Ly , ny. Castlegar News —_Jorvary29, 1989 - Executive wins award for tale By FELICITY MUNN The Canadian A business executive from Syracuse, N.Y » has won the 1988 Frankenstein Trayel Award, a rather dubious honor given out for the most horrific — and hilarious travel tale of the year Eric Matson's wry letter about a business trip to Europe stood” ut in ani “avalanche of entries, says Cha Reilly, a communications consultant and frequent traveller based in St. Davids, Pa., who founded the award in 1983. Matson's misadventures began at the end of a frenetic trip that had taken him thorugh 16 cities in 20 days Unaware of what lay ahead, he gallantly volun teered to be half of a two-man team driving a carload of materials to a conventional hotel _in Madrid from London The literature: sales-meeting needed in Madrid on a Sunday Military evening, was to be available on Friday. But there was a Printers strike, the brochures were held hostage temporarily by pickets and Matson's car miystriously developed four flat tires during negotiations for the material's release Tires fixed co-driver headed id brochures sprung, Matson and his toward Dover, encountering road construction along the way which delayed them GOT A ROCK Passing one construction crew, Matson's compan saluted the tude gesture. In response, a rock was heaved through the back window of the car ion workers with “a Two hours later, a mechanic plastic-sheet replacement, but by then the pair had missed the ferry at which they. had a reservation. As the weather worsened, they indulged in several pints while waiting for the midnight ferry, then Spent most of the crossing “returning good English ale had improvised a Dover on to nature via the leeward rail,'' Matson recalled in his letter. In Calais, the French bureaucracy turned out to be more impenetrable than the fog, and customs officials made them use most of their cash as a bond to transport their printed matter They. finally set out four hours lat only to take a wrong turn in the fog and head east to the Belgian border Back on the right track, they drove through Pais, where a police officer fined them 5S francs.(roughly $10 Cdn) for dirving in the fog without amber headlights and 200 francs ($40) for their plastic back window. Arriving practically penniless at the Spanish border, they were told they'd have to pay “overtime” to order guards so the sales material could pass a “censor inspection,"’ They had to wait seven hours until the company’s bonded. agent. arrived. from.Madrid-to spting them They pulled up at the hotel in Madrid at 3:30 a.m, Monday, left the car with the doorman and took the sales materials into the hotel, where their pyjama-clad boss was waiting to give them an impromptu ‘'per- formance appraisal session.’ “Thoroughly chastised," Matson wrote, “we re- turned to where we had left the car in charge of the doorman, only to discover that the hotel didn't have-« doorman and that we no longer had a car. “We were returned to London via third-class rail tickets."’ Matson receives a piece of luggage as his award LAND IN CORN Other noteworthy entries for 1988 include one from Gilbert Lee of Palm Springs, Calif., who was on a small plane to Paris from Casablanca when the pilot suddenly brought the plane down in a cornfield, telling pass- engers: “There's a strike of French pitots-going on; “I-just heard it over the radio. I'm not going to work while my associates are on strike.'’ BUSINESS DIRECTORY spending up TELEPHONE 365-5210 HERMAN” By DARRYL GIBSON TOKYO (CP) Jj creased its defence budget for 1989 pan has in again turning attention to a dilemma that the faced almost since the Second World War When the war ended country has end of the Japan's mili tary machine was. dismantled-and. the postwar constitution barred the coun try from using military force to ad vance economic and political goals But by the early 1950s. particularly during after the Korean War, the victors over-Japan in 1945 found a-new role for the-de and immediately feated country Suddenly, Japan had forces. the country maintained by the United Nations and the United States were “self-defence "and the military forces in expanded to turn the country into a sort of unsinkable aircraft carrier de signed to provide the West a base of operations in Asia Japan's role as staging ground for the United States grew again during the Vietnam War Japan has expanded its Jefence’ Since then home military capabilities. The buildup has never been parti cularly popular at home. but the need for-some~form of self-protection is grudgingly accepted BUDGET GROWS And as the Soviet increasing its strength East and the role of Asian economies gradually grew through the 1970s and-into-the-current decade leaders began calling on Union began in the Far western Japan to increase its self-defence forces more quickly For a decade from 1976, the abinet religiously enforced a Jap anes limit on military spending of one per cent of the product c But the West United States increas country’s gross national particularly the began ure allies to their share of policing the world Japan it meant b cent of GNP b nder the Ie minister Yasuhiro Nakasone eaking the rrier in late adership of then increase in defence spending was marginal gical barrier had been crossed and the fis: 1989 defence i this week by the Minister Noboru continues the trend but a major psycholo. budget ap. cabinet o Takeshita prov Prime The new budget calls for spending Toe per-cenrof Japan's budget or 389.7 trillion yen ($3.68 trillion Cdn) on defence in fiscal 1989 April 1 And 1.006 per cent of Japan’s GNP translates. into $36.8 billion Cdn. The money will. go to pay the salaries of more than 245,000 military personnel starting and the Japanese citizens working at U.S. military bases in Japan The budget also includes construc tion fo an airstrip on Iwo Jima for use by U.S. carrier-fighters to practise night-landing operations It will also provide money search into a new Japanese jet fighter known as the FS-X; buy 56 Type-74 advanced tanks, 11 F-15 Eagle fighters, two destroyer escorts 10 P-cY% Orion anti-submarine patrol aircraft. 12 SH-60J anti-submarine helicopters, one submarine, one ves. sel equipped to low-noise for re detect nuclear-powered submarines and two 1,000-ton deep-sea minesweepers. Japan tras now raised its military spending to surpass that of Britain, West Germany or France Yet the gross nationat product spent on de fence is stil below of that its maojr western allies and any other country in Asia. Calls for further military buildups are heard almost daily from the U.S. Congress and others But Asian countries that felt. the bite of Japanese military poweress in 1930s 40s about Japan's growing military strength But most Japanese do not want to sce Japan once again become a major proportion of Japanese the and worry military power Former prime minister Nakasone has said several times that Japan is determined to be the first’ major power to eschew military might. But with increasing pressure from abroad on Japan to_accept greater respon sibility for security in Asia, sticking to that determination is bound to be difficult Numbers line up in sequence WINNIPEG (CP) rejoice Numerologists this is the year the time and date will show up, using the 24-hour clock, as_a nice sequential series of numbers either June 6 or July 6, depending on the system used It happens only once a century and works this way. On June 7, for those who put the month before the date thefe will be a moment when it is Of:23-45,6-7-89, = For those who put the day first and the month second, the same thing happens July 6 For those who use the computer. method, the momentous event took place Aug. 9 196 style, year-month-day Parents should be wary of programs RED DEER, ALTA. (CP) Par. learning-disabled children should be wary of programs that promise a quick-fix but do little more than empty the pocket-book, says a specialist in reading disor ents of Calgary dérs Greg McKenze gary’s Kensington severly learning disabled ents should examine new programs carefully before buying them for their principal 6f Cal for the said par Centre children A lof ot them have children (who are) really challenging and they want to do the best for their kids," McKenzie told a gathering of tea chers and parents Tuesday If they feel they can spend $1,000 or even twice that to help their kids, they will. Parents are very vulnerable and are lured to going into them for their kids.’ He said programs that prescribe visuat—techniques~such—as reading through focusing on pieces of words have dubious merit Some of the miost harmful pro grams are offered by well-intentioned people, he said colored .or “They don't have a lot of facts so they use the testimonial approach some professor from some little place you've nevér heard of is saying this is the best thing you can have."’ He said the danger signals of an ineffective program are a reluctance by the sellers to release complete information, discrepancies. with cur rent literature on learning disabilities and poor research “They promise a quick ix, prom ising the moon and they take your money to prove it."” co} and for the q News 's Directory will be accepted up to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 22 for the month of March, Brian L. Brown CERTIFIED GENERAL ACCOUNTANT 270 Columbia Avenue Castlegar ¢ 365-2151 - Gordon A. Read & Co. 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