cktimes.ca Archives for Notes from a Garage


Notes from a Garage

With John Gardiner

What's with those darned TV commercials?

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

Anyone who knows me at all knows I don't think much of the modern media. I pretty much gave up reading newspapers and watching TV back about 1988. In fact, I'm one of the few people on the planet who's never seen a single episode of Seinfeld – had no idea what I missed. This past Sunday, though, nursing a cold and having no cktimes assignments to cover, I settled in to watch a little TV. And I have to admit that watching an old Bruce Willis movie, an episode of the new Star Trek series, then a Steven Segal movie, then the last hour of Men In Black was okay. I kind of enjoyed myself. But the commercials – good grief, people. What is with that? First, why do they show the same commercials over and over again? We happened to end up watching the same station for quite a while and it looked like the station's salespeople had only sold about four ads – so they had to run them over and over every time there was a break. Strange, but true. Also, man do they flash stuff at you these days. At times, I felt like I was back in a rock band in the sixties and we had the strobe light working overtime. Man, is that goofy! And it kind of made me nauseous and feeling sick – I've got a weak equilibrium at the best of times and can no longer attend a movie theatre because of this same thing. What on earth are they doing to us? I can't imagine all this flashing stuff is good for you. Repeating ads, I guess, is fairly harmless, except that it assures that anyone with any choice is going to go channel surfing to avoid it. We only have an antennae so we were euchred. Let me know what you think about this weird stuff.

Was very glad to meet Dr. John Button of Ridgetown Kiwanis Club this past Saturday morning. I was interviewing Dr. Button on the occasion of his earning the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal for outstanding community service. He was a most refreshing fellow to talk to – seemed to me that he's an old-fashioned country doctor in the modern world. He was born and raised in Ridgetown and chose to return to his hometown after school, something that's a real rarity in today's world. Also, he has been actively involved in his community for the entire time he's been doctoring in Ridgetown – which is something else that doesn't seem to happen with professionals in other smaller communities I've been familiar with. It's too bad because so much can be accomplished when the professionals in a community get involved and put their minds to doing good work. Mind you, I imagine Dr. Button's life is challenging, but he certainly seemed like he was doing it because he wants to – he's living life in the town where he grew up and giving something back to the place that made him what he is. It was great to hear him reminisce about eating french fries from the old Arlington Restaurant and knowing that he's still part of the same community these days. Thanks to Dr. John for getting together with me. It was a good interview.

cktimes.ca continues to be an interesting experiment and I hope I'm getting somewhere with it. When I was laying out the blueprint for this paper, I really thought it would have a strong emphasis in municipal politics, but that's turned out not to be the case. I've found that most people in the community are getting some feedback on council – at least down in the south end of the community. Instead of a strong municipal focus, cktimes has a strong community-group focus – and I couldn't be more pleased. I have greatly enjoyed visiting you in your communities and having the chance to see what the many worthwhile groups in Chatham-Kent are up to. Indeed, if you're part of any community group or organization, feel free to get in touch with me and I'll try to get you into the paper. The more the merrier. I think we need to talk about all that's good about Chatham-Kent and stop concentrating on the negative. We do many things very, very well. Let me know what's happening in your community – be part of cktimes.ca.

Don't forget to check out our many fine columnists. We have some really excellent writers in cktimes.ca and each one is writing about something that really interests them. And that's what makes a great columnist – someone who writes well with passion. So pleased to have them all aboard.

Almost out of space for another week. Hope things are going well for you and that you're listening to Ernie Eves backtrack on hydro prices. Looks good on him.

Take care...and remember..."Hew to the line; let the chips fall where they may."



John Gardiner is a 25-year-veteran of the community newspaper business, but he is also a prolific writer of moralistic short fiction he refers to as "emotional thoughtscapes" or "adult fables". Samples of his fiction can be found at:

He has also produced a noteworthy piece of humanist philosophy which can be found at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~aboiten/ad502.htm He welcomes comments on his work.