goal-
tending stats to the Christmas

‘break, see the ScoreBoard on

page.C2.

@ Brrrr! ;
BRAZILIANS they were
not, but less hardy souls

might agree to nuts.
‘Above, : soccer
enthusiasts shrug. off

sub-zero temperatures in |™|
the Terrace Men's Soc- |:
cer annual New Years [i
Day games. up

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