The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 26

C6 THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1997 INTERLUDES Quality overnight TV LETTER St' v- i PBS station Vermont ETV is now on the air around the clock trz" la as a colour man, Cannon will be returning to a job that he actually knows how to do. CIQC is bringing Cannon back as host of the station's mid-morning talk show. Beginning tomorrow at 9 and lasting until the Expos head for Florida in the spring, Cannon replaces Gord Lo It's a quarter to three, and there's nothing worth watching except Vermont ETV OK, so it isn't Sinatra. But October has brought late-night camaraderie beaming north from the Channel 33 transmitter, setting up Joe (and Josee) with overnight movies and PBS television programs. Vermont ETV is 30 years MIKE BOONE TV RADIO To appreciate the once-and-future greatness of Muhammad Ali, tune in to The Passionate Eye on Newsworld tonight.

The documentary series devotes a nice chunk of prime time to Muhammad Ali: The Whole Story. Boxing fans who enjoyed When We Were Kings, the superlative account of Ali's Rumble in the Jungle with George Foreman, won't want to miss The Whole Story. As the title indicates, the documentary produced for Turner Network Television and recipient of several awards is a comprehensive chronology of the Ali's brilliant career. It's all here, beginning with black-and-white footage of the young Cassius Clay- not far removed from his gold-medal performance at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome -preparing to fight the terrifying heavyweight champion of the world, Sonny Listen. As you leaf through the sports pages and marvel at the zillions being thrown at professional athletes, consider a man who lost the best years of his career because he took a principled stand on a political issue.

Would Michael Jordan jeopardize sneaker sales by saying he had no quarrel with the Iraqis? Yeah, sure he would. Ali is a very special person. Watch The Whole Story with your children, so they can learn about a professional athlete who wasn't ajerk. Muhammad AIL The Whole Story airs tonight at8on Newsworld. gan, who has bounced all over the CIQC schedule (including a stint as morning man after Cannon left to join the Expos' radio team).

Even the most stinging critiques of Cannon's hapless floundering in the baseball broadcast booth acknowledged that the announcer is a nice guy. Cannon has parlayed that affability into a well-paying career: he makes $150,000 per season from the Expos and will supplement that with the CIQC gig. If the mid-morning show works out (and it will: Cannon is a pro), perhaps the born-again radio announcer will realize that the baseball job was a bad idea. Then Cannon could take over the CIQC morning show, and the Expos -ever anxious to please their English-speaking constituency -could hire Howard Galganov as Dave Van Home's partner. He was The Greatest.

He is The Greatest He will always be The Greatest Theophile Decarie's melon patch at Vendome Ave. and Cote St. Antoine more than 70 years ago. Montreal melons grew in N.D.G. A friend, Mr.

James M. Laurie of Hemmingford, who is a farmer, gave me a copy of the article published recently in The Gazette on the Montreal melons (Sept 14, "Hello, Montreal This article interested me a lot because I am a descendant of one of the growers of those melons. My grandfather, Theophile Decarie, who had a farm at the corner of Vendome Ave. and Cote St. Antoine Rd.

in N.D.G., used to grow those Montreal melons. The old farmhouse where my grandfather used to live is still on Vendome. From his diary and accounting books, which are in the possession of my sister, we know that he used to sell those melons to the Plaza and Waldorf Astoria Hotels in New York, after having brought them to the "depot" (Windsor Station) to ship them. From those books, we see that he used, on Sunday afternoons, to go and spy on other melon-growers, and particularly on a certain Mr. Gorman who was growing melons in Outremont.

My grandfather grew those melons until 1922 or 1923, at which time he sold most of his farm to Mr. V.E. Lambert, who later on built some of the best-quality houses in N.D.G. About 20 years ago, when the family sold the farmhouse on Vendome, my sister and my wife went through the house in order to dispose of the contents. At that time, my wife found some seeds in the basement of the house and brought them back home.

We have been trying to locate those seeds but have been unable to find them. My wife thinks she may have given them to her brother, who owned a nursery in Cote des Neiges, and maybe he tried unsuccessfully to grow some melons out of those old seeds. (That brother is now dead.) I enclose a photocopy of a photograph of those melons, probably taken more than 70 years ago. The photo shows the melons, the back gallery of the farmhouse and also a little tool house, which was later moved to Cote des Neiges and became part of the Sheridan Nursery operations in Montreal LAURENT DECARIE Montreal old this month. To celebrate and to make good use of funding from the state of Vermont the PBS station is on the air 24 hours a day with quality alternatives to other overnight schedules.

The complete new schedule is available by phoning (800) 639-7811. Vermont ETV is mailing out free copies of its October program guide all part of festivities that will include a prime-time birthday special on Oct 15. Vermont ETV has spent $235,000 U.S. to automate its master-control facility. Robotics eliminate the need for a human body to rummage around for videocassettes and cue the tape.

When the night-shift technician leaves Vermont ETV at 1 a.m., the station goes on automatic pilot. "Twenty-four-hour broadcasting is a first for us," Ann Curran of Vermont ETV says. "It's something we've been talking about for a lot of years." Curran recalls that when Vermont ETV signed on in October 1967, the schedule ran for 10 hours a day. The broadcasting day expanded through the 1980s, and master-control automation began in 1995. Expanding the schedule to 24 hours is not going to put a bite on Vermont ETV's perennially pinched purse.

Automation is saving the station salary expenditure, and nuining the system's four transmitters all night doesn't cost much more than shutting them down and powering them up every morning. The overnight programs are telecasts for which Vermont ETV does not have to pay additional rights fees. How will we ever miss Joe Cannon if he won't go away? The rookie baseball broadcaster could spend the off-season crying over his press clippings and polishing up skills that seem to have infuriated Expos fans. But rather than lick his wounds and ponder his shortcomings TV TONIGHT Gazette television columnist Mike Boone picks the best of tonight 's programs: Disney (CBMT-6 at 6): Dumbo. Wonderful World of Disney (WVNY-22 at 7) Kirstie Alley stars in Toothless.

Gala des Prix Gemeaux (CBFT-2 at The best in French TV Anne Murray (Channel 6 at 8): An Intimate Evening. American Experience (Vermont ETV-33 at 8) Truman. Biography at 8): Julius Caesar. Sunday Showcase (Discovery at 8): Ooooh! Poison snakes. Passionate Eye (Newsworld at 8): Muhammad Ali: the Whole Story.

Edward on Edward (Showcase at 8): The unmarried prince talks about his wayward great-uncle. Heart Full of Rain (WCAX-3 at 9): Richard Crenna stars in TV movie about family reconciliation. Rick Hansen: A Celebration (Channel 6 at 9): Rita MacNeil is host. Five Desperate Hours (CFCF-12 at 9): Sharon Lawrence stars in a MoW about hostage-taking. The Advocate's Devil (Channel 22 at 9): Ken Olin plays doubt-plagued lawyer.

Life Times (Channel 6 at 10): Emily Carr. Blood Brothers (WCFE-57 at 10): On the road with Bruce Springsteen and the Street Band. Miss Evers' Boys (The Movie Network at 11): Multi Emmy-winner from HBO. Killing 'em softly with a 9-iron DAVE BARRY I Quiz ARTHUR KAPTAINIS Where Jacques Chirac lurks No, I'm kidding about that last part. But I'm not kidding about our final common golf question, which is: Q.

If I do not wish to stand around on a golf course listening to a bunch of business clients drone on about their "mulligans," can I hire somebody to play golf with them for me? A. Yes! Alert dentist Steve Cars-tensen sent me a flier for a new Seattle outfit called Golf in Action Play for You When You The idea is, you pay a golfer to take your clients out and play with them, thereby (to quote the flier) "giving you the freedom to continue your important daily business needs." I called Golf in Action and spoke with the founder, Sheila Locke, who told me that her idea has gotten a good public response, although a lot of the calls are from people who want to join her staff and get paid to play golf. BRANDY AND CIGARS Me, I love the idea of paying somebody to play golf with your clients, and I'm thinking: Why not take it further? Why not pay somebody to have meetings with your clients, and take your clients to dinner, and smoke cigars and drink brandy with your clients and then throw up on your clients' shoes because you hate brandy and cigars? This company could be called: Busi-nesspersohs in Action. So those are your golf basics. Good luck out on the "links," and be sure to say "hi" to my editors, "Tom" and "Bill," who will be easy to spot because You've surely noticed that a big golf craze is sweeping the continent, as aging baby-boomers discover the benefits of participating in a sport where the most physically demanding activity is ordering putters by mail.

It has reached the point where, if you don't play golf, your career can suffer. I know mine has. In my newspaper office, the two senior editors let's call them "Tom Shroder" and "Bill Rose" regularly go off together during business hours to play golf. I'm sure that while they're out on the "links" whacking their "bogeys," they discuss important business matters and formulate newspaper policies in conversations like this: TOM: Bill, before I attempt to "shank" this "birdie," I'd like to know your "gut feeling" on the use of quotation marks in the newspaper. BILL: Tom, I feel they are overused.

TOM: I agree. Let's formulate a policy on that. BILL: And then let's try on evening gowns. TOM: Yes! We'll accessorize with broaches! I'm not saying "Tom" and "Bill" discuss exactly these topics. I'm merely saying that, because I don't play golf, I don't know WHAT they discuss, and so I'm "out of the loop." Perhaps you're "in the same boat." Perhaps you'd like to learn about golf, so that when your colleagues talk about it, you can join in and be "one of the persons." That's why today's topic is Basic Questions About Golf, starting with the question that beginners ask most often: Q.

Has anybody ever used a 9-iron to kill emus? emus, you would be wise to turn it down, because "those things have feet like something out of Jurassic Park." 2. If it gets printed in the newspaper that you dispatched emus with a 9-iron, even for a good cause, you're going to hear from some extremely angry animal-rights people. 3. If a person, for whatever reason, did have to dispatch an emu with a golfing implement, it would make more sense to use a wood than an iron. Speaking of Jurassic Park, another question often asked by beginning golfers is: Q.

What happens if a snake eats my balls? A. Don't worry! The snake will be fine, provided that it gets proper medical care. I base this statement on an article from the July 5, 1996, Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot-News, written by Danielle Hollister and alertly sent in by Dave Barrows, headlined "Surgery gets snake up to par." The story states that Sandy and Jeff Paul, who raise chickens, sometimes "put golf balls in their hens' nests to encourage the hens to stay put and lay eggs." One day they noticed a 5-foot rat snake near their home with three distinct lumps in its middle, and they realized that the snake had swallowed their golf balls. So they grabbed their No, seriously, according to the Patriot-News article, the Pauls contacted a veterinarian, who successfully removed the golf balls. The snake, which the Pauls named "Spalding," came through the operation OK and has been accepted to law schooL A.

Alert reader Marjorie Dishron sent me a fascinating column written last February by Ron Henry Strait, outdoor writer for the San Antonio Express-News; the column concerns a man named Wes Linthicum, who heads an informal group called the Texas Christian Hunters Association, which each year feeds the homeless using donated meat An area emu farmer offered to give the group a bunch of emus, which are very large, ostrichlike birds. The problem was that the birds were alive, and, as the old folk saying goes, "You can't feed large, ostrich-like birds to the homeless if they are walking around." The members of the Texas Christian Hunters Association didn't have guns with them, and nobody wanted to strangle the emus manually GOT OUT THE 9-IRON According to the column, the problem was solved when "someone recalled that emus have a tendency to closely examine an object that is dropped on the ground. That's when Linthicum got out his 9-iron I called Linthicum, and he told me, after some hemming and hawing, that although the story he'd related to columnist Strait was essentially correct the golf-club part was not 100-percent accurate in the sense of being true. Linthicum also made these points: 1. If you are ever offered a gift of live We've been hearing a lot from Paris lately.

How well do you know the city? ITo what did composer Charles Gounod, author Guy de Maupassant, architect Charles Garnier and 297 other signatories strenuously object in the 1880s? 2 What was the Roman name for Paris? 3 Name the two islands at the centre of Paris. 4 What contribution did Carlos Ott make to Paris? 5 What is the largest royal palace in France? 6 What monument of Montmartre is most likely to remind Montrealers of St Joseph's Oratory? 7 What is the seat of the French Senate? 8 Why was the Place Vendome recently in the news? Answers are on Page C8 they get stuck in the sand traps with' those high heels. Girlfriend asks: When can I meet the kids? i 4 My boyfriend and I have been dating exclusively for 10 months. When we started, he made it very clear that he would not introduce me to his children because you indicated on your radio show that the children should not meet the dating partners. He has stuck firmly to this belief.

Many times he has broken dates or changed plans because the children want to come over or their mother wants to drop them off. I am hurt many times, but have learned to accept the situation because I love him. The children are 1 1 and 13. When is the proper time to discuss the possibility of meeting his children as his girlfriend? I am very impressed with this man. That he cancels dates with you to accomplish his parenting responsibilities, while sad for you, shows that his priorities are correct The complete opinion I give on the I have two adult female friends, who, until recently, have been best friends with each other.

The ex-boyfriend of one is now sleeping with the other. While the dumped friend cried on my shoulder, she told me that both she and her ex-boyfriend are HIV-positive. The other friend is aware of this and believes condoms will keep her safe. Do I seek out her family and inform them she is sleeping with an HIV-positive man? I am told this man has a violent temper and may want revenge against me if I break up his new relationship. Since both these women are not minors, you are under no obligation to risk anything to stop them from their chosen stupid behaviours (and having intercourse with a condom does not afford complete safety from HTV transmission).

Sleeping with a violent HIV-positive man, or stealing one from your best friend (we use that term loosely) is not the behaviour of intelligent quality women. Perhaps you ought to pick your friends more wisely I am a 25-year-old single male. The problem is that my father worries about me to an extreme. He calls me every day at least twice; he even called me the other day to see if my grass was turning green. My dad has had this problem ever since I was born and has been seeking counseling ever since.

My question to you: Is there some way I could let him know that his behaviour is severely affecting my life? Although your father may have some form of anxiety disorder, it does neither you nor him any good to alleviate him of moral responsibility for his impact on others. I suggest the following: Go to a session with him and clarify that although you love him, his imposition is destructive and things will now change Change your pager number and do not give it to him. Tell him that you'll call him twice a week to chat, but that he must talk about what he himself is doing (and not question you) or the phone call will be only two minutes long. Explain also that if he calls you more than twice a week at your home (screen your calls with an answering machine), you will not place your call to him. Finally, give him an audio tape of the counseling session so that he can review the rules.

It is one thing for you to have appropriate compassion and to "honour thy father" It is quite another thing to let his compulsiveness ruin your life. Take back the control- and don't feel guilty about it This is frankly in his best interest too. Dr. Laura Schlessinger will be a guest on the Oprah Winfrey show tomorrow at 4p.m. on CFCF-12.

Questions can be sent to Dr. Laura Schlessinger. co The Gazette, 250 St Antoine St Montreal H2Y 3R7. Occasionally, questions of general interest will be answered in this weekly column.Dr. Laura can be heart) on radio weekdays from 2 p.m.

to 5 p.m. on CKGM 990 AM. DR. LAURA air is that there should be no meeting until a decision that the girl- or boyfriend is a marital keeper While it may be easy for an adult to find a "new love," children don't necessarily respond with the same enthusiasm to having to integrate Mom or Dad's new love into their broken family nest -and it isn't necessarily in their best interests to have to do so. This may not be the best situation for you the more honourable he is as a parent the less be has to give you as a boyfriend; however the former is more important than the latter.