A10 FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 2010 THE TIMES
Opinion
E-mail: Editorial@abbotsfordtimes.com Phone: 604-854-5244 • Fax: 604-854-1140
◗ Our view
WHO WE ARE
Some fuel for thought
The Abbotsford/Mission Times newspaper is a division of Canwest Publishing Inc.We’re published Tuesdays and Fridays from 30887 Peardonville Rd., Abbotsford, B.C. ◗ PUBLISHER
F
Fred Armstrong
FArmstrong@abbotsfordtimes.com ◗ EDITOR
Darren McDonald
DMcDonald@abbotsfordtimes.com
◗ Administrative manager Gail Hillis ◗ Classified supervisor Diane Bockman ◗ Advertising Bruce MacLennan Karin Swain Lesli McNabb ◗ Editorial Christina Toth Jean Konda-Witte Rafe Arnott ◗ Production Marilyn Howard Margi Jarvis Neil Wilson ◗ Administration Helen Larson Louise Parsons Marilyn Masse ◗ Distribution Manager Dale Maisey
◗ Contact
us
Switchboard .... 604-854-5244 Classified ......... 604-850-9600 Fax .................. 604-854-1140 Visit our website www.abbotsfordtimes.com E-mail us editorial@abbotsfordtimes.com Letters letters@abbotsfordtimes.com 30887 Peardonville Rd. Abbotsford, B.C. V2T 6K2 letters@abbotsfordtimes.com
◗ Opinion
Staying grounded with coffee
I
n the immortal words of Richard Nixon, “I am not a crook.” (You can imagine me here with my head hunched between my shoulders, brows furrowed and sweaty upper lip quivering into the camera, as I waggle middle and index fingers on both hands in dual gestures of “peace.”) But I have a confession to make, nonetheless: I’ve been stealing coffee grounds from the office. Worse still, I got caught. Okay, it wasn’t as heinous a crime as you might be thinking. I wasn’t stealing “ground coffee” so I could take it home to make illicit brew. I was swiping “coffee grounds” – the crud left in the filter after the perker is done perking. I wasn’t committing any crime by saving perfectly good organic matter from the office kitchenette garbage can. On the contrary, I was saving the grounds from a boring and vapid future in a landfill, giving them instead a useful and important environmental role within the scenic setting of my back yard. Now, although I was doing nothing wrong, you understand, I also wasn’t really keen on getting caught spiriting them away, and becoming known among the office whis-
BOB GROENVELD
Odd thoughts pers as “the weird guy in the corner office who collects used coffee grounds.” But my real reason for secrecy was that I didn’t want to have to explain myself and my actions. I didn’t want everyone to discover my secret, as I feared that would open the door to others to start hoarding coffee grounds for themselves, thus limiting the available supply for me to tap into. You see, I figure I’m going to need about two gallons of used (the fresh ones won’t do) coffee grounds this year. They’re for my carrots. I can’t remember who first told me, but somewhere in my past, I was told that old coffee grounds are effective in fending off carrot flies. Those who keep vegetable gardens hereabouts – especially those who try to do so without dosing their future table fare with an array of deadly poisons – will have cringed at the mere mention of those dastardly little pests.
It’s not the flies that are the problem, technically, but their eggs, which turn into maggots, which crawl around inside the carrot root, creating little tunnels that blacken and hasten rot. Once the flies have laid their eggs, there’s nothing to be done – the maggots will hatch, and the carrots are lost. Carrot fly maggots can destroy an entire row of healthy carrots in days. So the trick is to keep the flies away from the carrots – and that’s where the coffee grounds come in: carrot flies do not like coffee (too bad, Starbuck’s and Timmy’s, you’ll have to expand your market elsewhere). Indeed, carrot flies despise coffee so much that it will deter them from approaching even their favourite egg-laying places. Or so I was told. And it seems to work. The carrots seem to like the coffee and put more effort into growing big and strong and delicious – for which I reward them by throwing them, live, into a pot of boiling water at the end of the season! ■ Bob Groeneveld is the editor of the Langley Advance. Visit his blog, Editor’s Notes, at http://tiny. cc/v7b94.
or weeks now, images of the Gulf of Mexico’s oil-slicked herons have inundated our daily news. The environmental nightmare unfolding south of the border has horrified Canadians, but it has not been enough, it seems, to move us to action in our own backyard Two weeks ago, in the face of one of worst ecological disasters in decades, it came to light that the Harper government has loosened regulations on offshore drilling on Canada’s East Coast. While previous rules required companies to develop emergency plans – including details of relief well drillIt may seem ing – the new guidelines, which counterintuitive, came into effect but the most in December, remove specific valuable thing requirements and replace them with we can do in broad environresponse to the mental protection Deep Horizon “goals.” Yet, it is very likely it will disaster is to turn be a relief well away from it. that will finally stem the flow of crude in the gulf. When news of the change hit the headlines, Canadians took little notice; it was little more than a minor distraction from the real show to our south. But in reality, short of plugging the well ourselves or reorganizing the chaotic American response to the spill, there is little we can do to help. It is within our power, however, is to prevent the same horror from erupting in our own waters. To do so, Canadians must pressure their leaders to tighten regulations here, to force oil companies to prove they have foolproof safeguards against a similar leak. It may seem counterintuitive, but the most valuable thing we can do in response to the Deep Horizon disaster is to turn away from it.
■ To comment on this editorial, e-mail us at letters@abbotsfordtimes.com.
◗ Your view This week’s question: Should Abbotsford’s board of education explain why they lost secretary-treasurer Mark Lee a week after the budget, and only 10 months after his hiring? a.] No – their relationship with staff is none of our business. b.] Yes – a huge amount of taxpayer money is involved. c.] They should but they won’t. This board hides too much.
VOTE NOW: www.abbotsfordtimes.com