CYAN MAGENTAYELLOW BLACK
LOCALCITY EDITOR: HARVEY TAYLOR
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the record
S A T U R D A Y , J A N U A R Y 1 5 , 2 0 0 5
SECTION B
TEMPEST IN BEER MUG - B2Lack of sign permit
has Waterloo frothing
BIRTHS AND DEATHS- B5
BY COLIN HUNTER
RECORD STAFF
LISTOWEL
As usual, the trash talk startsto fly before the darts do.
“Did you need your walker toget in here old man?” jabs An-dré Carman, unsheathing threedarts from a black leather case.
“You better watch yourmouth, boy,” John Verwey firesback, “or I won’t let you carrymy darts for me.”
OK, as trash talk goes, it’sfairly tame. But this is darts, notgang warfare.
Carman often makes cheapshots about Verwey’s age — 47— though Carman himself isonly four years younger.
The men glare at one anoth-
er for a moment, like prizefight-ers at centre ring awaiting thebell. Neither is able to keep astraight face, and the charadefalls apart as they begin chuck-ling.
“OK, let’s play some darts,”Verwey says, his voice a bari-tone warble from a tenaciouschest cold.
He plucks a dart from itscase and throws it, barely tak-ing a moment to aim. It stabs
the board just outside the bulls-eye. He doesn’t seem pleased.
If Carman can land his dartcloser to the board’s centre, he’llearn the right to throw first intheir opening game of thenight.
He steps to the line, hastilyaims, and throws.
Bullseye, dead-centre.“Nice one,” Verwey concedes
with just a faint hint of sourgrapes.
Carman and Verwey areplaying each other becausenone of the other guys hangingaround Listowel’s legion hallwould stand a chance against ei-ther of them. It would be toughto find anyone in the countrywho could beat them, for thatmatter.
They’re a rather mis-matched duo — Verwey is squatand rotund with a soup-strainermoustache, and Carman is longand lithe with wispy, dirty-blond hair.
But they make great oppo-nents and an even better team.
As a pair, Carman and Ver-wey recently trounced the top-ranked U.S. team at a doublestournament in Michigan.
Just a couple of weeks ago,Verwey trumped former worldchampion John Lowe at theLadbrokes World Darts Cham-pionship in England, shockingdarts enthusiasts everywhere.
So Verwey and Carman’smatch inside a smoky, small-town legion hall is, you couldsay, a clash of darts titans. If
darts were a popular spectatorsport here, these guys would bemillionaire celebrities.
But it isn’t. So once a week,they square off at the legionhall after work — Carman is aconstruction worker, Verwey anelectrician — amid no fanfarewhatsoever.
A couple dozen legion regu-lars drink and play cards atnearby tables, oblivious to theshowcase of darts mastery intheir midst.
“It would be nice if darts gotsome more recognition,” Car-man says after landing threedarts in a tight cluster aroundthe triple-20 scoring area, rack-ing up 140 points — a near-perfect throw.
Masters of the dart arts
BY ANNE KELLY
RECORD STAFF
WATERLOO REGION
Local hospitals say they haveno immediate plans to lay
off staff and are encouraged bya new Health Ministry direc-tive not to cut clinical programsif it means harming patient access.
Dennis Egan, Grand RiverHospital’s chief executive offi-cer, said yesterday he’s hopefulthe directive means more mon-ey is on the way next year to pre-serve programs,
“I’m more optimistic than Iwas three months ago,” Egansaid. “The government appearsto be willing to meet us halfwayin addressing costs.”
Premier Dalton McGuintysaid yesterday in London thathospitals unable to balancetheir budgets will receive finan-cial help, but he cautioned lay-offs remain possible.
McGuinty said hospitalsmust continue to look for waysto save money, but if theprovince has to provide more tobalance their budgets, then itwill do so.
Last October, Egan said thatwithout an additional $8 mil-lion, Grand River would have tomake significant cuts in out-pa-tient programs and some reduc-tions to in-patient programs.
The hospital is facing ashortfall of $21 million over thecurrent and coming fiscalyears, but has already ad-dressed about 21 per cent of theshortfall through improve-ments in efficiency and a planto increase revenue from its re-tail pharmacy.
He said the province has ap-proved those moves and discus-sions continue as the hospitallooks for more cost savings.
Julia Dumanian, chief execu-tive officer at Cambridge Memo-rial Hospital, said she’s heardnothing about more funding.
“It’s just far too early in theplanning process to know whatit really means,” Dumaniansaid of the latest ministry direc-tive on clinical programs.
No plansfor localhospitallayoffs
MATHEW MCCARTHY, RECORD STAFF
Sometime team members and frequent opponents John Verwey (left) and Andre Carman square off in weekly darts competitions at the Listowel legion. Verwey, one of Canada’sbest darts players, recently fared very well at the Ladbrokes World Darts Championships in England.
K0643552
No one sets out with the goalof becoming an addict.
Some of us are just more obses-sive-compulsive or, as I prefer toput it, “enthusiastic” than oth-ers.
We approach things withgusto.
The sordid tale of my mostrecent addiction began, as theyall do, innocently enough. TheCanadian Clay and GlassGallery put up for auction oneBay a wreath I had wrought.
I, a foreigner to the greatelectronic yard-sale community,ventured online to see how said,sad wreath was faring.
It was not faring well. I feltduty-bound to bid on it myself.It was dangerously easy to setup a secure “PayPal” accountusing my charge card.
The bidding commenced.It was a fundraiser for a good
cause. I later discovered that Ihad lost the wreath to a readerof this column — a perceptiveperson of discerning taste, asare all readers of this column.
I felt sorry for him, but $20.50was hardly going to break him,and he did say that his wife
warmed up to the wreath after afew days.
It should have ended there,but while my Clay and GlassGallery item did the dead Min-nie’s float, I made the mistake oftrawling around the site.
I didn’t bite on the VirginMary Grilled Cheese, or anyother eBait, until I stumbledacross a bee pin.
Yes, a bee pin. It was cheapcostume jewellery that for rea-sons even I don’t understand, Isimply had to have.
It turned out that in the wayalcoholics can’t have just onedrink, gamblers one bet, orsmokers one cigarette, I couldnot partake of just one bee pin.
I couldn’t have enough bee
pins. I spent every eveningglued to the computer, amassingquite a collection. I neglectedmy children, who subsisted onhoney sandwiches.
To my husband Ryan’s hor-ror, every day a new bee pin ar-rived by post. We were beingswarmed.
I started hiding my habit. Iasked my daughter to spirit thepackages upstairs the secondshe got home from school.
I am not proud of turningAlexandra into an enabler.
“Is that a new bee pin you’rewearing?” Ryan asked suspi-ciously each morning.
“No,” I would lie. “I’ve hadthis for days.” When pressed, Iwould protest, “This only cost$1 US!”
“Plus $9.50 US for shipping,”he would retort tartly.
I was in denial. His barbedquestions were giving me hives.
In hindsight, I can see that itwasn’t as much the bee pins Iwas addicted to as it was eBayitself. It combined two vices Ithought I had exorcised yearsago, shopping and online chat-ting, with my favourite form of
exercise: sitting.My competitive instinct had
kicked in. I craved the high of“You are the current high bid-der,” and was outraged by“You’ve been outbid.”
“Outbid?!?” I would shriekfrom Ryan’s basement office,awakening slumberers twofloors up as I eBayed at themoon. “Outbid this, sucker!”
In this way, I ended up with anumber of regrettable pin wins,including some “wannabees”who were, upon inspection,wasps and flies.
But oh, how I was loved bythe eBay sellers, who left glow-ing feedback for me. “You arethe best!” raved silverspeck.“No. 1 eBayer!” applauded jewelry3721. And my favourite:“Wonderful customer . . . excel-lent communications. A plea-sure!” trumpeted Arosenwatch.
Clearly Arosenwatch appre-ciated my careful crafting ofqueries. He or she somehowsensed how I laboured over,“How much to mail this cutebee pin to Canada? Thanks.”
Fellow eBayers’ warm em-brace, their words of valida-
tion, kept reeling me back in.Thanks to them, I earned an eBay star rating withinweeks.
I am tearing up recalling it.A family intervention did
not convince me to stop.“Buzz off,” I hissed, as a
rhinestone flew off the beebrooch du jour. “Back awayfrom the computer! My only palnow is PayPal!”
They pleaded, they begged,
they cajoled, all to no avail.I would still be online today
were it not for one single, pierc-ing statement.
It came from Visa, and thank-fully, it stung me to my senses.
• The Record’s deputy city editor,[email protected], has en-rolled in a 12-step program, HoldeBay@Bay. She plans to submitthe bill to the Canadian Clayand Glass Gallery.
Attention beeBay shoppers: here’s a honey of a deal
ROBERT WILSON, RECORD STAFF
Bee ware of temptation.
SUSAN CHILTON
SEE HOSPITAL: PAGE B2SEE DARTS: PAGE B2
B1-VE #5
