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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